Bitcoin-themed pub opens in New York City

With the cryptocurrency industry slowly but surely creeping into every pore of modern society and crypto themes becoming increasingly more popular, it was only a matter of time before Bitcoin-themed bars started popping out, including in the Big Apple.

As it happens, a Bitcoin (BTC) themed pub named PubKey has opened in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, where crypto enthusiasts can gather to enjoy drinks and food prepared by a three-star Michelin-trained chef, Bloomberg’s Muyao Shen and Vildana Hajric reported on December 27.

The pub was opened by Thomas Pacchia, a former blockchain incubator director at Fidelity, the top global investment company, which in October announced plans to offer institutional users access to Ethereum (ETH) transactions through its digital assets subsidiary.

As Pacchia explained:

“It’s been a rough year for a lot of people. (…) The opening of this cultural hub is one of the more positive things in the industry right now.”

Bitcoin payments not yet available

That said, there’s a catch. Despite primarily targeting the crypto-oriented audience, the pub doesn’t accept crypto as a method of payment for its services – at least not yet, but there are plans to introduce this option sometime in the future.

Indeed, in early December, PubKey’s profile published a tweet tagging Block Inc.’s chairman Jack Dorsey and asking for a beta test to accept Lightning payments through the Square (NYSE: SQ) point-of-sale systems, to which he responded affirmatively.

Hi @jack Bitcoin bar in NYC here. We sure would like to accept lightning payments through our Square POS. Having two separate POS terminals makes reconciliation, staff training, and operations a nightmare.

Maybe a lil beta test for your friends at PubKey? ?

— PUBKEY (@PubKey_NYC) December 6, 2022

Disgraced crypto bosses and honey badger

In the meantime, the pub’s focus on the crypto crowd is apparent from the decor that features a stuffed honey badger, which Pacchia said was Bitcoin’s spirit animal and represents the widely popular ‘honey badger don’t care’ meme.

PubKey also features Russian nesting dolls representing disgraced crypto personalities, such as crypto exchange FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, blockchain company Terraform Labs’ Do Kwon, crypto lending platform Celsius’ (CEL) Alex Mashinsky, and Three Arrows Capital’s Su Zhu.

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