Diners at uWink view and customize menu items, place orders, play games and check out using the concept’s touch-screen tabletop terminals.

With that in mind, Bushnell developed uWink, a soon-to-be-two-unit concept in California that allows patrons to participate in a wine-tasting game, memory games, restaurant-wide trivia games and more via point-of-sale terminals at each table.

“Technology has a really amazing ability to facilitate social interaction,” says Brent Bushnell, Nolan’s son and uWink’s chief technology officer. The first uWink restaurant opened in Woodland Hills, Calif., in Oct. 2006; the second is scheduled to open in May at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles.

At the core of uWink’s operations are the touch-screen terminals, which are recessed into the center of the table. With two screens per unit, diners aren’t jockeying for control of a single menu or game terminal. Additionally, diners on opposite sides of the table can compete in any of the interactive games against one another.

In the wine-tasting game, for example, participating guests receive three numbered sample pours. Tasting tips and clues are meant to help guests figure out which wine is which. “They’re getting educated on it as well as having a nice game-playing experience,” Bushnell says.

Bushnell cites the acceptance that, increasingly, consumers of all ages have shown digital-media players, online bill-payment applications and gaming systems as evidence that diners are “ready” for an all-automated dining concept. “People are getting much more comfortable with technology,” he says.

Spokeswoman Alissa Tappan says that in the future, uWink expects to generate revenue from sales of its tabletop terminals to franchisees.

Where do servers fit into the do-it-yourself-dining picture? “The waiters at uWink are intensely important; their role is just slightly different,” he says. Because servers are “kind of liberated” from the role of delivering orders to the kitchen, he adds, they are free to serve more in a concierge capacity, directing diners toward games that might interest them. Additionally, servers can clue diners in to “secret” menu items, viewable only when a patron enters a specific key sequence.

A major benefit of having customer-focused technology integrated so thoroughly in the restaurant, Bushnell says, is that the system is set up to provide instant diner feedback. A brief on-screen survey available at checkout allows the restaurant to gather and easily store real-time reactions from diners.

“Every day is a focus group,” Bushnell says. “We are generating just a ton of data about how people interact with the menu, with the games.”

One operational change since the Woodland Hills location opened is the addition of a shopping-cart-like feature on the terminals that aggregates guests’ orders and allows, for example, all appetizer orders to be sent to the kitchen at once. This feature replaced a system whereby individual orders were sent to the kitchen as soon as diners entered them.

“We found that people really did prefer having everyone in the group get their food at the same time,” Bushnell says.

However, particularly hungry or thirsty patrons have an option to meet their needs, too. “If you want a cocktail right now, you can order it right now and not wait for everybody else,” uWink spokeswoman Alissa Tappan says.

In addition to the L.A. location, uWink hopes to open a third unit, this one in Mountain View, Calif., later in 2008. The cost for each is expected to be around $1 million, Tappan says.

“The best technologies, you don’t notice,” Bushnell says. “They kind of fall into the background, they’re so easy and intuitive.”