Ben Leventhal would quite let you know the place to take a seat at a restaurant than what to order. “If you happen to go to Balthazar, sit on desk 62,” he says, sipping his tequila. “It’s on the left facet of the room and also you’ll get one of the best views.”
Over the past twenty years, the forty-something New Yorker has been instrumental to the rise of foodie tradition. First, he instructed us the place to eat, launching information website Eater in 2005—since acquired by Vox Media. Then, he helped us to order tables, co-founding Resy in 2014, which catalyzed “reservation tradition,” by funneling the provision of greater than 16,000 eating places into one app. At present, he’s immersed in his newest restaurant tech enterprise: Blackbird Labs, a shared loyalty program for eateries, the place diners obtain factors within the type of crypto tokens.
For Leventhal, the brand new enterprise is about greater than discovering a brand new technique to mix know-how and delicacies. At a time when many small eating places face existential threats to their enterprise mannequin, he hopes Blackbird can present them with a brand new degree of financial savvy—and in doing so, hold alive the kind of venues he describes as his “completely satisfied place.”
Eating out takes off, but eating places are in decline
On a somber August afternoon in Manhattan, Leventhal is aware of simply the place to flee the showers darkening the town: NoHo’s darkish and classy Temple Bar the place menus and faces are learn by candlelight, regardless of the hour or season. With mahogany partitions, a checkerboard flooring, and pay telephone, the 90s decor pays homage to the last decade when the restaurant first gained notoriety—an period when the artwork world would flock inside to drink martinis out of its signature, outsized glasses.
We’re at Temple Bar since it’s considered one of Blackbird’s early patrons, but in addition as a result of it displays his fascination with the spectacle of eating. “It’s truly probably not in regards to the meals,” he admits, earlier than gesturing to Andy Warhol’s disco ball within the nook, speculating on the story behind it. “Seeing eating places do what they do nicely—I get actually excited,” he says.
However whilst iconic spots like Temple Bar preserve their mystique, Leventhal additionally is aware of a tough reality: revenue margins of eating places have been in regular decline. Meals prices hold climbing, labor shortages persist post-pandemic, and lease has soared.
Regardless of this, the variety of new restaurant listings on Yelp hit an all-time excessive final 12 months. And in June, New York legislators even handed a invoice banning reservation markets, the place Resy bookings had been promoting for as much as $1,000. “They’re extra widespread now—that’s what’s inquisitive about it,” he says.
Given all this, Leventhal believes the eating places he loves have a combating likelihood if they’ll determine how to earn more money from clients strolling by means of their door—particularly the common ones.
Eat-to-earn crypto tokens
In tech and crypto jargon, Blackbird is a decentralized eat-to-earn app. In sensible phrases, which means customers who frequent eating places that use Blackbird earn what the app calls “$FLY factors.” One other approach to think about it’s as an old-school loyalty rewards program constructed on new-fangled blockchain know-how.
Transactions involving FLY are stamped onto a spin-off blockchain (a “Layer 2” in crypto communicate) known as Base that was constructed by crypto big Coinbase with the aim of lowering the stiff transaction prices that may come from utilizing the first Ethereum blockchain.
Diners care no extra in regards to the nature of Blackbird’s blockchain than they do in regards to the wires transmitting their Visa funds. However most will care in regards to the perks they’ll obtain from accumulating FLY factors similar to complimentary dishes, welcome drinks and last-minute tables.
Vance Spencer, co-founder of enterprise capital agency Framework Ventures, instructed Fortune that he makes use of the app on a regular basis, as his favourite breakfast spot simply so occurred to be on the community. The perks? He’s not paid for espresso in six months. As of July, customers have additionally been in a position to pay the examine in-app with FLY, by way of the funds community, Blackbird Pay.
Blackbird builds upon what Leventhal has learnt about eating tradition all through his profession. That’s, in cities like NYC, exclusivity is on the market. For instance, a buyer is extra inclined to guide a desk if they’ll see it’s the final one, or a spot on the waitlist opens up on the ultimate hour. Noticing this, Resy commodified the reservation itself: it “turns into the principle occasion,” the corporate wrote in a current weblog publish.
Within the case of Temple Bar, the historic venue’s embrace of blockchain is undetectable to the bare eye. However, there’s one merchandise, devoid of 90s appeal, that offers it away: The so-called “check-in” level. Blackbirders scan what seems to be a steel hockey puck upon arrival, and to open a brand new examine. The blockchain information the place they ate, how they ordered, and what they spent, to estimate their lifetime worth. Companies, which pay $89 month to make use of Blackbird, can then spot when it’s value providing a free drink or one of the best desk. “If you happen to try this repeatedly, you then’re on the trail to financial viability,” Leventhal says.
The trail to adoption
Blackbird’s thesis is compelling, particularly when laid out by the charismatic and hyper-rational Leventhal. However on the frontlines of the eating places it’s designed to save lots of, the service is a piece in progress. Moments earlier than his arrival at Temple Bar, his publicist asks the server for “the puck”—solely to obtain a glance of bemusement in response.
“If I see the Blackbird gadget at a restaurant, I attempt to strike up a dialog in regards to the app with the hosts or maître d’,” one person instructed Fortune, on the situation of anonymity attributable to working in crypto. “However they normally have little to say about it.”
Even when restaurant workers seem perplexed or detached to the app, it seems to be getting traction amongst a extra vital constituency: diners. In response to a Blackbird spokesperson, adoption has elevated 10-fold through the year-or-so it’s been dwell and its roster now consists of about 0.6% of the town’s eating places.
Nonetheless, if Blackbird goes to induce clients to make use of it, a sure threshold of companies should be a part of, to be able to incentivize downloads. “I haven’t actually benefited but as an off-the-cuff person,” the shopper added.
When requested in regards to the adoption curve, Leventhal acknowledged there’s a threshold to spark virality. Whereas he didn’t disclose the place that tipping level could lie, it’s “decrease than individuals assume,” he insists. “Within the meantime, belief us to curate nice eating places.”
The duty of persuading eating places and customers to enroll will doubtless be smoother on condition that Leventhal seems clear-eyed in regards to the enchantment of crypto—or lack of it—for the typical diner. He acknowledges that blockchain is unlikely to be a promoting level for the fits in Le Bernardin, or the It Ladies at Clandestinos.
“That may not be a promote that works,” he says. And for the end-user, the crypto component isn’t noticeable. “Crypto persons are simply obsessive about placing the phrase ‘crypto’ earlier than issues,” he says.
Maintaining worth within the business
Leventhal by no means got down to change into a crypto founder. Earlier than Blackbird, he was merely a “curious observer” of the business. Quite, through the early days of the pandemic, in a dialog with enterprise capitalist Fred Wilson, accomplice of Union Sq. Ventures, he articulated a nebulous thought about making a common forex between eating places. Crypto was solely talked about later, because the know-how that made essentially the most sense to convey it to life. Certainly, the blockchain element is what allows eating places to share buyer knowledge and commerce a single forex.
Ostensibly, Blackbird is a loyalty program, however at its core is Leventhal’s imaginative and prescient for a shared, rising pool of capital—FLY’s market cap—that’s saved inside the hospitality business. Theoretically, this implies a person can earn FLY by consuming at one restaurant, however then deploying it one other, the place they by no means spend a dime.
“Eating places ought to favor that clients spend their cash on different eating places, quite than on resorts or a first-class aircraft ticket. That approach, it’s conserving worth within the business,” he says. Certainly, FLY can’t but be traded between customers, on exchanges, or used for off-app purchases, nor has Blackbird introduced plans to take action.
Within the bruising enterprise of hospitality, Leventhal is daring eating places to like thy neighbor. If he pulls it off, date nights and birthday dinners could quickly be settled with FLY.
