Can NFTs save the restaurant industry or is the hype just virtual?

Bored Apes are some of the most popular - and valuable - NFTs ever created. If you don't know what an NFT is by now, imagine a screenshot-able jpeg. Now imagine holding a 'certificate of authenticity' for the original - and selling it for millions of dollars. — AFP

On a bright afternoon outside the restaurant Bored & Hungry in Long Beach, the atmosphere is one of a low-rent Coachella. A laptop DJ plays thudding hip-hop music near a tent with plastic tables and folding chairs and a row of bright blue portable toilets. The sun is strong and there's not enough water.

And there are a lot of people. They're mostly young, mostly having a good time, and some are sporting flair from their non-fungible token, or NFT, of choice: Bored Apes, CyberKongz, Bears Deluxe. There are a dozen people running around that I would categorise as "content creators" — dudes with cameras on monopods or smartphones on gimbals, conducting on-camera interviews and filming everything they can. Out on the sidewalk, the smell of weed segues nauseatingly to that of grilled meat, then back to weed.