Uno Chicago Grill looks to the Middle East

Uno Chicago Grill, a restaurant chain with a Windy City name but a Boston business address, said today that it has entered into an agreement to open 20 new locations in the Middle East.

The agreement is with Sofra LLC, the master licensee for Uno in the region, to open new locations in nine countries, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Egypt, said Uno, which currently counts more than 200 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the chain.

Sofra, which is headed by Major General Abdul Aziz Al Bannai, former head of security for Dubai, currently has Uno franchises in Dubai and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Uno said.

Uno added that it has other international franchise agreements in Korea and Honduras for the development of eight restaurants, and in the United States, franchisees have signed deals to open 30 restaurants over the next five years in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, and Virginia, the company said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)