uWink Bistro Blog

Last Friday, 5 folks from the uWink team – John Kaufman, Greg Schroeppel – our executive chef, Nancy Nino, Dan Lindquist and I – did some menu reconnaissance at a place called Citizen Smith, an Urban Bistro, in Hollywood.  We wanted to SEE what our target demographic eats.  And we hit the target demo gold mine for the place was packed with Women 21-35 years old.

So let me describe Citizen Smith.  The place - the ambience - was amazing. Cool candles, neat booths with cowhide on the walls, killer looking light fixtures and a magic sliding door that was both modern and rustic at the same time.  Here’s a link to their site: http://www.citizensmith.com/

The menu sounded great -  Chicken Skewers, Onion Ring Tower, Jalapeño Mac n’ Cheese, Burgers, Pork Chops, Blackened Tuna, etc – we ordered a board sampling.

The cocktails were good, but they took a long time to come and our waiter, well…let’s just say we were all wishing they had uWink’s touch screen ordering so we didn’t have to flag him down all the time!

So, what did we think…the food fell short of the expectations set by the menu, the price and the décor.  Especially compared to what we’ve tasted from our Executive Chef Greg. Greg’s really focused on food – and so is uWink - for if the food is not excellent, we won’t be successful long term.  Thank goodness, we’ve got John and Greg.  You’ll be hearing more about Greg shortly.  He’s our executive chef and we LOVE him!

uWink is creating a new genre of video games – what we call Social Games.   They differ dramatically from today’s video games and have different constructs and rules that need to be followed to create them.  
Bottom line: It is death of the complex controller, as uWink puts the power back in people’s hands!
 
Nolan’s Rules for Social Games:

1. The game must increase or stimulate conversation not stifle it.
2. The games must cross gender and age.  Can Grandpa and his 8 year old daughter play and have fun? If not, then it isn’t a social game.
3. The rules of the game need to be immediately perceived.
4. Games must “fail soft”  The worst player in the room must not be made to feel stupid.  (Losers have a score of 89 — winners have a score of 99.)
5. The game controller must be as easy to use as a fork.
6. The intensity of the game can not override the social atmosphere – NO GAME ZOMBIES.
7. In longer games there must be breaks for food, drink ordering or non game activities.
8. Games must be “classy” or funny. Not coarse or vulgar.
9. Construct the game so that something in the game can be learned, so that next time their score improves.

So last week - June 2 to be exact - uWink demonstrated about 50 of our short form games at the Valley Brew Festival that was held by Westfield Promenade Topanga (the mall we are going to be in) and the Valley Cultural Center.

There were over 50 vendors serving food & wine, and uWink SERVED up GAMES!

There were over 1000 attendees wandering around in the 100 degree heat eating, drinking, socializing and PLAYING uWink Games!

This was a grassroots effort to start getting the word out about our imminent summer opening, and many of the people who stopped by the booth had ALREADY heard of uWINK and knew that we would be there shortly. NICE!

The response to the games was amazing – our target demographic was ALL over us! We increased our email list dramatically! And a few even passed us their resumes – wanting jobs as runners and bartenders.

uWink’s management team has invested in uWink.  uWink’s Chief Technology Officer, Paul Dumais, and Chief Financial Officer, Peter Wilkniss each invested $30,000.00 cash in uWink’s latest financing round. 
Other management team members and consultants who have invested in uWink include:

• John Kaufman, consulting director of restaurant operations, and formerly of California Pizza Kitchen, taking 50% of his compensation in stock;
• Alissa Bushnell, vice president of marketing and daughter of Chief Executive Officer; Nolan Bushnell, taking 62.5% of her compensation in stock; and
• Ralph Gentile Architects, uWink’s architectural firm, that specialize in spa, hotel, restaurant, nightclub, and retail store design, and that has worked on restauarants such as Nobu ­ Malibu, Zeke’s Smokehouse, and The Rock Spa and the Counter Coffee Shop at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, is taking up to 40% in stock.