Five times food and Web3 converged
NFTs: you know them, you love them, and now… you can eat them? Well, not really. It would be physically impossible to eat a non-fungible token. That is unless you were to transfer one to a hardware wallet and then you get the rest. Instead of trying indigestion (or a trip to the ER), you might want to consider patronizing one of the many NFT projects that provide users with a new kind of utility: food.
That’s right, while over the past few years NFTs have spread outward from the blockchain, influencing and intertwining with almost every possible facet of pop culture, they’ve finally landed in the culinary industry. And while most creators have been hard at work using the blockchain to host video games, TV shows, movies, music and almost every other type of intellectual property (IP), some are thinking outside the box and revolutionizing a new market sector of non-fungible nose.
Bored Ape NFT holders have consistently found creative and unique ways to monetize their owned IP. But potentially one of the most interesting (and edible) ways a member of the BAYC community has done so is via the Food Fighters Universe. A multi-faceted NFT project at its core, Food Fighters first staked its claim in the industry with Bored & Hungry – a fast food restaurant in Long Beach, California that uses four BAYC NFTs as facets of its branding.
Since the launch of Bored & Hungry, Food Fighters has branched out into various BAYC-inspired food endeavors. Two of the project’s most notable BAYC-focused food offerings are Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration — a dessert shop collaboration with Snoop Dogg — and Boring Tacosa joint venture with Web3 architect and crypto fund founder Champ Medici.
Pizza and the blockchain – just try to name a more iconic duo. Born as a whimsical version of the iconic Bitcoin Pizza Day on May 23, 2010, Rare Pizzas only started making waves in 2021 with an attempt to host the world’s largest pizza party. That year, the Rare Pizza team spent over $300,000 in more than 300 pizzerias in over 60 countries to bring fresh pies to crypto and NFT enthusiasts globally.
To get involved, collectors need only purchase a rare pizza box to support the project’s mission. And even better, unopened boxes can be redeemed on the Rare Pizza website for a 1/1 piece of rendered art featuring a random selection of toppings from the 314 artists who helped build the collection.
NFT Wine and spirits
Maybe it’s already known, but NFT people love to party. At massive celebrations held on the fringes of conferences like NFT.NYC and Art Basel Miami, you’ll almost always cross paths with some sort of Web3-inspired cocktail. But IRL meetings aren’t the only place where wine and spirits have taken shape in the NFT space.
Through endeavors like WokenWine – a company that hopes to enable wine producers to use NFTs to track their wines and help end counterfeiting practices – wine has quickly found its way onto the blockchain. And even beyond Web3 native projects, the industry’s exposure to the non-fungible market has continued to grow, with many independent wineries offering their own NFTs for authentication purposes.
In the liquor sector, however, NFT enthusiasts need look no further than BlockBar – a blockchain-based liquor platform where users can purchase whiskey, tequila and other alcohol as NFTs that can be redeemed for the physical bottle. As the world’s first DTC NFT marketplace for luxury wine and spirits, BlockBar operates with the goal of making the collection of luxury spirits more secure, seamless and accessible.
For those who cannot yet legally consume alcohol or who are not fond of wine and spirits, Ape Beverages offers an alternative. The first sustainable water beverage to come from Web3, Ape Beverages aims to hydrate the NFT space with its first offering, Ape Water, sourced from Mt. Shasta, California.
Similar to its ventures into the Food Fighters universe, Ape Beverages uses a Bored Ape as the face of its brand, which has served as a lightning rod for approval from BAYC holders. The brand has already started making waves with its events and general presence at influential conferences. It even comes with a philanthropic mission to help communities in need of clean water resources.
Unlike Bored & Hungry, some NFT restaurants aren’t made for everyone. Similar to the luxurious nature of BlockBar, there are some select NFT culinary experiences that are only truly available to those in a certain tax bracket. Flyfish Club, an NFT street restaurant still in development, is undoubtedly such an experience.
At the entrance of 2022, founder and prominent NFT creator/collector Gary Vaynerchuk announced that he and his hospitality company, the VCR Group, would create first NFT Restaurant. Set to open in 2023, Flyfish Club will be located in New York City and will be a members-only private dining club where membership is purchased as an NFT.
While Flyfish Club certainly won’t be available to everyone, the idea of token-gated experiences for members only is nothing new in the NFT space. Considering many brands and projects, and even live events, have implemented token gating as a way to reward their core fans, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that in time, perhaps other culinary NFT endeavors might do the same . For now, it may only be restaurants and social clubs, but in time the intersection of NFT and food will surely continue to heat up.
