Fellow TheFeed editor Mike D'Alonzo and I made history this morning.
We were among the first people to hang at Nolan Bushnell's uWink restaraunt. Bushnell created Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, so no matter which recent generation you claim, Nolan is an important part of your childhood, even if you've never met the guy.
So when we heard he was opening a high-tech restaurant, we leapt at the chance to be there on opening day.
We took lots of pictures too.
Right from the jump, it's obvious that uWink is not a standard food court hash-house. Start with the menu: There isn't one. Orders are placed at your table from a touch-screen Mac inset into each table. It looks like this:
Note the casual, friendly-yet-trendy look of the place:
The most important part of my dining experience: The bar.
Patrons order drinks, food and games right from their screen. Here's what it would look like in an alternate universe where I eat salad for lunch:
Notice that light fare? It's like that for a reason. According to Uwink's P.R. Director Alissa Bushnell, the restaurant serves a variety of food for all tastes, but vegetarian fare and salad play an important role in the cuisine because the place was created with women in mind. But don't worry, you can still order a thick, greasy burger. And it will be brought to you by a courteous waiter or waitress. It's kind of like having a Star Trek replicator... without the replication.
The interface, which Alissa Bushnell was integral in designing, is as intuitive as an interface can be. Even your mom would be able to handle it in minutes.
If you were lucky enough to win a dream date with me at uWink, it would look like this:
Sound good, ladies?
Anyway, onto the games. Alissa Bushnell--who is Nolan's daughter, by the way, and one of the first testers of Pong, so as a videogame-head, you should bown down and kiss her feet--assured us her restaurant is not a cyber cafe full of Counter Strike players.
"All the games are casual. None takes longer than 2-3 minutes to play." Bushnell said. She's right. The games run toward things like trivia contests that can be played against other tables across the restaraunt and simple, cellphone style games. You won't be able to rock World of Warcraft at uWink, but that's the point.
"We want all the games to be social," Bushnell said. New content will be added all the time, whether in the form of online quizzes, rateable videos or new mini-games, so return patrons will have a different electronic experience everytime they lunch.
Probably the application for all this tech that I was most intrigued with was the group trivia. Table-runners light up with different colors, creating teams who then compete in casual games. Very, very cool.
Here's a look at a multi-player tabletop in the bar area:
Apparently, 6-player games will be projected onto the tables for patrons hanging in the bar area. As you'd expect, one of the first games available will be a modern-version of Pong. Cool.
I asked Bushnell if uWink could be compared to Chuck E. Cheese for adults. "I don't make that comparison," she answered, but in one important way, they are similar. Both have the same business model. Where Chuck E. Cheese became one of the most profitable restaurant chains ever by selling entertainment tokens for video and carnival games, uWink promises a similar business model. The games don't require coins to play, but a certain amount of time on the table is figured into each menu item.
So,if you order a full, moderately priced meal and you have access to games, videos and other digital detritus uWink offers for awhile, like an hour and a half. Sit with a cup of coffee and you can play for a bit, but you will be nagged to either buy some time or order some food before too long. Pretty cool.
We were there for a long time enjoying cheeseburgers, appetizers and desert, (and generally avoiding going back to work) and were not charged for games, so I doubt you'll notice the time limits.
According to Bushnell, uWink is a publically traded company (UWNK) and two or 3 other locations are opening up in Southern California soon. The goal, of course, is to spread nationwide with a franchise and ownership business model. So, if you're looking to buy into the future, it's a good place to start...and eat.
uWink is located at 6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd. 2310 in Woodland Hills, California.
Official Site: uWink.com
