Bored Ape Yacht Club-Themed Burger Joint Debuts in California

While most of the crypto world was focused on Miami last week, a group of entrepreneurs and restaurateurs were taking Web3 and NFTs to the streets of Southern California.

Owning a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT includes the rights to that image, and holders can use their apes as they best see fit. In this case, Kevin Seo, Andy Nguyen, and members of the Bored Ape community decided to open a popup restaurant based on Bored Ape #6184, and Bored & Hungry was born.

In partnership with Houston rapper Bun B's Trill Burgers and Belief Burgers, Bored & Hungry calls itself a "smash burger-themed concept, and customers can buy food using Ethereum or ApeCoin.

Billed as an exclusive social group of 10,000 unique NFT avatars, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs' Ethereum-based NFT project, has seen more than $1.4 billion in trading volume since its launch last April, according to DappRadar.com.

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs are a Web3 status symbol. Celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, Madonna, Stephen Curry, and Shaquille O'Neal all own at least one.

Filled with Bored Ape and Mutant Ape images, Bored & Hungry is on the busy 7th Street in Long Beach. The line to get in began forming early Saturday morning and stretched down the block, with cameras clicking and even drones buzzing overhead. Even as the sun beat down on the crowd, the grand opening was a mixture of people of various ages, colors, and genders, all looking to experience the first NFT fast food restaurant. Several people were wearing Bored & Hungry T-shirts.

The opening also drew the attention of many curious passersby, some of whom asked what all the commotion was.

"Crypto, capitalism, and hamburgers, what could be more American than that?" one person responded.

Seo and Nguyen hope that the curiosity and enthusiasm surrounding NFTs, especially the Apes, can help the popup compete for three months against McDonald's, Jack in the Box, and other franchises that share the street.

"The love from the community yesterday was surreal," Nguyen said on Twitter, adding a photo of the massive line outside.