Spin the wheel and save bucks on a restaurant meal

Want to receive anywhere from a 10 to 35 percent discount on your next Wilmington area restaurant meal?

Try Spotluck, a restaurant mobile app and spin-the-wheel game of chance that saves food lovers money and helps restaurateurs fill seats when business is slow.

The kind of discount customers receive at the 15 New Castle County independent restaurants who have signed up, including the Columbus Inn, Tonic Bar and Grille and Ernest and Scott Taproom, varies based on the day and time of dining and the weather conditions.

Spotluck uses the principles that diners shouldn't pay the same amount to eat out on a dreary weekday afternoon as on a clear, warm weekend evening. It was founded in June 2014 by CEO Cherian Thomas, a Georgetown University marketing grad with two master's degrees, and Brad Sayler, a corporate attorney and certified public accountant.

The best savings will always come during the slowest time of the day for dining when there are more empty seats to fill as well as during the worst kind of weather, be it snow or rain. It's dine-in only, and the discounts do apply to alcohol, but not happy hour or in-house specials already in place.

"If it's raining, all the discounts go up. Finally, someone is using science," Thomas said. "Prices at 2 p.m. on Tuesday when it's raining shouldn't be the same as the Friday night when it's nice out."

Spotluck, available on an iPhone or Android, is kind of like playing a spin-the-wheel carnival game or roulette. The company, which was started in a basement, now has 25 employees and is currently the No. 1 dining app on the iTunes App Store.

"People want things now to be fun. There's a reason why Angry Birds got so many downloads," Thomas said. "If you win in blackjack, you want to play again."

The app, already operating at more than 1,200 restaurants in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York City, New Jersey, and parts of Virginia, became available in the Wilmington area on July 18. Thomas said it had more than 2,000 users in Delaware the first week.

David Dietz, owner of Greenville's BBC Tavern and Grill, said he signed up for his restaurant to be featured on the app as soon as it was presented to him by a Spotluck sales representative.

"It's working out really well for us," said Dietz, who has already had "a couple hundred" customers who have used the app in his Kennett Pike restaurant.

"It's simple and really easy to understand. It really appeals to the younger generation."

Dietz, who said he pays about $1 per customer to Spotluck, said "if it's going to bring some people in, we're going to use it. Half a loaf is better than no loaf."

Thomas said Spotluck users can only use the spin once a day for a discount.

"It's to protect the restaurant," he said. There are algorithms built into the technology. "We don't want to bum-rush [a restaurant] with 50 people."

Thomas said Spotluck chose the Wilmington market because it "has a very unique dining pattern. It's very different at lunch than dinner."

He said more people seem to dine out on weekdays than on weekends, and restaurants have "a decent lunch crowd."

Getting Wilmington restaurants to use the app, however, has been "challenging," Thomas said.

"I would be lying if I said they are currently embracing technology. I would not say the word 'easy.' "

Just using the app gives a user an automatic 10 percent discount. He said the number of Delaware restaurants available on Spotluck "will double pretty soon."

Users download the app and then must fill out the year of their birth, zip code and gender. The app will bring up the restaurants closest to them and then the user taps on the spin button for a discount.

A randomly-selected restaurant and discount is chosen and the user then locks it in when they're at the restaurant. Customers show their phone to a server at the end of the meal to receive the discount.

Spotluck users can write reviews about their dining experience and they also can order Uber or Lyft cars to take them to the restaurant.

Thomas said he is looking at other markets in Delaware, including the popular beach resort areas in Sussex County.

Spotluck is currently partnered with 15 restaurants in New Castle County including 2FatGuys American Grill, BBC Tavern and Grill and Cromwell's Tavern, all in Greenville; Cavanaugh's Restaurant, Chelsea Tavern, Chicky's Pizza Pub, Columbus Inn, Dead Presidents Pub & Restaurant, Del Pez Mexican Gastropub, Ernest & Scott Taproom, FireStone Roasting House, Mrs. Robino's Restaurant, OldBanks Craft Bistro, Scratch Magoo's and Tonic Bar and Grille, all in Wilmington.

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico