Nina Compton leads a line of celebrity chefs to open NFT Cocktail Club in New Orleans

Nina Compton and her business partner and husband Larry Miller are working on their third New Orleans restaurant – an NFT cocktail club and lounge supported by a host of other celebrity chefs from around the country.

Compton and Miller are partnering with chefs Stephanie Izard, Marc Forgione, Michelle Bernstein, Rodney Scott and Tiffani Faison for the upcoming ShaSha Lounge: Social Aid and Pleasure Club, set to open sometime in 2023. Memberships will be sold as NFTs, with members “to unlock” access to the club and special events.

It’s the latest in a wave of NFT restaurants, or perhaps, more accurately, plans for NFT restaurants — private, membership-based restaurants and clubs that involve buying a record on the blockchain, a network of decentralized digital ledgers where cryptocurrency transactions are recorded. What sets ShaSha Lounge apart from other NFT restaurants, the group says, is that a portion of membership and lounge sales will be “reserved to help support future disaster relief efforts in the region.”

Compton, one of New Orleans’ most acclaimed chefs, tells Eater that she and Miller came up with the idea earlier this summer while “discussing ways to continually help fund nonprofits focused on disaster relief” rather than responding with fundraising after the fact. Their restaurant management and marketing companies, both of which had already pursued other “web3” projects — web3 is the idea for a decentralized, token-based Internet — encouraged them to use blockchain technology to realize their funding goals, Compton says. The chef tells Eater that the group is in the process of identifying disaster relief and charities “already embedded” in the Gulf Coast region as potential partners.

Compton and Miller, who own Compère Lapin and Bywater American Bistro, are still deciding on a location for ShaSha Lounge, but plans include a bar, lounge and private rooms for events, tastings and cocktail classes. The other chef-partners will collaborate quarterly on new cocktails at the club and visit occasionally to host on-site as well as virtual classes. They will also “individually program the club for one week each year,” according to the press release. Live music is another part of the plan, and food will consist of “light bites” made by Compton.

We come in peace

The club’s name is a reference to New Orleans’s Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. Although the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club may be the best known nationally, there are dozens in the city, between about 45 and 70, and they are some of New Orleans’ longest-running organizations. These clubs grew out of groups in the 19th century called benevolent societies, created by free Creoles of color (or Afro-Creoles). Members paid dues to the organization, which helped cover funeral and other medical expenses for members and their families. They also had a social component, and to this day they carry out charitable works and hold their own second line parades throughout the year.

A representative for the restaurant said financial details such as membership fees and the percentage of sales directed to relief funds are still being worked out, as is the specific blockchain it will use. Members will be allowed to sell or rent NFTs for membership to others, Miller says.

By creating a membership-based cocktail club, “we’re developing a new level of access and allure in the industry,” says Miller.