For almost a year, a fellow Los Angeles-based restaurant owner, Andy Nguyen, urged him to dive into Web3 spaces, especially NFTs.
“They kept telling me:’Hey, this space is made for you. It makes sense. It’s about community and marketing,” Nguyen says. input..
He didn’t pay much attention to them. At that time he was busy opening a restaurant. Nguyen has launched with many food brands, including Afters Ice Cream, which has nearly 30 stores in Southern California and Las Vegas. “I didn’t really understand what an NFT was,” he admits.
But he finally came up with the idea. The interruption of his busy schedule was in line with his perception of the challenges facing the restaurant industry. “It’s really hard to hire people,” he says. “Salaries are rough. Food costs are increasing.” So he saw the NFT again. “I found a blank where I thought it might help save the restaurant industry,” he says, but he doesn’t offer much in a concrete way.
By December 2021, he started developing new ideas. It will be available on April 9th as a 90-day pop-up in Long Beach, California. It is a fast food restaurant supported by NFT called Bored & Hungry. The hamburger joint layer overlays the Bored Ape Yacht Club brand on top of two existing businesses, his own Trill Burgers and Beleaf Burgers, a partner of the vegan food company.
Nguyen spent nearly $ 387,000 One boring monkey And two Mutant Apes Decorate Bored & Hungry burger boxes, fly holders and soft drink cups. He wants to offer a discount first to those who own a Bored Ape NFT and accept payments for meals in cryptocurrencies.
Bored & Hungry is one of the few planned restaurants, including several fine dining restaurants, and will incorporate NFTs to capture the spirit of the times. One of the most important is the Flyfish Club, a membership restaurant that will open in New York in the second quarter of 2023. You must own a token to enter a seafood restaurant inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk, a high-tech Impresario.
Flyfish January Token Release Raise $ 14 Million.. NFT-related smart contracts include a clause that Flyfish Club gets 10% of all resales. This earned an additional $ 23 million, according to one of its co-founders, David Rodolitz. “The financial model is different from a regular restaurant,” says Rodolitz. “You sell and cast NFT products, and you have continuous royalties since then.”
Elsewhere in New York, the steakhouse Brooklyn chop house Plans to open a second location, starting at around $ 8,000, including a dining room accessible only to those with irreplaceable membership. (Restaurant owner Stratis Morfogen was on vacation and couldn’t speak input For this story. )
Meanwhile, entertainment brands SuperplasticHaving created various NFTs, soon became “very luxurious Completely insane sushi restaurant Located in the heart of Winwood, Miami. A copy of the website continues: “Junky Bath Accomplices have special access to secret menus and special menus such as toys and delicious apparel. (The person in charge of ultra-plastic refused to talk about this work.)
IRL experience
Nguyen says it’s easy to introduce the Bored Ape brand into the restaurant concept. “Anyone who understands pop culture around the world knows almost what a boring monkey is,” he says.
“What we’re doing is giving back to the Web3 community and providing a hands-on experience,” Nguyen adds. “But even for skeptical people who like to call NFTs JPEGs, it shows that they are building a business, brand, and new ecosystem from the IPs they buy.”
By purchasing Bored Ape NFTs, Nguyen has secured the right to use them the way he wants. “The reason we used the boring monkey as an experiment is because it makes a big statement,” he says. “But it’s more than a boring monkey. You can leverage other NFT products, team up with other companies, and work with their IP to develop concepts and communities.”
People entering the NFT dining space foresee a large and ongoing business. “Hopefully, after we do a good job and create value for our partners and members, the idea is a market that shares the same aspirations for food and drink, innovation and creativity. And do it in the city, “says Rodritz. “We plan to rerun the playbook and run it again in multiple cities.”
We hope that NFTs can revitalize the pandemic-damaged restaurant industry. But not everyone is convinced. “This is a concept that is likely to act only where you have a high degree of knowledge about internet memes, or as a marketing gimmick to attract people who are part of a’club’,” said scholar Catherine Flick. Says. From De Montfort University in the UK with a focus on NFTs.
“But given market volatility, the $ 20 paid to burgers today could be worth less than $ 15 tomorrow, so how the prospect of receiving cryptocurrency payments works. It would be interesting to see, “says Flick. “It’s difficult for a company to make a plan.”
Despite the denials, those who have fully embarked on the potential of NFTs will not be discouraged. “I think a lot of people understand that the world of Web3 and NFTs is here,” says Nguyen.
One big challenge? Make a cryptographic payment. “We are still trying to resolve those twists,” says Nguyen. “Nothing has been done so far, but we are trying to be a leader. At the same time, we are trying to understand that we are not doing anything illegal.”
