While I love the big thinking behind the idea, as someone who tried to launch a similar, restaurant related, Web startup, there are at least two major issues:
1) High restaurant turnover - Approximately 60% of restaurants either close or change owners within the first three years of existence (http://www.whitehutchinson.com/blog/2011/02/the-truth-about-...). This can make it incredibly frustrating to try to build lasting business relationships.
2) Scalability - If the growth of the startup is limited to how fast you can build relationships with restaurants (see above for problems), it will be a long slog and likely an unappealing investment.
Having said that, I too look forward to someone making this happen. I've already got my scars from attempting it, so I hope someone better than I takes a crack at it. I just tend to think it will be an OpenTable, Yelp, or Eats.com who finally solves the problem (although biggestmenu.com looks pretty sweet).
1) High restaurant turnover - Approximately 60% of restaurants either close or change owners within the first three years of existence (http://www.whitehutchinson.com/blog/2011/02/the-truth-about-...). This can make it incredibly frustrating to try to build lasting business relationships.
2) Scalability - If the growth of the startup is limited to how fast you can build relationships with restaurants (see above for problems), it will be a long slog and likely an unappealing investment.
Having said that, I too look forward to someone making this happen. I've already got my scars from attempting it, so I hope someone better than I takes a crack at it. I just tend to think it will be an OpenTable, Yelp, or Eats.com who finally solves the problem (although biggestmenu.com looks pretty sweet).