What's an NFT Restaurant and is Lagos Ready for Its First One? No — And Here’s Exactly Why
From GIFs to gourmet, Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs) have come a long way from their early days, now making a grand entrance onto the restaurant scene. The world’s first NFT restaurant is Flyfish Club (FFC) — a member's only private dining club based in New York, where membership is purchased not with hard-earned cash or good ol’ Daddy’s Money, but on the blockchain as an NFT. What this means, essentially, is that to even get a foot in the door of this “seafood-inspired” dining club, you need to be crypto-savvy and have your fat wallet handy.
The company apparently released 1,501 tokens in January alone, raking in around $15 million, according to the founder, David Rodolitz, and a regular-membership token goes for tens of thousands of dollars. Why would anyone pay that?, I hear you ask. A token gives the holder access to a one-of-a-kind exclusive experience, including a private room serving omakase — chef-created, multicourse sushi meals — which you can enjoy for a spare $29,500 you have lying around.
So, what we have here is a (truly) luxury dining experience that actually has little to do with food and lots to do with FOMO — that’s what Flyfish Club is selling and they’re not hiding it. This got me thinking about Lagos. As the shameless, attention-grabbing, spotlight-hogging socialite she is, who lives and breathes on social currency, could this be the perfect location for an experience of this kind? Is Lagos ripe and ready for tech-dining?
Image by Duane Mendes from Unsplash
I’m not convinced. There’s a ton of money — and people willing to spend it — here, but don’t buy into the lie that we splash our cash around aimlessly. No, no, no. The true Lagosian, whether born and bred or adopted, knows exactly what they want and how much hard currency they’re willing to part with to make it happen. One-off parties with a budget of two years’ university tuition? Heck yeah! Gifting an influential friend with a limited-edition Rolex on their birthday? Absolutely! Paying the literal cost of an arm and a leg to purchase and fly in horses from Argentina for your weekly round of polo? Essential 👌🏾 But $13,600 for a little saffron here and truffles there? Not our people, o. Maybe try South Africans.
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True fine dining is still emerging territory for us, and although it’s appreciated abroad, I just don’t believe we’re there yet. Moreso, let’s be real, if you were going to pay for this kind of experience, you don’t want to have to enter two-hour traffic in the heat, only to arrive there and have to deal with a server who doesn’t actually know what anything on the menu means. It’s why a Chanel or Givenchy store in Lagos isn’t a reality yet; because if you’re going to pay top dollar, you (rightfully) want the full-fledged experience, trimmings and all.
