A luxury restaurant opening in an undisclosed location in Manhattan will require more than reservations to get a table; diners will have to hold Flyfish NFT to gain access, according to reports on Monday (Jan. 17).
The seafood-inspired dining club is being developed by the VCR Group, a hospitality and restaurant firm that includes Gary Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur that launched restaurant reservation software company Resy and Empathy Wines.
Flyfish NFT made $15 million after releasing 1,501 tokens to the public this month, David Rodolitz, the founder and CEO of VCR, told the Washington Post. The company reserved 1,534 tokens for itself.
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Owners of the Flyfish NFTs can resell the token on marketplaces like Opensea. Memberships can be bought only using Ethereum. However, food and bar tabs have to be paid in U.S. dollars.
A regular membership token costs about $13,600. An exclusive tier, with access to a private room and chef-created meals, costs roughly $29,500, according to The Spoon.
“Social currency is a big part of this,” Rodolitz said. “People are communicating digitally about what they like and who they are.”
Rodolitz compared NFTs to other status symbols, such as designer handbags or sneakers, that people use to allude to their taste and status.
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“By tokenizing it, membership becomes an asset — the person owns it. They could use it to enter the dining club, as was intended, but they could also lease it when they’re out of town, or even sell it,” Rodolitz said.
Other eateries are also joining the NFT craze, with Dave & Buster’s and Burger King rolling out loyalty programs with branded NFTs collected by users in exchange for digital and physical rewards.
Television food personalities and restaurateurs Tom Colicchio and Spike Mendelsohn announced plans to sell pizza-themed NFTs, offering access to in-person and virtual events with other famous chefs.
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