“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.
