Manhattan steakhouse Brooklyn Chop House is preparing to open a massive second location in Times Square, a 25,000-square-foot space that will include New York’s newest NFT restaurant. The steakhouse, from owner Stratis Morfogen, the vaccine mandate protester also behind the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop chain, is spread out over five levels, with six private dining rooms, three bars, a rooftop, and — yes — a private cellar that will eventually house a members-only NFT restaurant. It opens March 14.
According to the New York Post, the exclusive club will open in a cellar space in the restaurant this May and only be accessible to customers with a membership purchased using the cryptocurrency Ethereum. The starting price for entry is around $8,000, with additional perks for those who pay more. A $20,000 “gold membership” includes reservations for up to 20 people a month, according to the Post, while a $100,000 “platinum membership” allows customers to place delivery orders from the club.
This is, alas, a trend. In January, Eater reported that NFT evangelist and former Resy founder Gary Vaynerchuk planned to open the world’s ‘first NFT restaurant’ in NYC in 2023. The forthcoming business, called Flyfish Club, requires membership that can only be purchased using cryptocurrency. The lowest priced membership is 2.5 Ethereum, according to the company’s website — around $6,500 at the time of publishing.
Manhattan’s popular Michaeli Bakery heads uptown this week with a larger location on the Upper East Side. As Patch first reported, the bakery specializing in classic Jewish pastry — rugelach, hamantaschen, and challah on Fridays — opened its second location in New York City at 401 East 90th Street, at First Avenue, on Thursday. The menu is identical to the bakery’s acclaimed first outpost on the Lower East Side, which chef and owner Adir Michaeli, a former head baker at Breads Bakery, opened in 2019.
Sixpoint Brewery, known for its colorful, skinny beer cans sold from bodega and grocery store shelves, is gearing up to expand in a big way. The beer brand, which started in Red Hook in 2004, will open a series of taprooms across the city in the coming years, according to a spokesperson for the company. The expansion begins with a location in City Point, the Downtown Brooklyn development that also houses Dekalb Market, Trader Joe’s, and Alamo Drafthouse. It’s slated to open this fall.
Saigon Social, a Lower East Side restaurant with an avid following, will launch indoor dining in earnest this evening. The Vietnamese restaurant, which opened during the onset of the pandemic, has pivoted between takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining over the last two years, barring a brief stint of indoor dining last fall. Starting tonight, chef and owner Helen Nguyen will serve her popular garlic noodles and fried chicken sandwiches indoors with full table service, Sunday to Wednesday from 5 to 9:30 p.m., and Thursday to Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m.
