In the year 2000, analysts estimate the restaurant industry will post average sales in excess of $1 billion each day.

In fact, as the nation's largest employer outside of government, the restaurant industry is responsible for employing one-third of all adults in the U.S. at some point during their lives.

One company that is positioning itself to take advantage of this $376 billion restaurant industry is Chicago-based Restaurant.com (http://www.restaurant.com) --- claiming to have the largest and most comprehensive dining site in the industry with a database of 350,000 restaurants nationwide.

"Today is a great day," said Restaurant.com Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chicago native Scott Lutwak. "After a year-and-a-half in the making, and roughly $10 million in private equity funding, we are extremely excited to finally take the site live."

The site, scheduled to launch today, will be a "complete portal", offering information on the latest dining trends, food ordering and delivery, healthy eating tips, wine selections, and gift certificates.

"With iXL's commitment and our strategic alliance with Sysco, we have literally created a true category killer," added Lutwak.

The company has been working closely with Atlanta-based Web designer and e-business builder iXL Enterprises Inc. (http://www.ixl.com) since the beginning.

According to investor relations' directors Todd Kobayashi of Lante Corp. (http://www.lante.com), a Chicago-based Internet services company, and Tami Kamarauskas of Inforte Corp. (http://www.inforte.com), another e-business integrator that resides in Chicago, neither firm currently has anything in its pipeline that directly competes in this space.

Restaurant.com has also partnered with Houston-based Sysco Corp. (http://www.syscosmart.com), North America's largest food service provider, to grow its distribution business.

With one of the largest sales forces in the country (6,500 sales reps), the Sysco alliance will allow Restaurant.com to market its customized services and create mini-sites for hundreds of thousands of Sysco customers.

It will also provide restaurateurs with several customizable tools (e.g. targeted e-mail marketing, real-time site content updates, etc...) to help them more effectively communicate with diners.

So just how does Restaurant.com plan to generate sales?

"Restaurant.com - 'the end product' - is a truly unique experience," said Lutwak in reference to its subscription-based business model versus an ad-based model.

"Our site is focused entirely on the restaurant industry and that is it -- period. As a result, the site was designed to facilitate the end-user experience without the distractions that come with advertising banners."

Through Sysco's extensive network, Restaurant.com will charge an annual subscription fee of $895 for a complete package that includes everything from restaurant reviews to a virtual, 360-degree tour of each restaurant.

"And unlike food.com, which charges $100 - $200 per month for maintenance and takes five percent from every transaction, we offer an annual subscription that is second to none," said Lutwak who said costs related to food delivery will be passed through as cost savings for the end user.

Lutwak also mentioned that citysearch.com (http://www.citysearch.com), "the only company that offers anything close to what we do," charges as much as $3,000 per year for their service."

Food.com (http://www.food.com), the nation's leading online food takeout and delivery service, is partnered with The Chicago Tribune's www.metromix.com.

"We want to maintain a beautiful, highly-developed interface that truly captures the essence, the variety, and the pleasure of dining out," said Lutwak.

"It will capture your attention and keep you coming back for more," added Lutwak who also reminded us that the site received more than 300,000 hits last month alone.

The interesting thing is that Restaurant.com, which was not registered with any search engines and literally kept under wraps, has been nothing but a splash page for the last six months.