Of course there is an NFT Winery in Napa Valley
San Francisco’s first NFT restaurant Sho Club broke ground (at least ceremonially) last week with a maelstrom of sashimi and cocktails atop Salesforce Park. But in case you were wondering, that’s not the only example of food and drink coming with Web3 here in the Bay Area. NFT enthusiasts can also take heart knowing that there is an NFT vineyard planted in the Napa Valley town of Calistoga. Per Forbes, the Evinco Winery DAO launched earlier this summer, releasing “5,555 utility-backed NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain through OpenSea.” In a press release, the business describes itself as a “democratized Soho house of wine where members have the ability to propose and vote on member properties and events.”
Unlike the Sho Club, which will be open to non-NFT holding dinner guests, Evinco is a true members’ club — specifically, it’s a “decentralized autonomous organization,” or DAO, a concept popular in cryptocurrency and blockchain circles as a way for members to participate in the running of an organisation. So, in addition to buying the right to have a say in how the wine club operates, anyone who has minted one of Evinco’s tokens gets a host of other benefits. According to the winery’s website, these include access to the private Discord to chat about “wine experiences” and share knowledge, access to members-only events and tastings, and two bottles of Evinco vintage wine. The business even comes from at least one familiar Napa Valley face: Mario Sculatti, a fourth-generation Napa winemaker. Fittingly, he teamed up with “the former Wall Street trader and crypto expert known anonymously online as @wizardofsoho to bring Envinco together.
What happened to the big cow on Folsom Street?
BrokeAssStuart reports that “bovine-themed” club Holy Cow, which was located on Folsom near Norfolk Street, has closed and will reopen as Eve. The club’s hard-to-miss four-legged pink mascot, which has hung outside the club since 1987, has already been taken down.
New Berkeley restaurant claims to serve legit chopped cheese
Chef-owner Cal Kepner is opening an awesome burger joint called Berserk Burger in Berkeley, and he’s going to be serving up “shredded cheese like you’d find it in a New York bodega,” writes Berkeleyside. He’ll also be doing a West Coast riff on the sandwich inspired by the state’s fry-filled burritos, plus burgers (duh) and banana milkshakes.
Sacramento bar sells $20 shots and $2,500 bottles of liquor
It’s not inflation that’s causing the high prices of a new bar in Sacramento. Holy Spirits owner Michael Hargis tells Sacramento Bee he intentionally focuses on “high-end spirits” such as 12-year-old Yamazaki and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Coy Hill bourbon. But the owner of the midtown bar and restaurant says he only marks bottles 20 percent off at Holy Spirit, so depending on how you look at it, that $450 bottle may actually be a steal.
UC Berkley study finds downtown San Francisco slowest to recover
San Francisco’s downtown is the slowest in the country to bounce back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new UC Berkeley study finds. Researchers looked at data from 62 cities and found that downtown San Francisco has only recovered to 31 percent of pre-pandemic activity, ABC7 reports. The news agency spoke with Michael Imperiale, owner of Tricolore Caffe & Pizzeria, who said at least five of his other business owners in FiDi have had to close.
Here’s who’s spinning through the Turntable at Lord Stanley
You have one more day to try food from James Beard Award-nominated chef Melissa Martin of New Orleans’ Mosquito Supper Club while she’s installed at Turntable at Lord Stanley, the ongoing pop-up featuring chefs from around the country and the world. Her time at the restaurant ends on August 26, and on August 30, Jordanian chef Moeen Abuzaid takes over. Check out Abuzaid’s dine-in and take-out menus below.
