Quick take:
- Bored & Hungry is a smash burger joint.
- It’s the first restaurant to accept ETH and ApeCoin.
- Seo and Nguyen hope to compete with McDonald’s and other fast-food franchises on the same street.
Bored Ape-themed fast-food restaurant, Bored & Hungry, opened its doors last Saturday to a snaking queue at its location in Long Beach, California.
The NFT-backed restaurant was founded by Bored Ape collectors Kevin Seo and Andy Nguyen. Seo’s Twitter bio states that he is building Food Fighters Universe, “the first NFT backed Restaurant Group”, and is “using food to bring Normies and Degens together.”
Bored & Hungry is based on Bored Ape #6184, which Nguyen owns. Bored Ape NFT owners have IP rights to their NFTs and can use them for branding and advertising purposes in their businesses.
The restaurant runs on a smash burger concept and was launched in partnership with Houston rapper Bun B’s Trill Burgers and Belief Burgers. At its grand opening on Apr 9, Bored & Hungry gave away free combo meals to Bored Ape Yacht Club holders and free burgers to Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders, verified through token-gating.
From the windows to the floor, the restaurant was decorated all over with Bored Ape art. Even the beverage cups and holders for the burgers and fries are branded with Bored Ape imagery. Besides burgers, the restaurant also offers Bored & Hungry merch such as t-shirts and caps featuring an image of Bored Ape #6184.
FIRST RESTAURANT TO ACCEPT ETH & $APE!!!!!! WE DID IT!!! pic.twitter.com/8DshJ2uI4v
— JustBoredAndHungry (@BoredNHngry) April 9, 2022
Bored & Hungry claims to be the first restaurant to accept ETH and ApeCoin as payment, showcasing the utility of both coins for purchasing goods and services in the real world.
Twitter users have pointed out that the gas fees for paying in ETH would cost more than the meal. However, another user clarified that ETH to ETH transactions cost “just dollars to send”, while ETH transactions that interact with a smart contract would cost more.
The restaurant saw a customer purchase a Mutant Ape for a free burger, while another paid for his meal with ApeCoin. Nguyen tweeted that “the love from the NFT community was surreal.”
With the hype and popularity surrounding NFTs and a novel concept like an NFT-backed restaurant, Seo and Nguyen hope that Bored & Hungry can compete for at least three months with McDonald’s and other fast-food franchises located on the same street. The restaurant opens daily from 11am.
In recent months, fast-food restaurant chains have been preparing to enter the NFT space and metaverse with trademark filings. These include McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Wingstop and Wendy’s.
Wendy’s made its metaverse debut last week as it unveiled its virtual world, the Wendyverse, on Meta’s Horizon Worlds.
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