Adding convenience to the restaurant and bar industry seems to be on the minds of entrepreneurs these days. In Chicago alone, there is no shortage of innovative apps or services that aim to enhance the dining or drinking experience, both from the business and consumer perspectives.
Here are three such startups — two of which of just launched in Chicago — that folks in The Windy City need to know about.
Table8 founders Pete Goettner and Santosh Jayaram
Table8
Table8 launched in Chicago April 15, bringing the “guaranteed seating” reservation app to town. Santosh Jayaram, the founder, said the app addresses the issue of getting last-minute seating at a city’s “celebrated restaurants.” He stressed the app is unlike concierge services that get users into restaurants only when there is an opening. Instead, when users want a seat, they get one.
“You click a button and you want action, and you get it,” Jayaram said. “And that’s as simple as that. People don’t have time to dilly-dally.”
He said if a restaurant is not sold out at the moment users request a table, then the seamless reservation is free of charge to the user. If the restaurant is sold out, the user can pay a convenience fee between $20-$25 for a seat, Jayaram said.
In addition to Chicago, Table8 is in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., and Jayaram said Table8 plans to be in 5-10 more markets by the end of the year. Jayaram said Table8 has raised $7 million in outside funding. The company was founded in 2013.
Tally
Two weeks removed from a launch party at River North’s Studio Paris Nightclub, Tally is a new app Chicagoans can use to improve the experience at popular bars and nightclubs.
At participating locations, users can utilize Tally to avoid the dreaded act of fighting for a bartender’s attention at a packed bar. Instead, users order and purchase their drink via the Tally app. When the drink is ready, Tally notifies user. Then and only then do users need to approach the bustling bar. The saved time can be spent with the people users are there to socialize with.
“When you go to the bar or the club, everyone wants to be the big shot. Everyone loves bottle service, everybody loves getting tables,” Kevin Bolger, CEO and co-founder, said. “The way we look at it is, this application provides our users the VIP experience, without having to incur the expense of that.”
Bolger said they don’t charge the merchants anything, adding they are live at Studio Paris and are working behind the scenes to get other locations operating Tally. He said users can expect the free app to launch at bars and nightclubs in Wrigleyville, River North and the West Loop.
According to Bolger, Tally does not encroach on the crowded food space.
“We don’t see a ton of people doing this,” Bolger said. “Our value adds are that we really truly care about the entire ecosystem of this bar and nightclub industry, and that starts with the user and ends with the merchant. And we try to add value to all of them.”
Bolger said Tally raised an undisclosed seed round in January.
Uncorkd
Chicago-based Uncorkd, meanwhile, doesn’t sell a product to consumers. Rather, it charges restaurants nationwide a monthly subscription fee to use their digital menu platform. Participating restaurants hand iPads to their guests, who are then able to easily sift through a restaurant’s offerings.
The digital menus allow for real-time interaction and updates. Furthermore, Uncorkd menus sync to a drink database that holds information on 100,000 wines, beers and spirits. Guests can view photos, taste descriptions, and even drink and meal pairing recommendations.
According to Uncorkd Founder Josh Saunders, Uncorkd launched in 2011 and now works with about 100 restaurants countrywide, ranging from independent restaurants to establishments within hotels, casinos, country clubs and sports venues. He said the subscription fee starts at $150 per month.
The company is entirely bootstrapped aside from some early undisclosed angel funding, Saunders said. He said the market is still immature, but Uncorkd has seen an increase in adopters due to the results the technology produces.
“There’s a lot of technology out there doing lots of different things — reservations, ordering at the bar, things like that. There are a lot of consumers who aren’t wine experts, or as craft beer is increasing and there is more and more of it on menus, a lot of people don’t know all the names and all the labels.” Saunders said. “And so our philosophy has kind of been that we provide a big benefit not only to consumers but to the businesses — the restaurants and bars as well — to help educate their customers, increase their sales, and we’ve proven across the board that restaurants that use our software increase their sales really significantly.”
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