The First Chicago Restaurant to Accept Bitcoin

[Phinnaeus Gage]

How many bitcoiners are in Chicago? It's kinda useless for restaurants to accept bitcoin if nobody uses bitcoin.

Maybe somebody should start a money exchange business in Chicago so that people can become bitcoin users more easily.

I'm forcing the chicken. (or is that forcing the egg?)

~Bruno~

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[squirrelman]

I am in the suburbs of Chicago, and fairly new to bitcoins myself.  If you were to get a good restaurant/bar/store to accept bitcoins in Chicago I am sure I would make a trek there to give it a try.

[BitPay Business Solutions]

if these 2 girls can figure it out, I'm sure you guys can 

http://youtu.be/YZ-pqo0cLcE

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I am in the suburbs of Chicago, and fairly new to bitcoins myself.  If you were to get a good restaurant/bar/store to accept bitcoins in Chicago I am sure I would make a trek there to give it a try.

And this, my friends, is how we FTC (Force the Chicken)! Thank you kindly, squirrelman, for your support. You're officially on the list.

~Bruno~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

The list in the OP needs to be a little bit more impressive to help influence restaurants and other entities in and around Chicago into accepting Bitcoin.

~Bruno~

[DBordello]

I am in in Chicago frequently.  I would stop by any establishment that accepted bitcoins. 

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I am in in Chicago frequently.  I would stop by any establishment that accepted bitcoins. 

Thank you, DBordello, for your support and FTC. You're now on the list in the OP.

~Bruno~

[kjlimo]

Really get grubhub to start taking bitcoins. They would be an ideal service to suggest this to. I use them all the time.

http://www.grubhub.com/

Grubhub may be a large fish to catch.

I'll try, but I think I'll get my feet wet with smaller local service providers such as "Food Fetchers" or "Deliver me food"

[pekv2]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

[squirrelman]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

Another thing could be the delivery service that Lou Malnati's offers http://www.tastesofchicago.com/?utm_campaign=rightnav&utm_source=loushome&utm_medium=Homepage.  Then everyone all over the country could taste the yummy food of Chicago bitcoin style...

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

I've added you for Portillos, pekv2. Check out the list in the OP.

[kjlimo]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

I called Portillos Chicago Restaurant (312) 587-8910 and the manager gave me the corporate headquarters number (630) 954-3773.

I called Portillos headquarters, spoke with the operator and she told me to send information via mail or fax (630) 954-5851.

Should I fax her a copy of a bit-pay & WeLoveBicoin hand outs?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/WeLoveBitcoin-trifold-flattened.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/BitPay-trifold-flattened.pdf

She said there was no one I could talk to, but
Extension 184 is for credit card issues &
Extension 4 is for advertising

Those were the only two "appealing" options when I called their corporate headquarters (630) 954-3773.  I opted to let the operator deal with me which was probably a fail.

Please let me know which next step you recommend?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

I called Portillos Chicago Restaurant (312) 587-8910 and the manager gave me the corporate headquarters number (630) 954-3773.

I called Portillos headquarters, spoke with the operator and she told me to send information via mail or fax (630) 954-5851.

Should I fax her a copy of a bit-pay & WeLoveBicoin hand outs?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/WeLoveBitcoin-trifold-flattened.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/BitPay-trifold-flattened.pdf

She said there was no one I could talk to, but
Extension 184 is for credit card issues &
Extension 4 is for advertising

Those were the only two "appealing" options when I called their corporate headquarters (630) 954-3773.  I opted to let the operator deal with me which was probably a fail.

Please let me know which next step you recommend?

BUMP! Please read the quoted post.

~Bruno~

[adamstgBit]

I'll soon be trekking to Chicago to close the deal with Chicago Cabbie but, while there, I'm going to make forays to several eating establishments, in hope of interesting them into accepting Bitcoin. The list on the following site should be more than enough to keep me busy: http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/article/new-on-the-scene/163270/content

The goal is by summer's end to have several businesses in and around Chicago accepting Bitcoin. To help pull that off, though, I'll need the help of this community. All I'm asking is for you to state that you'll frequent such establishments if they were to accept Bitcoin. I would love to see a formidable list below. I've taken the liberty and imported the list from the Chicago Cabbie thread to seed it. Simply state in this thread that you'll frequent a business that accepts Bitcoin in or around Chicago at least once, and I'll add your name to the list below.

• Bruno
• altuin
• bitcoinbitcoin113
• the joint
• anonymous5050
• kjlimo
• Herodes
• Yankee
• squirrelman
• DBordello
• pekv2 (for Portillos)

I'm going to be working in conjunction with Tony with Bit-Pay to help pull this off. I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to say this, but he's got a secret weapon up his sleeve, one I know will help in closing the deals.

~Bruno~

if this works I'd like to do that same thing in my home town of Montreal 

[adamstgBit]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

I called Portillos Chicago Restaurant (312) 587-8910 and the manager gave me the corporate headquarters number (630) 954-3773.

I called Portillos headquarters, spoke with the operator and she told me to send information via mail or fax (630) 954-5851.

Should I fax her a copy of a bit-pay & WeLoveBicoin hand outs?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/WeLoveBitcoin-trifold-flattened.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/BitPay-trifold-flattened.pdf

She said there was no one I could talk to, but
Extension 184 is for credit card issues &
Extension 4 is for advertising

Those were the only two "appealing" options when I called their corporate headquarters (630) 954-3773.  I opted to let the operator deal with me which was probably a fail.

Please let me know which next step you recommend?

BUMP! Please read the quoted post.

~Bruno~

this may not have been a fail... the operator might look into bitcoin or talk about it with her boss and he might look at bitcoin... I think you should wait a week and call her again, she might have more of an idea who to pass the phone too.

if you call her again in a week and she still hasn't a clue what to do with you... i say try Extension 4 is for advertising, spin bitcoin as an adverting tool, tell them about mezy grill in NY, find the video were the owner of mezy grill was saying his business is booming with new comers because of bitcoin

[teflone]

What ya thinking for Montreal ?  I would love if a golden horseshoe chain got interested...

[kjlimo]

Get portillos on board, then I'm in.

http://www.portillos.com/portillos/locations/

I called Portillos Chicago Restaurant (312) 587-8910 and the manager gave me the corporate headquarters number (630) 954-3773.

I called Portillos headquarters, spoke with the operator and she told me to send information via mail or fax (630) 954-5851.

Should I fax her a copy of a bit-pay & WeLoveBicoin hand outs?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/WeLoveBitcoin-trifold-flattened.pdf
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52611567/BitPay-trifold-flattened.pdf

She said there was no one I could talk to, but
Extension 184 is for credit card issues &
Extension 4 is for advertising

Those were the only two "appealing" options when I called their corporate headquarters (630) 954-3773.  I opted to let the operator deal with me which was probably a fail.

Please let me know which next step you recommend?

BUMP! Please read the quoted post.

~Bruno~

this may not have been a fail... the operator might look into bitcoin or talk about it with her boss and he might look at bitcoin... I think you should wait a week and call her again, she might have more of an idea who to pass the phone too.

if you call her again in a week and she still hasn't a clue what to do with you... i say try Extension 4 is for advertising, spin bitcoin as an adverting tool, tell them about mezy grill in NY, find the video were the owner of mezy grill was saying his business is booming with new comers because of bitcoin

Ya, I think the advertising option is a good selling point.

As for my conversation with the operator, it was something like this "I would like to discuss a new payment system for your restaurants.  Who should I be directed to discuss this topic?"

Her response was send a fax or e-mail with a summary of the information.

However, I don't want to go spamming bit-pay.com's fliers to legitimate businesses tarnishing their name until Tony think's that's an acceptable method.

I feel like a person to person phone call and or meeting with an e-mail follow up is acceptable.  I just don't want to revert to spam...

[kjlimo]

What ya thinking for Montreal ?  I would love if a golden horseshoe chain got interested...

How about you start a new thread for Montreal?

[adamstgBit]

What ya thinking for Montreal ?  I would love if a golden horseshoe chain got interested...

How about you start a new thread for Montreal?

sure why not, done!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64102.0

[dunand]

Please start a thread for Montreal. I pledge to go eating if a restaurant accept bitcoins.
For me the 2 best selling points to a restaurant are:
New clients: bitcoiners paying with bitcoins
Free publicity: local media will be interested about a restaurant accepting a new currency.