Getting Employees Vaccinated No Joke For UNO Restaurants

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Amid a year of very serious challenges for restaurants during the coronavirus crisis, Norwood-based UNO Pizzeria & Grill figured it was maybe time for a little bit of levity this week.

The chain — famous for its Chicago-style deep-dish pizza — declared Wednesday on its social media accounts and to its email club subscribers that starting April 1 it would not longer be offering deep-dish pizza at all.

"We will be removing them from our menu in an effort to scale back," UNO, with 16 Massachusetts locations, including one in Swampscott, posted on Twitter. "We welcome customers to continue enjoying other items at UNO's and we thank you for all the years of deep-dish love."

Sausage and pepperoni lovers fear not, however, UNO Chief Executive Officer Erik Frederick assured Patch during an interview to discuss the chain's employee vaccination program, the joke is in the timing of the April Fool's Day deep-dish "announcement."

"We're known for our pizza," Frederick said, allowing that the corporate office had actually received some concerned communication from fans of the trademark style.

Frederick told Patch the chain is actually also looking to invest more in its core menu items, employee support and retention, and some of the changes made during the pandemic that customers embraced and could be enhanced as the crisis wanes and he hopes most will return to their old dining-out habits.

"We're looking forward to a really robust summer," Frederick said. "I think it could look a lot like the Roaring 20s."

In order to support Roaring 20s habits — which were, in part, a reaction to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that preceded it — chains will need happy and well-supported employees, which is part of what is behind the company's initiative to assist those in its restaurants and frozen foods production plant in Brockton secure coronavirus vaccination appointments and get to them.

Volunteer employees are assisting those having trouble finding vaccinations — whether it be because of the hours they work, lack of computer access or language barriers — attain them. UNO is also offering all employees a $50 gift card for getting vaccinated and transportation support for those who are unable to drive to a vaccination site.

"We found we were having a lot of people who were having trouble getting appointments without people helping them," Frederick said. "Some of them are also looking for peers who can tell them they've had it and (the vaccine is) safe. We want our people vaccinated and feel they are working for a company that is taking care of them."

The effort comes at a time when many restaurants are having trouble filling the increasing demand for dining options with staff as vaccination rates rise and virus rates fall from winter peaks. While hospitality industry workers were hit among the hardest in the early months of the pandemic, restaurants are now lining up to hire more employees for when business is expected to increase through the spring and into the summer.

The Ninety-Nine Restaurant this week said it plans to hire 1,000 employees for its New England and New York locations by May 3. Apex Entertainment and 110 Grill will hold a job fair in Marlborough on Saturday that promises on-the-spot hires for those in the restaurant and hospitality industries and the chance to win a vacation for four if they hired that day.

Frederick said one issue has been the federal unemployment boost is making it harder to get those in the restaurant business pre-pandemic back into the workforce.

"We've always been (hiring)," he said. "We have a lot of people who would be going back to work for a couple of bucks more an hour than they are making (on unemployment). It's not the 15 bucks you can offer them. It's that they are coming in and working for only two bucks more an hour (than unemployment). That's been a bit of a crusher for us.

"It's going to get tough to get talent coming in here. You can't have a bidding war. So, we want our restaurant buddies and see this is a company that cares about its people. We want people to see our programs (like the vaccination assistance) and say: 'Damn, I really want to work with these people.'"

Frederick said as disruptive as the pandemic was with rolling shutdowns and shifting restrictions that varied state to state, there are some aspects of dining this past year that he sees thriving post-pandemic.

He said outdoor dining will be even more of a focus this summer at UNO than it was at the start of last summer when it was only option allowed in the state, while paper menus or scanning QR codes for menus could be a less costly option that customers may actually prefer to the bulky, binder menus offered more than a year ago.

"Especially in the Northeast, I don't think outdoor dining is ever going to go away," he said. "Last year when a lot of places started it nobody knew how it was going to come out so people didn't put their heart and soul into it.

"This year, I know we're going to make ours a lot nicer. We're even planning contests to see which location has the best patios."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem andn Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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