"An NFT is a non-fungible token. It's basically a code on this thing called blockchain, which is like a server, and the code is to verify that this code is actually yours. You can put a picture, music anything on top of it," said Andy Nguyen, owner and founder of Bored and Hungry.
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Nguyen purchased four NFTs from Bored Ape Yacht Club, a limited NFT collection.
"The main bored ape which is our logo, we spent a little over $267,000 on, and on the mutant apes we spent around $65,000 to $75,000 for each one," said Nguyen.
The restaurant is inspired by those images and they can be seen on their food packaging.
Nguyen said they had about three weeks to turn the space around and get their kitchen ready for the grand opening which was April 9. They had more. than 1,500 customers on that day.
"We've had people on the grand opening day fly in from Brazil. A guy came in from Miami and he came here, ate his burger, [and said] 'I got to fly out in 2 hours.' If you came here on grand opening day, you literally saw lines two blocks down into the neighborhood," said Nguyen.
They offer both beef and vegan burgers with fries. One can purchase the food with money or cryptocurrency. Nguyen says they accept ApeCoin and Ethereum.
Nguyen says they were originally planning to be open for 90 days, but because of all the support they're getting, they're now planning to stick around for longer, which they're still figuring out.
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He says he hopes he can change the stigma of calling an NFT just a jpeg.
"We wanted to change that stigma and say, hey, you can do more than just have a picture as your profile. You can turn it into a business, a brand, a brand new ecosystem with these characters that you have," said Nguyen.
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