Uncle Maddio’s steak and blue pizza.Uncle Maddio’s Pizza is expanding into the Chattanooga market this weekend with the first of three restaurants planned by the local franchisee for the Atlanta-based chain.
The new 80-seat eatery, which opens Saturday at 1924 Gunbarrel Road next to the new Mission BBQ and Big Daddy’s Burgers, is owned by a Nashville-based hotel and convenience store company that last year gained the franchise for Uncle Maddio’s Pizza in East and Middle Tennessee.
“We looked at several franchise concepts when we decided to get into the restaurant business and, after tasting the food and seeing the operations of Uncle Maddio’s Pizza, we think we will have a strong brand for this market,” said Dwight Shankus, director of operations for Shankus LLC, the Chapel Hill, Tenn., company that also operates six hotels and 15 convenience stores in Tennessee, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Uncle Maddio’s bills itself as a next generation pizza restaurant that lets guests build their own pizza cooked in fast-bake ovens and served fresh in about eight minutes. Guests choose from four pizza sizes, three types of crusts, including a gluten-free option, 42 toppings, seven sauces, 18 vegetables and 14 meats.
“Everything is fresh and made in our store daily,” said Nathan Elmore, general manager for the Gunbarell Road restaurant.”As I tell people, we’re so fresh we don’t even a freezer or a microwave. We cook all of our meats inhouse – steak, chicken, fajita chicken, sausage – and we make all of our dough daily and cut all of our own vegetables.”