There’s A Bitcoin Bar In NYC. Why?

others are still smarting from last year's carnage. But now both groups have a place where they can toast a revival or drawn their sorrows at a new bitcoin theme bar in New York City called pup Key. Pop Key recently opened in Lower Manhattan and it's a short walk away from New York University's College campus, and the bar is meant to attractive community of bitcoin enthusiasts along with

the bitcoin curious. I recently went to pub Key with my colleague Muya Shan and she joins me now to talk about what we saw and what this bar could mean for the bitcoin community. So you and I went downtown. We took a trip. It was a nice, long, cold wintry night in New York City, maybe just paint for the audience. Why you and I went and what we saw.

You know, as always been known as a fellow food lovers at Boomberg, I follow a lot of articles and instagrams about the latest restaurants and bars in the city, and you know, I was like, you know, there's never gonna be a chance I would be writing anything about these restaurants, which has been my dream doing that as

a crypto reporter. You mean, yes, yes, And then this one day, I was like reading the story on Eater about actually there's a Bitcoin bars done somewhere by West Village closer from New York University that served like the bigcoin community specifically, and I was like, Hey, there's this idea that I can actually write about bar slash restaurant place. And I was like, it might be a good idea. And then you know, here we are at this Bigcoin

bar in downtown New York. So you and I had hot dogs, they have beers, they have potato salad, they have fried mozzarella, and tell us about the theme and the decorations that were on the walls and at the place. I think for anyone who knows a little bit about crypto or bitcoin. You're walking there, you immediately will feel like, okay, this is a bigcoin or we say a crypto saying the bar one thing caught me like sort of like my attention immediately was just like a pile of like

Russia balls. And you can see a lot of infamous people in crypto which contribute to the collapse of who were there, for example SPF on FTX, and then we have Alex Maschinski from Celsius and do Kan Fontara and of course Susu who co founded crypto hedge fund ser Arrows. And then also there was a honey badger right, oh yeah, that's the bitcoins um spirit animal because the honey badger don't care. Okay, So we went down there, We had food,

we had a lot of fun. We talked to a lot of the people who were there that night, met some very cool people. But there's a catch to the bar, right, which is what it's a bitcoin bar, but it doesn't accept bitcoins payment yet. It doesn't accept bitcoin is payment yet. It was my first question when when you and I decided to go down there, can we pay in bitcoin? If we had wanted to pay in bitcoin, and the

answer is no. We talked to the owner, Thomas. I think they reason had a conversation via Twitter with Jack Dorsey about how they potentially can work together in the future so make it easier for a place like pop can't accept bitcoin as payment in the future. Yeah. Thomas actually is one of the co owners, Thomas Patrick. He's a former Fidelity blockchain executive and he is now running the bar. What he told us is that it's just

super complex as of right now. There's no infrastructure yet right for a restaurant or for a bar to be accepting bitcoin as a payment or bitcoin as tips. Right. Yeah, and uh, I guess plus two sort of like an argument some people we talked to you at the bar was also that why would you pay stuff in bitcoin anyway? Because a lot of for them bitcoins the digital gold,

you know, like you, yeah, do you buy stuff with gold? No, And they think they believe the thing applies to bitcoin, like it's just for them, it's kind of down to pay things with bitcoin. They would rather just hold it. As we know, the whole culture of yes, hold on for dear life. Okay, So tell us more about some of the people behind the bar, so we mentioned Thomas, he's the co owner of former Fidelity person. And then

there's also a chef, the chef behind the menu. Tell us about him because he caught your eye because you're a huge foodie and you you know who these people are. You know, all the best restaurants in the city, and he actually used to work at some of the best restaurants. I think, you know, we obviously we order a bunch of food items there before we talk to everyone at the bar. I know you're vegetarian, you don't get a chance to try. I would say that hot dog was one of the best hot dogs I had in a

real long time as a non hot dogger lover. And the chef behind us star is Greg Bruschell, who actually used to work at you Live Medicine, which is a smationing star in your city. I mean, personally, I'm curious about his sort of life story. How did you come all the way from the finest dining restaurant in the whole city to this kind of dive bars in place, and you know, making some hot dogs and burgers for people, and the food was the pricing was very very good.

So we got hot dogs for something like eight dollars, you can get a super cheap beer and what did we say, drown your sorrows away, your crypto sorrows away. We talked to the co owner, Thomas, about why he felt the city needed a place like this for crypto enthusiasts or crypto fans or bitcoin fans too to be gathering. Right, yeah, I think historically, which you know, the history of crypto and bitcoin isn't that long, but um, most conversations and

most gatherings have been happening online. You know, you go to Telegram, go to discord and crypto Twitter, etcetera, etcetera. I guess that worked especially well it is a pandemic and everything, but to some degree, especially with the crypto winter, I guess a lot of people wanted more sort of like a physical gathering where you can kind of like you know, huddle together and like talk about what went through the past year and as prices crash and all that.

I guess like Thomas really wanted place that people can go like meet everyone in person and kind of like have the sort of warmth and like you know, outside the internet, we do have a place that people can just meet together and feel totally comfortable talking about bitcoin and crypto et cetera. But I feel like the bar, even though it's a bitcoin sam bar, Like you know, it welcomes everyone and people can go there. You don't

have to know anything about bitcoin. You guess you'll have a good time enjoying some really delicious drinks and food. Hot talks. Everybody loves hot talks except the vegetarians. Well, they will have a big type, they say they will after after I complained. Yes, up next more with Bloomberg Report Mayo on hot pub Key, a small bar is shaping the bitcoin community in New York City. We'll be right back. So, yeah, you and I met a lot of interesting people there, and it turns out our producers

actually also took a visit. They took a trip down to the Bitcoin Baron and I love for bloom Birth and we're covering this bar which is like bitcoin. So Sharon is joining us right now so she can tell us more about what she saw and the types of the types of people that she she met while she was there. Yeah, that's rightful, Donna. Basically, just my colleague Janner and I we went down there because we just wanted to get more of the feel for this new bar.

It was really interesting because as soon as we got there, I would say, like, just how you described at Vildanna, Like, it's a very like low key, down to earth, discrete bar, Like exactly, it's like basement level, you have to go down a few steps. There isn't this huge banner that's like bitcointine bar here, It's like it's very intimate. And I started talking to a few people, and I remember I ran across this group of young women. They went

their mid to late twenties. They work in tech. I'm Cynthia, I'm I'm Judy, I'm six. They're also yousbobers and they are crypto enthusiasts. And I spoke to them and I said, so, how did you hear about this bar, because obviously this bar is quite new. So we actually came here because it was a bitcoin bar, and we found out about it on Bloomberg Business as well. So yeah, that's why we're here. That's aw yes, that's us that's why we're here.

That's so cool. And they really loved they loved the bar, um, they loved the whole vibe of the bar, and they were particularly really into didn't the fact that the bar was essentially an approach to create a community in New York City or either bigcoin curious or bigcoin savvy individuals. Um I would also recommend to people who are like intercryptal, because I felt like they need a place to like, uh,

to have happy hour. And the funny thing is, we're just back from like three sixty eight, which is like the base for like content creators like YouTubers, instagrammers, tik talkers, and there we we just pay our visit for the first time and we saw like so many people, like like many people, they are working on their content creations, work there, are being directors, they are having their business,

and that itself is so inspiring. And I felt like for Web three or like blockchain, we need a place where when you go there, you know you're gonna meet like miny people, you're learn from them, and you'll have a community. So I'm so glad that this place probably going to be that place. So yeah, oh great, thank you guys so much. And I think those two young women, the YouTubers to software developers, they told you that it's also a fun place for them to be after having

been such a hard year, right exactly. And when I spoke to them, they said, you know, last year, obviously there was so much distress going on in the crypto world, but this particular you know bar, despite what people might say, despite like the skepticism or concern that people have for crypto, it's actually a really good initiative for people who are willing to learn about crypto, and that it kind of moves it in some direction past the sort of gray cloud of what was gray more like a black with

thunderstorms makes them heavy rain, a tornado. Okay. And then you also ended up speaking with Thomas, the co owner, and a couple other people who are behind the bar, right, what did they tell you? Exactly? I spoke to Thomas. He told me basically his mission behind opening up this bar.

I mean, he had been working in bitcoin for many, many years, and he told me that he had frequented that same bar, you know, from the previous owner before it was bitcoin themed, very very very frequently with his wife and that was kind of like their go to bar of sorts, and sort of when post COVID happened, they sort of found themselves in the wake of like transitioning back into the real world. We always had the idea of sort of creating a bitcoin cultural center, clubhouse,

something that's housed within a pub or a tavern. Typically, these are great places to talk about things. Alcohol has facilitated, you know, conversation for thousands of years, particularly around difficult topics, revolutionary topics, you know, massive you know changes in you know, local communities or global communities. So we thought it would be a perfect venue to try a new type of establishment and a new approach to the conversation. I think

you met with Drew Armstrong as well. He's a minority owner and he's very into the coin mining. What did

he tell you? Absolutely, I spoke with Drew arms to wrong and he is the minority owner and sort of when I was speaking with Tom, actually I asked him, you know, because a lot of it is obviously creating a community or encouraging a community of you know, krypto enthusiasts in New York City, and I asked him if there were you know, a push for events that kind of sponsored that thinking or you know, in any way sort of cultivated a group of people to come in.

It's very common for like bars to have like trivia nights, or like, I don't know karaoke. I don't know stuff like that, and karaoke is fun. I don't fash it. I'm a horrible singer, but I like karaoke too, and he said absolutely. You know, they started doing this monthly meet up where they're basically kind of going to discuss

bitcoin mining in the in the mining industry. So it'll be a recurring meet up where we'll bring in different folks in the industry that Thomas and I are friends with or you know, have have gotten to know over the course of the years. And you have to kind of create a place for people to come and learn about the cooin mining, whether they're in the industry and are curious for different people's thoughts, or if they have no idea what bitcoin mining is. It really has meant

for every one. I asked Drew, you know, given the state of the mining industry right now, what would you probably say to someone who is kind of concerned about getting into mining, And he actually was really optimistic. I think it's one of the most interesting times to be in bitcoin mining, especially with all these bankruptcies and restructuring, some distress M and A and so I I started

my career investment banking. I could see a lot of uh call it crypto interested finance grows and finance girls being interested and just like coming and hearing what's going on from people in the industry. And then lastly, you also ended up talking to some people who didn't realize

that it was a bitcoin bar. Yes, yes, I I approached a group of people and I said, would you like to talk about pub key and how it's a bitcoin themed bar, and they sort of looked at me with like rush and they were like, what, I didn't

know this was bitcoin themed. And they sort of told me that they, you know, were um, you know, they were are in attendees of the bar from the previous owner, and that they had just come to visit the bar to see kind to check out the changes it had made and to kind of feel the vibe for it,

and they actually really really pleased with the bar. I asked them if they liked it, what they thought about it, and they were like, it doesn't hasn't really changed, and it just goes to show I think that it's not a bar again that it's going to scream to your face this is bitcoin themed, you know what I mean? Like it's very very like low key, and I think this is where we can have our next party, right, I agree, Yeah, all of us can just head out after work today after they have a vegan hot dog.

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