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."
The menu for Uncle Maddio's includes a one-item, 10-inch pizza with a drink for only $7.99 and a 6-inch pizza with a side salad and drink for $8.99. Ten-inch pizzas with unlimited toppings are priced at $8.99; a 12-inch pizza with unlimited toppings is $14.99 and , and a 16-inch pizza with unlimited toppings is $19.99.
"Uncle Maddio's Pizza is on the edge of what we call the 'Turning Point of Customer Service' where customer service that is not just the best but legendary," Mike Chaudhary, one of the owners of Shankus LLC. "It's simple, if you don't like it, we'll replace it or refund your money."
In celebration of the grand opening of the new Chattanooga location this weekend, Uncle Maddio's will serve free 10-inch 1-topping pizzas to the first 1,500 guests on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 0n Sunday.
For the typical Uncle Maddio's Pizza outlet, about 60 percent of the business involves pizza pickup, Shankus said. Uncle Maddio's doesn't do its own delivery, but Uber Eats will provide third party deliveries.
The new restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Shankus LLC, which is owned by Mukesh and Dhara Chaudhary, plans to soon begin work on another Uncle Maddio's restaurant in Hermitage, Tenn., and the franchisee is looking for other sites in Chattanooga and the Nashville areas.
Ultimately, Elmore said the Gunbarrel Road restaurant will employ up to 35 employees "and we're still hiring some people at this point."
Uncle Maddio's Pizza is based in Atlanta and was founded in 2009 by the same group that launched Moe's Southwest Grill. The chain operates nearly 40 franchised restaurants in nine states with plans announced for more locations in at least a half dozen other states.