[Short #24] Bored & Hungry
C+ for food, A+ for novelty and potential
Back in Norcal! It was great being in LA soaking up the sun, catching up with friends while meeting new ones, along with great food. That said, there was one thing I was looking forward to: Visiting the Bored Ape Yacht Club burger joint, Bored & Hungry.
I’ve written about Bored & Hungry before as an example of how the Bored Ape brand to scale so rapidly.
I finally had the chance to check it out for myself
I rolled up to the spot on Sunday at 12:30pm. As a Mutant Ape (the second gen collection of the BAYC brand) holder I enjoyed the restaurant leaning into the Bored Ape brand.
The restaurant was covered in vinyl decals and included several cardboard cutouts for fans to take pictures with. The flooring was colored with mutant serum and punny details like an Ape-Trix poster were painted on the wall.
As a fanboy of the space, I have a biased view. The shop could have sold burgers repackaged from Mcdonald’s for $50 and I probably would’ve stopped by. I made sure to take note of the other customers that came in while I scarfed down my burger before making the 6.5 hour drive North. I was able to strike up a conversation with a couple of teenage boys (that’s what they looked like at least) that were waiting to order.
Here’s how the conversation went
TPan: “Hey guys, you got Bored Apes too?”
Boys: “Nah, we just heard about this place. Do you have a NFT?”
T: “Yeah, I only have a Mutant though. I have some others too.”
Eyes widened with excitement
B: “Wow, how’d you get one?”
T: “I was lucky and I got in early. A lot of these projects are a mix of luck and execution and this team did a great job building their brand.”
B: “What NFTs would you recommend?”
T: “Hard to say. It’s a complicated space and I got lucky.”
This conversation was particularly eye-opening to me:
‘We just heard about this place’: I didn’t dig in deeper with this statement but it was notable because 1) they didn’t have a BAYC NFT 2) based on the exchange, they didn’t have any NFTs in general, but 3) they were convinced by someone or something to check out this restaurant. I imagine incorporating a ‘How Did You Hear About Us?” survey at Bored & Hungry would yield some interesting results.
“Do you have a NFT”: The teenagers asked me if I had a NFT. Not ‘NFTs’. I’m nitpicking here, but I probably could have responded by saying I have just one NFT and these guys would’ve been impressed. It’s clear that the awareness (and hype) around NFTs is high, but education and knowledge around it is lacking. That’s why I have this newsletter :)
Body language when mentioning I had a Mutant and other NFTs: There was almost a level of reverence when I responded to their question. Despite their lack of knowledge about the space, the clout associated with owning an Ape was not lost on them.
“What NFTs would you recommend?” The association of success and knowledge with owning particular NFTs is palpable, especially to younger generations. This leads to many opportunities in the space, for good (education, empowerment) and bad (scams, focus on influence and follower count). Another reason for better educational resources to empower current and future consumers of NFTs.
It’s clear that the Bored Ape Yacht Club is not only successful in the digital world, but also has begun laying its roots IRL. The Supreme or Nike-like hype is there and the scarcity of ownership adds fuel to this fire.
What’s next for Bored & Hungry?
Bored & Hungry is a first of its kind experience. A physical manifestation of a digital asset involving a restaurant is one thing, but when you take note that this is independently run by a party not employed by Yuga Labs, it gets pretty interesting.
Disney doesn’t have independently run Disney Stores. McDonald’s franchises but has rules on how the locations need to be run and have a centralized supply chain.
For Andy Nguyen, the founder of Bored N Hungry, this is just the first stage of several to bridge the physical and digital. He already has a portfolio of food establishments, which presents an appealing and utilitarian angle for NFTs.
If you look closely at that panoramic picture above, which cardboard cutout didn’t fit the Ape theme?…
This cute pizza slice.
What does this pizza slice have to do with anything? It’s the mascot for the Food Fighters Universe NFT project, led by Andy and his team. And what does their roadmap look like?
A lot of phygital experiences centered around food! A full stomach would make NFT skeptic more open to the idea of 🍕 jpgs. :)
Suffice to say, I left Bored & Hungry neither bored nor hungry and look forward to following what Andy and his team do next.