NOW the Porter Sq. Uno's is closed. :(

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

"It's with sadness we write to let you know that our Uno® at 820 Sommerville [sic] Ave. has closed.

As a whole, Uno is doing great things: we've been acknowledged as
• America's Healthiest Chain by Health magazine
• Top Four Family Friendliest Chains in America by Parents magazine
• Home of Guilt Free Pizza by Prevention magazine
• Top Value by WalletPop.com

Sometimes, locations just don't work, even with great guests like you. That's the case here. Our entire staff will sincerely miss serving you and thanks you for sharing your time (and appetite) with us.

As a convenience to you, we've taken the liberty of updating your preferred location to Harvard Square, 22 John F. Kennedy St. You can change your preference by logging in and updating your profile. Either way, you'll continue to receive all those Insider benefits like:
• Sneak Peeks
• Thank You Parties
• Insider Rewards
• Birthday Gift
• Insider Feedback On All Things 'Uno'

If you wish, you can always opt out of the club by clicking here.

You have been a friend to us, and we appreciate it. You have our gratitude for your loyal patronage and support as an Uno Insider. We hope you will take that loyalty with you to another local Uno. We guarantee they'll take care of you as well as we tried to.

With appreciation,
The Uno Team"

Comments

[ron_newman]

I wasn't a frequent visitor, but didn't they do pretty good business here?

[gruene.livejournal.com]

No, but that was the appeal. It was the opposite of the old joke, "no one goes there anymore, it's too crowded". Instead the primary reason to go to Uno's was that there would always be space, even for large parties and you would always get friendly and efficient service.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I will miss them. They did a lot to try and make their restaurant more than a clone - the amazing balloon sculptures at Halloween, the pot of free hot cran/cider near Christmas, waitresses who remembered your favorite order...

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

My GF and I very recently wanted to grab a quick drink/snack before meeting up with some friends. We went to: Cambridge Common, West Side Lounge, Tavern in the Sq, and Christophers. All were too packed to even stand. Unos was practically empty. They didn't close because of the economy, they closed because we don't like mediocre chains around here.

Hopefully something decent replaces it--that's a good location.

[tastyanagram.livejournal.com]

It looks like a lot of people here liked that particular location, but I also hope that a local business replaces it. Also, I know someone who worked there and they *hated* it.

[adaptively.livejournal.com]

they closed because we don't like mediocre chains around here.

Tell that to the line wrapped around the block for Davis Square Chipotle on Saturday night. :B

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

i've seen it pretty empty most of the time- the ground level bar and garden did decent business, but the upstairs portion always seemed vacant (which isn't visible unless you're up there). at least, this was the case the half dozen times i've met a group of 15ish at 7pm during the middle of the week.

as for parking, it's usually pretty easy to find street meters on mass ave in the evenings when it's free.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Dangit. I actually used to stop in there fairly often on my way home from rehearsals in Arlington. Oh well, more visits to Qdoba for me. :(

[cnoocy]

That's sad. It was a good place to go with a large group for food and conversation after 10. Not too many of those around.

[prog.livejournal.com]

While I will miss Unos as well, I humbly submit Redbones for your late-nite nomming needs. On most evenings the upper room is quite empty by the time they switch over to their snack menu (10:30 PM).

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

Wow, they were there for a long time. I remember eating there in 1990, and I didn't think they were newly-opened then.

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

there are twelve other locations in the boston area, including in harvard square, if you really need some type of uno's fix

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

so i guess they're not having any kind of special closing night?

i have a group that meets there a lot, they were great with accommodating us and turned down the music when we asked. though i was always annoyed that the happy hour specials were only for the bar, those were good deals. guess we've got to find another place to meet up, took us forever to settle in the first place :P

but i do hope some awesome local restaurant moves in, porter square could use some more life. also, is anything happening with the blockbuster?

[ron_newman]

I haven't walked by there yet today, but this is what someone on the Porter Square Neighbors e-mail list reported:

----------
Looks like the forecasting of Pizzeria Uno's demise in Porter Square may have only been slightly premature.

Wheeling out tables and taking down the awnings and sign don't look good...

fond memories of a tall Bass and 4 cheese pizza...
----------

(What ever happened to the idea of a business having a "thank you and goodbye" event for their loyal customers? Both here and at White Hen, the places just closed suddenly without ceremony. Boloco did their closing with class.)

[zdenka]

Aw. :-(

right, sure

[cthulhia]

"America's Healthiest Chain by Health magazine"

I briefly did some of the production design of print matter for them (in West Roxbury). The single sized pizzas are listed as "3 servings" to keep the calorie count under 4 digits. Not very healthy at all.

Any time I ended up at the Porter UNOs, it was because we had a large group and knew they'd have enough empty tables to accommodate us without much of a wait. That should've been our first clue they couldn't last.

Re: right, sure

[ron_newman]

They 'lasted' quite a long time, really. But I thought that Subway was considered the 'healthiest chain'.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I must say, a "location just not working" is a bit of a stretch when it seems to have worked fine for at least a decade that I can recall. They could take a bit of the blame for not keeping at whatever was working for them back when they were more popular, instead of blaming the location...

[jadelennox]

Hmph. And with their brand-new gluten free menu -- complete with beer -- and all!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I heard they had major cross-contamination issues, so far as GF goes. So far as new and GF goes, Pulse Cafe (http://www.thepulsecafe.com/) in Davis has a bunch of GF options.

I think UNO kinda sucks.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Greasy pizza and all. Other than that, the place always seemed packed... No idea why they are closing.

Re: I think UNO kinda sucks.

[trtls.livejournal.com]

I agree. So long and good riddance greasy spoon.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

The Unos chain filed for bankruptcy protection in January. I'm sure other underperforming branches are going to be closed too as they 'reorganize'.

[ron_newman]

From the short Wicked Local Cambridge article:

Rick Hendrie, senior vice president of marketing for Uno, said the company was unable to renegotiate a new lease during its restructuring process. Earlier this year, the West Roxbury-based chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“We are moving forward as we’ve hoped, but we are very disappointed in this particular location,” he said. “We have been optimistic that we could come to an agreement with the landlords, but this is an instance where we couldn’t.”

Which probably means: the Bankruptcy Code allowed us to terminate the lease, and the landlord wouldn't agree to lower the rent in order that we could stay.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

dammit!

i recently moved back to the area and just last thursday we were going to eat there but opted just to stop into gourmet express for a quick sub instead. (which, though i love them, for some reason made us both really sick all day this time.)

not like (as mentioned) there aren't other uno's, but this one could've delivered to my apartment! boo.

[trtls.livejournal.com]

If you just moved back, you could try Zing Pizza if you haven't already. Total yum!

[ignignokt.livejournal.com]

I'm not glad that a business that employed a lot of people has closed, but they are the worst representatives of Chicago-style stuffed pizza out there, and naturally, they somehow have the greatest reach.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Not to take this too far of topic, but where can you get good Chicago pizza in the Boston area? I'm from Berkeley, CA where Zachery's was the old standby, but I haven't found anything half as good out here.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

That's sad. I liked that place...sure, it was Uno's, but it was comfortable and the waitstaff were awesome.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I wonder what will replace it? Hopefully a sweet local-color bar/restaurant.

I wonder if the Tavern on the Square (porter) took enough business from them to send them under?

[ron_newman]

Does the Tavern sell Chicago-style pizza?

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

so, randomly i was in harvard and in specific need of broccoli soup and uno's was the one place i was certain it could be found.

once seated, we found that they are trying out a new at-table ordering system. it has positives and negatives, but basically it's a small computer where the diner orders their own food directly instead of telling the waitstaff what they want. we went early this week and they had Just started using it- i wonder if that's one reason why they closed porter's location. they probably didn't want to shell out any more money on the new test product (and also, we wondered if the item might be a ploy to reduce waitstaff)....