Long Beach’s NFT-Themed Restaurant Still Accepts Crypto For Now

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Long Beach’s NFT-Themed Restaurant Still Accepts Crypto For Now
Image courtesy of Bored & Hungry

The “crypto winter” might be rolling in, but the founders of Food Fighters Universe are staring the storm in the face and boldly claiming now is actually the time to double down on digital assets.


Food Fighters Universe, which bills itself as the first NFT-themed restaurant group, was started just four months ago by co-founders Andy Nguyen, COO Phillip Huynh and “chief megaphone” Kevin Seo.

The restaurant does still accept crypto, despite a recent Los Angeles Times article where a reporter described visiting the site and said staff weren’t accepting Ethereum or ApeCoin, the cryptocurrency linked to Bored Apes. Nguyen and Seo told dot.LA the reporter just happened to visit the store when their systems were temporarily down for maintenance, and said they’re still taking crypto as payment.

“It was timing and miscommunication,” Seo claimed. “[The LA Times] happened to stop by when we were in NYC doing an activation with Bored & Hungry and we were accepting crypto payments in New York and there was a technical issue on the west coast we were unaware of.”

“The best time to accept crypto is in a bear market, that’s when you make your most money,” said Nguyen, a restaurateur known best for his involvement in Los Angeles’ Afters Ice Cream chain.

From left to right: Co-founders Kevin Seo, Phillip Huynh and Andy Nguyen. Courtesy of Bored & Hungry/Food Fighters Universe

Seo told dot.LA the restaurant plans to accept more forms of crypto as payment in coming months. And though the co-founders wouldn’t disclose the restaurant’s revenue, Seo noted they had plans to open a second Bored & Hungry location in Seoul, South Korea this fall—the store’s first international expansion.

It’s important to note that accepting crypto isn’t the only thing that makes Bored & Hungry a web3-adjacent enterprise: the restaurant’s theme is based around Bored Ape Yacht Club, the controversial NFT collection from Yuga Labs.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Tom Brady and Seth Green have openly endorsed the apes, while critics (like web designer and Azaelia Banks’ ex-boyfriendRyder Ripps) claim the project is rooted in racism or Nazi iconography – something Yuga Labs CEO Nicole Muniz strongly denies.

“I think it's just he said, she said, people digging,” Nguyen said when asked about the allegations. “[Bored Ape] is the most popular brand out there, it is what it is.”

In creating the restaurant, Nguyen had to meet the Bored Ape founders and spoke with one of them (he didn’t say which one) to get their official endorsement, and added, “he didn’t seem crazy.”

Despite the unsavory accusations and impending crypto crash, the series of 1,000 humanoid ape cartoons is quite possibly the most popular NFT brand out there, with sales surpassing $1 billion earlier this year. That’s why Nguyen and his team chose to purchase three Bored Ape NFTs earlier this year for roughly $330,000 and theme their Long Beach hamburger joint around them.

The price floor for Bored Ape Yacht Club’s NFTs continues to fluctuate. After peaking at a high of roughly 149 Ethereum in early May, the project is now down to 81.75 ETH. Decrypt reported in June the collection dropped 47%, falling below a $100,000 floor price for the first time since August 2021.

Nguyen said the desire to link with the Bored Ape brand was rooted in its widespread appeal.

“We are going to be gunning for the top 10 [most] popular coins out there,” Seo told dot.LA, while acknowledging the percentage of people actually purchasing their lunch with crypto is still miniscule.

“Adoption is still going to take a long time,” Seo said. “We're going to continue to push it, even though it's being used very minimally. It's not a huge percentage of anything. Some folks want to do it and just having the option feels good, and we hope that that will lead to more adoption.”

https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

  • 90% of startups around the world fail.
  • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
  • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
  • Less than 1% of startups go public.
  • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

Ouch.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending