uWink Bistro Blog

uWink continues to get great press coverage, and in the last week we’ve received two articles: One in Nation’s Restaurant News and the other in the September edition of Entrepreneur Magazine.  Enjoy!

Here is the link to the Entrepreneur Magazine Article.

And here’s the copy of the Restaurant News article (their website is password access only so we pasted the text here):

Trip to uWink shows concept is more than just fun and games
(Aug. 13) “Arial—that was the person’s screen name—missed the last of three trivia questions, and I answered correctly to best this otherwise anonymous gaming rival. With the win, there was a little more bounce in my step, or, more accurately, my finger, as I navigated the self-service ordering touchscreen system at uWink, an “interactive restaurant” developed by Atari founder and Chuck E. Cheese’s creator Nolan Bushnell.

I left uWink two hours later a little less bouncy after consuming a Manhattan, a pan-seared salmon sandwich with wasabi mayonnaise on a wheat ciabatta roll, and a molten chocolate cake with fudge-banana ice cream. Including premium game play at 50 cents and a tip, the check came to $35.70.
Ten-month-old uWink is located on the second level of the Westfield Promenade Shopping Center in Woodland Hills, Calif. Additional units are in development in Hollywood and Las Vegas.

Documents filed by Bushnell’s publicly traded uWink Inc. said management believes that the Westfield Promenade site, developed at a cost of $1 million, is capable of annual sales of $3.5 million. Preliminary quarter ly results released by the company in late July put restaurant sales for the first two quarters of 2007 at $1.24 million.

I recently bumped into Bushnell outside his inaugural 224-seat bistro, and he showed me around.

On entering, I was registered by a hostess and given a plastic card with a radio frequency identification chip. Each time you order an item at uWink, you wave your RFID card near a reader on your touchscreen station to verify the purchase. You settle your tab on the way out.
Bushnell said his team has installed credit card readers at some tables and may make that configuration standard.

A uWink employee gave me a quick demonstration of how to navigate my touchscreen to order, play individual or group games and summon help. The guest-activated touchscreens feed networked Apple Mac Mini computers that pass the orders to ticket printers in the kitchen. Restaurant staff has access to multiple terminals running Volante Systems’ Java-based point-of-sale software in a peer-to-peer configuration.

UWink’s interior was dim, but not dark, to ease the workload of video projectors spewing images of art, landscapes and satellite TV programming onto walls. The low lighting also heightened the visual impact of the dozens and dozens of touchscreens aglow with navigational icons, colorful photos of foods and beverages and diversions, including movie trailers.

“Off the charts,” Bushnell declared of customer response to a digital “Truth or Dare” game that is among numerous complimentary uWink offerings, such as topical quizzes, puzzle challenges and horoscopes. Paid games included a three-flight, red wine tasting challenge for $9.95.

After Bushnell headed home, I scrolled through screens of menu item photos and descriptions. Order customization options called to me from such screen button labels as “Make it Without…” and “A Little Extra…”

Menu items included pan-roasted Alaskan halibut on mashed potatoes with black bean sauce, pizza topped with wild mushrooms and purple potatoes, and marinated, Korean-style grilled skirt steak over ginger-coconut rice.

The $12.95 kids’ meal options include stuffed-bear premiums.

Nearly all the customers in uWink during my post-9 p.m., Monday night visit appeared to be under 30, and multiple ethnic and racial groups were represented. Among the guests were families, young couples and assorted boy, girl and boy-and-girl groups. The crowd was older during conventional dinner hours, Bushnell said.

There was no way to know who among the 50 or so people in uWink while I was there was the Arial that briefly punctuated my evening. “She” could have been a uWink staffer, but that didn’t really matter because my brief exposure to multiplayer action, genuine or simulated, was sufficient to help me understand the concept of “social lubrication.” That’s the term Bushnell uses to describe what he wants out of the games at uWink.

Looking around the room that night, I saw people laughing as they touched screens and heard others moaning at a colleague’s quiz answer, and I realized that some of them were “lubed” up and ready to go.

Check it out here!

Okay so the picture isn’t Nolan, but they got everything else right!

It’s Chef Greg Schroeppel!

From 10 AM – 11 AM this Saturday, June 16, 2007, Nolan Bushnell, uWink’s CEO, will be interviewed on Computers and Technology with Marc Cohen. Get ready for an engaging dialogue!

If you aren’t in LA and want to listen in, visit their website here and click on “Listen to Marc on the Internet”

Here’s a quote from Westfield, our landlord in Woodland Hills, that appeared in an article in Retailing Today. 

But if all landlords greet uWink as positively as Westfield Promenade’s management did, bizarre locations will not be necessary.  “In addition to being a great dining option, uWink’s media-based experience is a draw in itself,” said Sarah Richardson, Westfield Promenade’s marketing director.  “Crowds have loved it.”  The surrounding tenants, too, are pleased to have such a novel neighbor, Richardson says, and they frequent the bistro themselves, occasionally even holding parties there.  “The atmosphere caters to people of all ages,” she said, “and due to uWink’s ability to easily tailor games to suit any environment, the restaurant would be beneficial in every type of shopping center.”  

You gotta love it! 

Press coverage continues to hit and I want to mention two articles that I think are exceptionally terrific.

First, Games Magazine – August 2007 issue – has a nice 2 page article on uWink with a lot of nice photos great commentary.
Second, Nobosh (available here) is also a good read.

Check them out! And if you’re in the neighborhood, drop by.  We’d love to see you and challenge you to a game of Numberz!  (It’s a new game that is definitely my new favorite!)

Last night (Thursday, May 24, 2007) uWink hosted the first ever 6-player Pong Tournament.   10 teams competed for a $100 purse.  Fun was had by all in the single elimination-style tournament.

Here’s the blow by blow:
“The Rockstars”, a fit looking all-male team, was the first to be eliminated at the first ever 6-player pong tournament by another all-male team - “Kingdom”.  They were then quickly removed from the running by the smokin’ hot all-girl team — “The Gigis”.  “The Gigis” had first shown their skills in a landslide match against “The Heartbreakers”.  

Division one had their finalists – “The Gigis”. Then in Division two, the all-female team “Hold” was ousted by team “B2K” in a tight match.  “B2K” ended up playing “The Superheroes” who beat “The Sexies” by a landslide.  “B2K” ended up beating “The Superheros” making them a contending team. Division three started with “Fear Mia” and “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” in a close game but as “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” got up to speed, their skills blossomed.  “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” then played  Division Two leaders “B2K” to see who would move to the finals, with “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” showing their strength early on in a very fast passed match.  “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” then played “The Superheroes” in another close match, but their skills were no match. 

Would the smokin’ hot all-girl team “the Gigis” be the ones to take down “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda”?   It was not in the cards for “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” blew the doors off “The Gigis” in a fast, competitive and lively game. 

Congratulations go to “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda” as the winners of the first ever 6-player Pong Tournament!

We want to thank all the participants for their enthusiasm and participation.  I believe Lambda, Lambda, Lambda spent their winnings (The $100 Purse) on their tab at uWink!  It was rumored that they left after midnight! Thanks again and congratulations to “Lambda, Lambda, Lambda”!

Hey all you 24 fans, join us at uWink as we say farewell to Jack Bauer and all the folks at CTU. 

On Monday, May 21 starting at 7:30 pm uWink will host a larger-than-life screening of the season finale of Fox’s hit TV show 24.   The season finale runs from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m., but we’ve got an extra special treat that shows at 7:30 p.m.

The pre-show entertainment will be a special short 24 parody video called “07 - Introducing the Newest Weapon of Mass Distraction”. 

We invite you to come early to get a great seat or call the restaurant to reserve a table for you and your friends. 

Hope to see you all there!

uWink offers techno spin on dining in the iPod age

by Paris Solimanzadeh - Date: 5/16/07
Technology has finally brought the restaurant eater into the kitchen.

The invention of the stove is old news like ancient artifacts and the waitress is slowly being phased out like the Mayans. In the wake of Apple’s iPod revolutionizing our take on music, uWink is revolutionizing the dinner rush.

Fully equipped with a bar, patio and restaurant seating, this sit-down establishment has a computer at every table.

Technology has quite possibly bombarded the battle between customer and server, making the food-order communication line much clearer.

Listing every item from bar drinks to desserts with more product ingredient information than my brain can handle, along with displaying a picture of each item, the computers are your menus.

When seated, the hostess gives you a card, which you swipe in the computer to start your tab. Then you simply click on the item you want and the waitress brings it out.

The computers serve as much more than menus though. They are filled with a variety of free games ranging from sports, music and movie trivia all the way to games about love and horoscopes.

Of course you don’t have to play them, but in my case the screen’s calling of my name sucked me into a tarot card tug-of-war. According to the first round my love life is in shambles, but thank God I persisted because by the third and fourth I had apparently hit “Hot Tamale” status.

With visual projections lining the walls with pictures of amoebas and far-off places, sport- and news-filled plasma screens and the table’s resident computer, the restaurant could surely glide through the corporate market quite lavishly without the appearance of quality food.

For the sole reason that I’m anti-technology I was really hoping they chose that route but as I searched for the establishment’s downfall in the menu, I came up short. The menu boasted so many food choices it made my head spin. I settled on the sushi and it was phenomenal.

The menu has a great selection that incorporates nearly every Americanized multicultural dish possible with Greek salads, steaks, burgers, vegetarian dishes, pizza and that is barely the tip of the iceberg.

If the fact that the iPod has attached itself to my body like an extra ligament is not hypocritical enough, uWink only furthers the truth that my resistance to move with electronic advancement is unprecedented.

The restaurant combines quality food, casual quick dining and best of all, affordable prices. According to their Web site, the target average check is $12 to $16, which is accurate and well worth it from my experience.

Computers at your table are the way of the future, advance or bust. It is truly a great restaurant.

The location below is the first and only uWi nk up and running, but the concept plans to add two more in 2008. So keep your eyes peeled for the new establishments, which will be making their way to Hollywood and Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles.

Location:

Westfield Promenade

6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd. 2310
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Source 
Thanks Roundup Online!

One of the coolest things about uWink is our flexibility and our ability to change and morph. We can do things that other restaurants can’t do - like change our interior to include photos from our customers - making uWink theirs!  This mother’s day we’ve asked our customers to email us digital photos of their moms by May 10^th and we’ll project the photos on our walls!  How cool is that?  At uWink, every customer is a star!

On Friday, April 6, 2007 uWink opened the side patio, adding 49 new seats (and 20 terminals) to the restaurant. Besides increasing our capacity and cutting down our wait times (for now), patio seating also provides our guests with a very pleasant dining experience outside.
Being in Southern California, we believe we’ll be able to use the outside patio most of the year due to our mild southern California winters. You gotta love that So. Cal weather!