uWink

uWink, Inc. (stock symbol: UWKI) was a publicly traded digital entertainment company based in Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2000 by Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder and former CEO of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's. After little success developing interactive entertainment for restaurants, bars and mobile devices for several years[1] in 2006 the company changed focus to their uWink Bistro concept, which it describes as an "entertainment dining experience which leverages its proprietary network and entertainment software, including the uWink Game Library".[2]

uWink logo

uWink's stock opened at $4.75 on July 31, 2007. By December 2012 it was trading at less than one cent.[3]

Interior of uWink bistro in Mountain View, California.

Locations, expansions, and closures
uWink bistro in Mountain View, California.
  • Woodland Hills, California, opened on October 16, 2006 in Westfield Promenade[4] and closed in January, 2010.[5] It received mixed to favorable reviews.[6][7]
  • Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California, opened on June 27, 2008 and closed on September 12, 2010.[8]

On June 11, 2007, uWink announced its first franchise locations would be opened in the Miami, Florida area via an agreement with OCC Partners, LLC.[12] Under the Area Development Agreement, up to three franchised uWink restaurants were expected to be built in the Miami-Dade County area over the next four years.

On June 25, 2007, uWink announced its first joint venture with venture capital firm Jefferson Partners to open uWink locations in Canada.[13] Their first bistro was expected to open in Canada by early spring 2008.

During February, 2009, uWink delisted itself from the NASDAQ.[14][15]

During April, 2009, uWink closed its third restaurant in Mountain View, California. uWink blamed the closure on the location's high rent and general difficulties in the American economy. Two restaurants in southern California remained open.[16]

In January, 2010, uWink closed its first restaurant in Woodland Hills, California.[4]

On September 12, 2010, uWink announced that they were closing all their stores and would be selling their computer services to other food establishments under the name Tapcode.

gollark: It seems kind of horrifying that SIM cards do so much. This sort of thing is bound to have vulnerabilities.
gollark: I currently use caddy with php-fpm (connected over FastCGI) for that one stupid PHP application I have to run.
gollark: People *use* that?
gollark: I can anecdotally confirm that my Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 or whatever the stupidly long brand name is works very well under Linux. Except for some random dropouts which were fixed when I switched NetworkManager to using `iwd` instead of `wpa_supplicant`.
gollark: Without computers lots of stuff will break. If you consider microcontrollers to be computers that is. Otherwise somewhat less stuff.

References
  1. "uWink website archive from 2002". Archived from the original on October 24, 2001. Retrieved May 2, 2007.
  2. About uWink Archived March 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/uwki/interactive-chart?timeframe=1y&charttype=line#.UQMqPL81mSo
  4. "uWink Announces Opening of First Restaurant". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
  5. "Without Much Fanfare, uWink Closes Its Woodland Hills Location". Archived from the original on March 26, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
  6. "First (Or Close To It) uWink Restaurant Review". Archived from the original on November 21, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
  7. "It's all about 'u' at interactive eatery uWink". Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  8. "uWink Inc - uWink Hollywood Brings New Level of Food and Fun to Hollywood and Highland Entertainment Complex". Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  9. "uWink to open in Silicon Valley". Archived from the original on February 6, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2008.
  10. uWink Inc. "uWink Inc - Mountain View Homepage". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved November 30, 2008.
  11. "Stett Holbrook, "The Poet of Play," Metro Silicon Valley Nov. 26, 2008". Retrieved November 30, 2008.
  12. "uWink Announces First Franchise Area Development Agreement". Retrieved June 11, 2007.
  13. "uWink Announces Plans for Canadian Restaurant Joint Venture". Retrieved July 1, 2007.
  14. Ross, Andrew S. (February 11, 2009). "The top 200 companies". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  15. http://seekingalpha.com/article/115515-uwink-delists-itself
  16. "UWink closes in Mountain View". April 21, 2009.
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