MEATSPACE
Looking to get some facetime with a VC? Visit Venture Frogs, the San Francisco restaurant owned by Webpreneurs turned incubators Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin. "People always stop and ask the hostess how to submit business plans," says Hsieh, who happily accepts them and lunches at the restaurant regularly. The partners have sunk money in 27 companies, including Ask Jeeves; a portion of the $265 million they made on the 1998 sale of LinkExchange was used to launch their Pan-Asian eatery.
The space features Hsieh's old living-room couch, along with 22 flat plasma displays, a kiosk for PowerPoint presentations, and a custom-made bar top encrusted with motherboard chips.
Venture Frogs hosts dotcom mixers (for CNET and Cybermoola, among others) and is earning a rep as a good spot to pass along your business card. Most of the dishes are named after prominent new economy companies, from the Cisco Chinese Chicken Salad to the Benchmark Baby Back Ribs. The Microsoft Minced Chicken in Lettuce, appropriately, is served in small competitive portions.
Venture Frogs: 1000 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, +1 (415) 409 2550, www.vfrogs.com/restaurant. Main courses range from $7 to $15.
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