Food Network’s New Side Dish
Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which owns the Food Network and other lifestyle channels, is offering a service that lets people make restaurant reservations online. The move pits the company against OpenTable Inc., which has offered a similar service since 1998.
Called CityEats, Scripps’s reservation website prominently displays the Food Network logo. It is already operating on a small scale in Washington and Philadelphia. So far, the service has signed up only about 130 restaurants, but Scripps executives are optimistic about its growth, and said it would be extended to several other markets, including New York and San Francisco, by the end of the year.
