Salesforce Park’s infamous NFT-backed restaurant is going quiet

Seven months later, things don’t seem to be going very well for Sho Club or for Sho Restaurant. I recently walked over to Salesforce Park and peered into the shell of the building that will become a restaurant; I saw an empty space that looks almost exactly like it did in August. The mock-up design images that journalists looked at during the August “groundbreaking” remain strewn around the floor. Permits for Sho Restaurant have not been issued, a result of Sho Restaurant designers not yet responding to a series of memos from the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, among a number of permit steps that have not been completed.

Show Club Social Media accounts have been radio silent since late September. The Sho Club website lists the restaurant’s grand opening as “fall 2023,” but other key events have been scrubbed, including quarterly meetings for Sho Club members. It’s not clear how well-attended these events would be, given that Sho Club appears to have sold about 100 NFT memberships, rather than the 3,275 that Sigel originally suggested.

I reached out repeatedly to Sigel, Sho Club and its public relations representatives. No one answered my questions. A spokesperson for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which leases the Sho Restaurant site, told me to direct my inquiries to the Sho Club, then stopped responding. After that, I sent a public records request, seeking emails sent to and from key members of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority about Sho Club and Sho Restaurant; they sent me the results of that request on sunday night.

The public records were insightful, but not as much as a barely seen YouTube video I stumbled upon. In January of this year, Sigel – a 40-year-old startup evangelist who describes himself as an “entrepreneur, thought leader and innovator in the technology, hospitality and food and beverage industries” – sat down for a chat with someone from Family Office Insights , which the investment group later posted online. During the chat, Sigel was prone to exaggeration, calling Salesforce Park an “iconic location”; he also said the Salesforce Transit Center is a “beautiful structure” and “many refer to it as the Grand Central Station of the West.” More pertinently, Sigel inadvertently answered some outstanding questions about the status of Sho Restaurant.

One such question: What happens to the NFT memberships? It turns out there hasn’t been an influx of sales. Sigel told potential investors that while NFT memberships could bring Sho Club $20 million in revenue, he chose to temporarily cut sales of 100-person NFT memberships because fall “pre-sales” were going smoothly enough to demonstrate a successful proof of concept . “We’ve put it on hold,” he said.

Contrast that with what he told the media in August, when he said there was “fantastic” demand for Sho Club NFT membership, and that “thousands” of people had submitted personal information online, indicating they wanted to buy a membership. In fact, the Sho Club increased its $300,000 level from 10 potential memberships to 20, additions made due to “demand and interest,” a spokesperson emailed me in August.

According to public records, Sigel signaled until well into the fall that there would be a broader NFT membership sale. On October 13, he sent out a “Sho Club Public Sales Update” to potential members, writing: “Over the past few months we have received an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm and interest… we will begin selling memberships to the public at the end of October / early November.”

On November 4, in another email to prospective members, Sigel no longer explicitly mentioned a public membership sale or any specific dates—only that emailed recipients were welcome to apply to the Sho Club. “Please note that your application does not guarantee membership,” the email said. “We have a limited number of places available to ensure SHŌ Club continues to represent a diverse and vibrant community.”

In December, Sigel sounded defensive about the future of NFTs. On Twitter, he responded to someone who had asked what the deal was with the lack of construction at Sho Restaurant, and whether the Sho Club was still moving forward with NFT membership, given the complete and utter collapse of most NFT rates over the fall and winter the months of 2022, when FTX imploded.

“I assume the NFT market you are referring to is mostly artwork,” he wrote. “However, tool-based NFTs continue to grow in popularity as they have real utility and value. The NFT market you are targeting is no obstacle to our project.”

The January chat with Family Office Insights also featured Sigel tiptoeing around the construction status of Sho Restaurant. At one point in the YouTube video, he claimed that “we’ll be fully legal within the next four weeks.” That still hasn’t happened, according to San Francisco Department of Building Inspection records.

In the same video, Sigel addressed another significant barrier: raising money. Total project costs, including construction on Sho Restaurant and a separate venture called Sho Market, have reached a whopping $30 million, which — at least in January — Sigel tried to offset by raising $20 million through debt financing that converts to equity.

Archived versions of Sho Club’s website provide other hopeful project updates, many of them scrubbed from ShoGroup.com but available on the Wayback Machine. In August 2022, the site declared that construction would begin in September 2022; this was changed to “Q4” in September 2022, and then deleted entirely. Other since-deleted posts include plans for a “Fall Membership Event” in October 2022, a “Winter Membership Event” in February 2023 and a “Spring Membership Event” in May 2023.

A thing that has been added to the Sho Club website is a 50% member discount for significant others. (One might assume that if they paid $7,500 or $15,000 for a membership, then their partner could waltz into Sho Restaurant whenever they wanted. Apparently not.)

Stiff as it may seem, Sho Club at least included a top-of-mind solution for Bay Area startup founders who want to embrace the significant other but have complicated romantic entanglements. “Members may update their partner every two years,” the Sho Club FAQ states. “Exceptions will be considered and granted by the SHO Club Membership Committee.”

There was another tidbit from Sigel’s January talk that caught my attention. Earlier, Sigel sought to make humble overtures to the general public about how Sho Restaurant would actually welcome — even embrace — passers-by, that this wasn’t some snooty private club.

“Without public support, this restaurant is not possible,” he said. “So serving the public at large is a critical component for us, and extremely important.”

But Sigel took a rather different tone while talking to possible investors, confirming what Sho Restaurant will really be — if it ever gets built, anyway.

“The restaurant is on public property, so we are somewhat obligated to keep it available to the public,” Sigel lamented. “But the membership component really gives us an opportunity to curate and create experiences, and provide a level of access and service that you just can’t do at scale.”

Sigel provided a shining example to prove the benefits of being a Sho Club member. “Most people like the opportunity to enter a space that is coveted, limited in terms of access,” he began. Yes, the restaurant will be open to the public, but that’s the appeal to members: a unique opportunity to rule over everyone else.

“Sometimes I use the analogy it’s like flying first class,” Sigel said. “Often it’s not as fun, or doesn’t feel as elevated, if you were to get on a plane, sit in first class, and the coach section was empty.”