Where food & tech meet for dinner–Update

Since we wrote about interactive restaurant uWink Bistro back in early 2007, the California company has expanded with new franchises throughout North America and new technological features and capabilities. Furthering the spread of its concept even more, uWink has now begun offering its technologies to other restaurants as well. At the prototype uWink restaurant in Woodland Hills, California, customers use tabletop touch-screen terminals with a proprietary user interface to self-order and self-pay for food, drink and digital media, including selections from a library of more than 70 single- and multiplayer games. Now, through a partnership with tech provider Volanté Systems, those same capabilities are available to other restaurants via the end-to-end uV Hospitality Solution. The software allows for the delivery of digital advertising and the monetization of customer game play via a unique micro-transaction game credit purchasing and redemption system that’s tied directly into Volanté’s integrated point-of-sale and back-office enterprise system, which features open-source, peer-to-peer technology along with credit/debit processing, loyalty programs and gift card management. Larger average checks and margins, labor savings, increased customer loyalty, increased transaction speed and accuracy, and reduced lines are all among the benefits the companies claim the system provides. When we wrote about uWink originally, we wondered if it would spark a trend, and this latest move suggests it has. One to bring to your neck of the woods…? (Related: At Inamo, fine dining with a touch of tech.)