A funding worry to chew over

It's not your typical Silicon Valley career path. Nolan Bushnell, creator of Pong and co-founder of video game pioneer Atari, went on to launch the kids pizza mega-chain Chuck E Cheese, which now has over 500 locations worldwide.

There is a connection, though. The brilliantly sneaky idea behind Chuck E Cheese was to create a place for children to learn to love Atari's arcade games.

Bushnell has a new effort here along similar lines called uWink. Aimed at young adults and kids, the restaurant has multiple screens at every table upon which customers can order food and play team games. It's surprisingly fun and the food is just fine.

While others have connected technology with entertainment (like Steve Jobs with Apple and Pixar), it's less usual to throw food into the mix. Partly that's because Valley entrepreneurs pushing the edible over the digital tend to get the VC brush-off, although the Bay Area often leads the US in food trends.

Local smoothie mega-franchise Jamba Juice did persuade Benchmark Capital, backers of AOL, eBay and Palm, to invest. But entrepreneurial foodies here more typically turn to angel investors.

That was the route taken recently by former Google chef Charlie Ayers, who's looking to turn his new hit Palo Alto restaurant Calafia into a national chain. Other local franchises have built angel-supported empires around burritos, tex-mex and pearl tea with varying degrees of success.

Bushnell took the VC dollar with uWink. That's not helping the nascent chain, which has only three locations so far. News reports suggest he's under heavy pressure to pay back fast or fold.

Don't feel too sorry for Bushnell, though. Leonardo DiCaprio is signed to play him in a biopic called Atari, slated to open later this year.

* The rain has been pouring in California lately. But not enough, we're told. Climatologists still say we face a summer of water rationing. Cities are subsidising rain barrels, cisterns and "living roofs". That means a nice boost for politically-popular "green" jobs in the home water-collection business.

* Three headlines pulled at random from this week's local business press: Ocarina Networks closes 2nd round with $20 million; Palo Alto-based Eiger BioPharmaceuticals raises $7.1 million; Appirio raises $10 million in 3rd round. All are local companies funded by local VCs. Valley life keeps trucking along.