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Media Bistro. "There will be media everywhere, interactivity everywhere," says Nolan K. Bushnell, describing a new kind of restaurant where computers replace waiters and videogames replace table talk, reports Matt Richtel in The New York Times (5/30/05). "This is not going to be candlelight dinner," says Nolan. That's for sure. At Nolan's Media Bistro, a "300-seat restaurant and bar," there will be "touch-screen monitors ... at every table booth and barstool" that "will allow diners to place food orders, play some 70 different video and trivia games, and even take instant pop culture polls."
If that doesn't sound like your idea of fun, there will be another room "where games can be organized for large groups, as in bingo halls ... Projected on to the walls of the restaurant will be digital images ranging from movie previews to changing scenes, like snowfall in winter and clover fields on St. Patrick's Day." Nolan K. Bushnell, who also founded Atari and developed Pong, is thinking that maybe gamers would like to get "out of the house" now and then: "There needs to be a place that brings a little more balance and brings people together," he says. Doubters, there are a few, Yoda. "It's like saying you're going to combine a restaurant and a barbershop," says Michael Pachter, an industry analyst (although even he admits he wouldn't have predicted Norman's success with Chuck E. Cheese, either).
However, a different analyst, P.J. McNealy, suggests that, given the "intersection" of videogames "with other forms of entertainment, like movies," maybe Nolan's new idea has legs. In any case, Nolan has invested "about $12 million in software for Media Bistro" and says he hopes to "attract 21- to 35-year-olds." He also says he will save money since he won't need waiters and adds that he might generate some extra "revenue by using the touch-screens to test commercials and conduct consumer surveys on behalf of corporations." Intrusive? "Beats me," says Nolan. "If they don't like it, we'll stop it." Nolan K. Bushnell, uwink.com, will get started with his first Media Bistro in West L.A. this fall, and then plans to focus his rollout in "Minnesota and Michigan, where cold weather increases demand for indoor entertainment."
Tim Manners, editor
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