After months of anticipation, I finally had the pleasure of visiting EVR the "most popular" Bitcoin bar in the US.
Here is a breakdown of my expenses tonight (8/7):
FIAT (USD)Tappan Zee Bridge - $5.00
from Rockland County to New York City
Cover Charge - $20.00
just happened to be an event night (Playboy & Swingers??? ummmm ok)
Food - $30.00
kitchen closed at 10pm so we ate across the street
Tip - $15.00
very good bar service
Bathroom Attendant - $5.00
ultra nice bathroom
Gas on the Palisades - $10.00
rough cost of the round-trip
Bitcoin (BTC)4x Martinis - 0.62 BTC ($62.00 USD)
2x Shots - 0.31 BTC ($31.00 USD)
(drinks were awesome)
Highlights+1 FREE Parking
FREE street parking was available (about 1 block away) on 38th & 6th. Sweet!
+1 Cool Scene
Showed up in jeans and sandals. Was worried when I saw the bouncer behind the velvet ropes (on a wed night, really?), but everyone was really cool.
+3 Met Charlie Shrem
He was coming out as we were going in. He took one look at us and knew we were there for Bitcoin (lol) -- with a pretty girl on his arm, he still took the time to convo with us (#SuperNiceGuy) Promised a FREE round if we pay with BTC (I guess on a non-event night). Told me that BitInstant would be back this weekend??? Fingers crossed
+3 Met a few people at the bar talking about Bitcoin
+2 "Successful" txs took on a couple seconds
Issues-2 BitPay Fail
Our first round of drinks failed on BitPay. Extremely discouraging for my first in-person btc tx. However, the manager was more the agreeable (when I showed him my tx log) to cover the drinks.
-2 Cover Charge & Gratuity
It would have been nice to be able to pay the cover and bar tip in BTC.
-1 Bithow?
All the staff had heard of it, but virtually no one knew how to use it. Was that an iPad Mini? Android would have been nice
TL;DRMy first attempt at a Bitcoin Night in NYC ended in spending $85.00 USD and 0.93 BTC ($93.00).
Not what I was hoping for. Rating 5/10