Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily Bloomberg I Hood podcast,
Speaker 1: and I'm Aldana Hirich in today for Stacy Marie Ishmael.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, Janum It's and the crypto community is hoping
Speaker 1: to pull out of its funk and put the blow ups, bankruptcies,
Speaker 1: and priced slumps of the last year in the rear
Speaker 1: view mirror. While some remain hopeful turning out ideas for
Speaker 1: more fruitful and perhaps some more community driven crypto future,
Speaker 1: others are still smarting from last year's carnage. But now
Speaker 1: both groups have a place where they can toast a
Speaker 1: revival or drawn their sorrows at a new bitcoin theme
Speaker 1: bar in New York City called pup Key. Pop Key
Speaker 1: recently opened in Lower Manhattan and it's a short walk
Speaker 1: away from New York University's College campus, and the bar
Speaker 1: is meant to attractive community of bitcoin enthusiasts along with
Speaker 1: the bitcoin curious. I recently went to pub Key with
Speaker 1: my colleague Muya Shan and she joins me now to
Speaker 1: talk about what we saw and what this bar could
Speaker 1: mean for the bitcoin community. So you and I went downtown.
Speaker 1: We took a trip. It was a nice, long, cold
Speaker 1: wintry night in New York City, maybe just paint for
Speaker 1: the audience. Why you and I went and what we saw.
Speaker 1: You know, as always been known as a fellow food
Speaker 1: lovers at Boomberg, I follow a lot of articles and
Speaker 1: instagrams about the latest restaurants and bars in the city,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was like, you know, there's never
Speaker 1: gonna be a chance I would be writing anything about
Speaker 1: these restaurants, which has been my dream doing that as
Speaker 1: a crypto reporter. You mean, yes, yes, And then this
Speaker 1: one day, I was like reading the story on Eater
Speaker 1: about actually there's a Bitcoin bars done somewhere by West
Speaker 1: Village closer from New York University that served like the
Speaker 1: bigcoin community specifically, and I was like, Hey, there's this
Speaker 1: idea that I can actually write about bar slash restaurant place.
Speaker 1: And I was like, it might be a good idea.
Speaker 1: And then you know, here we are at this Bigcoin
Speaker 1: bar in downtown New York. So you and I had
Speaker 1: hot dogs, they have beers, they have potato salad, they
Speaker 1: have fried mozzarella, and tell us about the theme and
Speaker 1: the decorations that were on the walls and at the place.
Speaker 1: I think for anyone who knows a little bit about
Speaker 1: crypto or bitcoin. You're walking there, you immediately will feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is a bigcoin or we say a crypto saying
Speaker 1: the bar one thing caught me like sort of like
Speaker 1: my attention immediately was just like a pile of like
Speaker 1: Russia balls. And you can see a lot of infamous
Speaker 1: people in crypto which contribute to the collapse of who
Speaker 1: were there, for example SPF on FTX, and then we
Speaker 1: have Alex Maschinski from Celsius and do Kan Fontara and
Speaker 1: of course Susu who co founded crypto hedge fund ser Arrows.
Speaker 1: And then also there was a honey badger right, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the bitcoins um spirit animal because the honey badger
Speaker 1: don't care. Okay, So we went down there, We had food,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of fun. We talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of the people who were there that night, met
Speaker 1: some very cool people. But there's a catch to the bar, right,
Speaker 1: which is what it's a bitcoin bar, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: accept bitcoins payment yet. It doesn't accept bitcoin is payment yet.
Speaker 1: It was my first question when when you and I
Speaker 1: decided to go down there, can we pay in bitcoin?
Speaker 1: If we had wanted to pay in bitcoin, and the
Speaker 1: answer is no. We talked to the owner, Thomas. I
Speaker 1: think they reason had a conversation via Twitter with Jack
Speaker 1: Dorsey about how they potentially can work together in the
Speaker 1: future so make it easier for a place like pop
Speaker 1: can't accept bitcoin as payment in the future. Yeah. Thomas
Speaker 1: actually is one of the co owners, Thomas Patrick. He's
Speaker 1: a former Fidelity blockchain executive and he is now running
Speaker 1: the bar. What he told us is that it's just
Speaker 1: super complex as of right now. There's no infrastructure yet
Speaker 1: right for a restaurant or for a bar to be
Speaker 1: accepting bitcoin as a payment or bitcoin as tips. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, I guess plus two sort of like an
Speaker 1: argument some people we talked to you at the bar
Speaker 1: was also that why would you pay stuff in bitcoin anyway?
Speaker 1: Because a lot of for them bitcoins the digital gold,
Speaker 1: you know, like you, yeah, do you buy stuff with gold? No,
Speaker 1: And they think they believe the thing applies to bitcoin,
Speaker 1: like it's just for them, it's kind of down to
Speaker 1: pay things with bitcoin. They would rather just hold it.
Speaker 1: As we know, the whole culture of yes, hold on
Speaker 1: for dear life. Okay, So tell us more about some
Speaker 1: of the people behind the bar, so we mentioned Thomas,
Speaker 1: he's the co owner of former Fidelity person. And then
Speaker 1: there's also a chef, the chef behind the menu. Tell
Speaker 1: us about him because he caught your eye because you're
Speaker 1: a huge foodie and you you know who these people are.
Speaker 1: You know, all the best restaurants in the city, and
Speaker 1: he actually used to work at some of the best restaurants.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we obviously we order a bunch
Speaker 1: of food items there before we talk to everyone at
Speaker 1: the bar. I know you're vegetarian, you don't get a
Speaker 1: chance to try. I would say that hot dog was
Speaker 1: one of the best hot dogs I had in a
Speaker 1: real long time as a non hot dogger lover. And
Speaker 1: the chef behind us star is Greg Bruschell, who actually
Speaker 1: used to work at you Live Medicine, which is a
Speaker 1: smationing star in your city. I mean, personally, I'm curious
Speaker 1: about his sort of life story. How did you come
Speaker 1: all the way from the finest dining restaurant in the
Speaker 1: whole city to this kind of dive bars in place,
Speaker 1: and you know, making some hot dogs and burgers for people,
Speaker 1: and the food was the pricing was very very good.
Speaker 1: So we got hot dogs for something like eight dollars,
Speaker 1: you can get a super cheap beer and what did
Speaker 1: we say, drown your sorrows away, your crypto sorrows away.
Speaker 1: We talked to the co owner, Thomas, about why he
Speaker 1: felt the city needed a place like this for crypto
Speaker 1: enthusiasts or crypto fans or bitcoin fans too to be gathering. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think historically, which you know, the history of crypto
Speaker 1: and bitcoin isn't that long, but um, most conversations and
Speaker 1: most gatherings have been happening online. You know, you go
Speaker 1: to Telegram, go to discord and crypto Twitter, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I guess that worked especially well it is a pandemic
Speaker 1: and everything, but to some degree, especially with the crypto winter,
Speaker 1: I guess a lot of people wanted more sort of
Speaker 1: like a physical gathering where you can kind of like
Speaker 1: you know, huddle together and like talk about what went
Speaker 1: through the past year and as prices crash and all that.
Speaker 1: I guess like Thomas really wanted place that people can
Speaker 1: go like meet everyone in person and kind of like
Speaker 1: have the sort of warmth and like you know, outside
Speaker 1: the internet, we do have a place that people can
Speaker 1: just meet together and feel totally comfortable talking about bitcoin
Speaker 1: and crypto et cetera. But I feel like the bar,
Speaker 1: even though it's a bitcoin sam bar, Like you know,
Speaker 1: it welcomes everyone and people can go there. You don't
Speaker 1: have to know anything about bitcoin. You guess you'll have
Speaker 1: a good time enjoying some really delicious drinks and food.
Speaker 1: Hot talks. Everybody loves hot talks except the vegetarians. Well,
Speaker 1: they will have a big type, they say they will
Speaker 1: after after I complained. Yes, up next more with Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Report Mayo on hot pub Key, a small bar is
Speaker 1: shaping the bitcoin community in New York City. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. So, yeah, you and I met a lot
Speaker 1: of interesting people there, and it turns out our producers
Speaker 1: actually also took a visit. They took a trip down
Speaker 1: to the Bitcoin Baron and I love for bloom Birth
Speaker 1: and we're covering this bar which is like bitcoin. So
Speaker 1: Sharon is joining us right now so she can tell
Speaker 1: us more about what she saw and the types of
Speaker 1: the types of people that she she met while she
Speaker 1: was there. Yeah, that's rightful, Donna. Basically, just my colleague
Speaker 1: Janner and I we went down there because we just
Speaker 1: wanted to get more of the feel for this new bar.
Speaker 1: It was really interesting because as soon as we got there,
Speaker 1: I would say, like, just how you described at Vildanna, Like,
Speaker 1: it's a very like low key, down to earth, discrete bar,
Speaker 1: Like exactly, it's like basement level, you have to go
Speaker 1: down a few steps. There isn't this huge banner that's
Speaker 1: like bitcointine bar here, It's like it's very intimate. And
Speaker 1: I started talking to a few people, and I remember
Speaker 1: I ran across this group of young women. They went
Speaker 1: their mid to late twenties. They work in tech. I'm Cynthia,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm Judy, I'm six. They're also yousbobers and they
Speaker 1: are crypto enthusiasts. And I spoke to them and I said, so,
Speaker 1: how did you hear about this bar, because obviously this
Speaker 1: bar is quite new. So we actually came here because
Speaker 1: it was a bitcoin bar, and we found out about
Speaker 1: it on Bloomberg Business as well. So yeah, that's why
Speaker 1: we're here. That's aw yes, that's us that's why we're here.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. And they really loved they loved the bar, um,
Speaker 1: they loved the whole vibe of the bar, and they
Speaker 1: were particularly really into didn't the fact that the bar
Speaker 1: was essentially an approach to create a community in New
Speaker 1: York City or either bigcoin curious or bigcoin savvy individuals.
Speaker 1: Um I would also recommend to people who are like intercryptal,
Speaker 1: because I felt like they need a place to like, uh,
Speaker 1: to have happy hour. And the funny thing is, we're
Speaker 1: just back from like three sixty eight, which is like
Speaker 1: the base for like content creators like YouTubers, instagrammers, tik talkers,
Speaker 1: and there we we just pay our visit for the
Speaker 1: first time and we saw like so many people, like
Speaker 1: like many people, they are working on their content creations,
Speaker 1: work there, are being directors, they are having their business,
Speaker 1: and that itself is so inspiring. And I felt like
Speaker 1: for Web three or like blockchain, we need a place
Speaker 1: where when you go there, you know you're gonna meet
Speaker 1: like miny people, you're learn from them, and you'll have
Speaker 1: a community. So I'm so glad that this place probably
Speaker 1: going to be that place. So yeah, oh great, thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much. And I think those two young women,
Speaker 1: the YouTubers to software developers, they told you that it's
Speaker 1: also a fun place for them to be after having
Speaker 1: been such a hard year, right exactly. And when I
Speaker 1: spoke to them, they said, you know, last year, obviously
Speaker 1: there was so much distress going on in the crypto world,
Speaker 1: but this particular you know bar, despite what people might say,
Speaker 1: despite like the skepticism or concern that people have for crypto,
Speaker 1: it's actually a really good initiative for people who are
Speaker 1: willing to learn about crypto, and that it kind of
Speaker 1: moves it in some direction past the sort of gray
Speaker 1: cloud of what was gray more like a black with
Speaker 1: thunderstorms makes them heavy rain, a tornado. Okay. And then
Speaker 1: you also ended up speaking with Thomas, the co owner,
Speaker 1: and a couple other people who are behind the bar, right,
Speaker 1: what did they tell you? Exactly? I spoke to Thomas.
Speaker 1: He told me basically his mission behind opening up this bar.
Speaker 1: I mean, he had been working in bitcoin for many,
Speaker 1: many years, and he told me that he had frequented
Speaker 1: that same bar, you know, from the previous owner before
Speaker 1: it was bitcoin themed, very very very frequently with his
Speaker 1: wife and that was kind of like their go to
Speaker 1: bar of sorts, and sort of when post COVID happened,
Speaker 1: they sort of found themselves in the wake of like
Speaker 1: transitioning back into the real world. We always had the
Speaker 1: idea of sort of creating a bitcoin cultural center, clubhouse,
Speaker 1: something that's housed within a pub or a tavern. Typically,
Speaker 1: these are great places to talk about things. Alcohol has facilitated,
Speaker 1: you know, conversation for thousands of years, particularly around difficult topics,
Speaker 1: revolutionary topics, you know, massive you know changes in you know,
Speaker 1: local communities or global communities. So we thought it would
Speaker 1: be a perfect venue to try a new type of
Speaker 1: establishment and a new approach to the conversation. I think
Speaker 1: you met with Drew Armstrong as well. He's a minority
Speaker 1: owner and he's very into the coin mining. What did
Speaker 1: he tell you? Absolutely, I spoke with Drew arms to
Speaker 1: wrong and he is the minority owner and sort of
Speaker 1: when I was speaking with Tom, actually I asked him,
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of it is obviously creating
Speaker 1: a community or encouraging a community of you know, krypto
Speaker 1: enthusiasts in New York City, and I asked him if
Speaker 1: there were you know, a push for events that kind
Speaker 1: of sponsored that thinking or you know, in any way
Speaker 1: sort of cultivated a group of people to come in.
Speaker 1: It's very common for like bars to have like trivia nights,
Speaker 1: or like, I don't know karaoke. I don't know stuff
Speaker 1: like that, and karaoke is fun. I don't fash it.
Speaker 1: I'm a horrible singer, but I like karaoke too, and
Speaker 1: he said absolutely. You know, they started doing this monthly
Speaker 1: meet up where they're basically kind of going to discuss
Speaker 1: bitcoin mining in the in the mining industry. So it'll
Speaker 1: be a recurring meet up where we'll bring in different
Speaker 1: folks in the industry that Thomas and I are friends
Speaker 1: with or you know, have have gotten to know over
Speaker 1: the course of the years. And you have to kind
Speaker 1: of create a place for people to come and learn
Speaker 1: about the cooin mining, whether they're in the industry and
Speaker 1: are curious for different people's thoughts, or if they have
Speaker 1: no idea what bitcoin mining is. It really has meant
Speaker 1: for every one. I asked Drew, you know, given the
Speaker 1: state of the mining industry right now, what would you
Speaker 1: probably say to someone who is kind of concerned about
Speaker 1: getting into mining, And he actually was really optimistic. I
Speaker 1: think it's one of the most interesting times to be
Speaker 1: in bitcoin mining, especially with all these bankruptcies and restructuring,
Speaker 1: some distress M and A and so I I started
Speaker 1: my career investment banking. I could see a lot of
Speaker 1: uh call it crypto interested finance grows and finance girls
Speaker 1: being interested and just like coming and hearing what's going
Speaker 1: on from people in the industry. And then lastly, you
Speaker 1: also ended up talking to some people who didn't realize
Speaker 1: that it was a bitcoin bar. Yes, yes, I I
Speaker 1: approached a group of people and I said, would you
Speaker 1: like to talk about pub key and how it's a
Speaker 1: bitcoin themed bar, and they sort of looked at me
Speaker 1: with like rush and they were like, what, I didn't
Speaker 1: know this was bitcoin themed. And they sort of told
Speaker 1: me that they, you know, were um, you know, they
Speaker 1: were are in attendees of the bar from the previous owner,
Speaker 1: and that they had just come to visit the bar
Speaker 1: to see kind to check out the changes it had
Speaker 1: made and to kind of feel the vibe for it,
Speaker 1: and they actually really really pleased with the bar. I
Speaker 1: asked them if they liked it, what they thought about it,
Speaker 1: and they were like, it doesn't hasn't really changed, and
Speaker 1: it just goes to show I think that it's not
Speaker 1: a bar again that it's going to scream to your
Speaker 1: face this is bitcoin themed, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like it's very very like low key, and I think
Speaker 1: this is where we can have our next party, right,
Speaker 1: I agree, Yeah, all of us can just head out
Speaker 1: after work today after they have a vegan hot dog.
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Speaker 1: to Crypto at Bloomberg dot net. The supervising producer of
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Speaker 1: Stacy Marie Schmal We'll be back tomorrow