Pubkey, a Manhattan Bitcoin Bar, Opens in Greenwich Village

by James · December 13, 2022

A long, long time ago in a Midtown office far, far away, I used to work for Investopedia, a money and investing website where I wrote about blockchain, cryptocurrency, Elon Musk, and Apple’s quarterly results, among other things. Looking back, it’s almost hard to believe now that most of what I cover is financial bros, food tech companies, NFT restaurants and – well, I guess the shoe fits.

My hope is that this context helps explain how I ended up at Pubkey last Friday, a self-described “bitcoin bar” that opened in Greenwich Village this fall. The bar took over a basement-level space at 85 Washington Place, near Sixth Avenue, which has been home to various dives popular with New York University students and local rabble-rousers for the past hundred years. Most recently, it was home to a pub called Formerly Crow’s, which aimed to create a safe zone from the area’s “fancy-like cocktail bars and hellholes.”

In some ways, Pubkey is on a similar quest: As rich people buy wildly expensive memberships to high-end restaurants using cryptocurrency, Pubkey’s owners want to cast bitcoin as a force to bring people together. Ironically, bitcoin is the only form of payment not accepted at the bar, but that hasn’t stopped crypto enthusiasts from turning out to show their support.

Christmas lights are draped around chairs and stools at the back of a Manhattan bar. — Christmas lights are draped around chairs and stools at the back of Pubkey.

The sign for a restaurant, called Pubkey, hangs at the back of a tiled bar. — Pubkey calls itself a “bitcoin bar.”

The back of a bar is overflowing with tchotchkes, including a sign that reads — Taxidermy and a lucky cat flank a ketchup and mustard bottles at the bar.

Bills from different countries are posted next to a menu of cocktails in a bar. — Drinks are well priced for the neighborhood.

“It’s a very dedicated and passionate group that doesn’t have many places to go in New York City,” says co-owner Thomas Pacchia, a former director of blockchain incubation at Fidelity Investments. “If you’re new to it and you’re curious … Twitter and Reddit are just terrible places to learn because you’re thrown into a shitshow conversation.”

Pacchia bought the former Crow space from owner Marshall Mintz, who was apparently ready to hand over the bar. He teamed up with Peter Richardson and Greg Minasian, who used to run the Lower East Side’s Spreadhouse Cafe before it closed. Greg Preochel, a chef who trained at Eleven Madison Park and previously ran the kitchen at Manhattan’s New American restaurant Le Turtle, handles the food.

The partners want to use the space to host community events for locals who still believe in bitcoin, despite recent setbacks. The bar houses a small recording studio, which will eventually be used to record podcast interviews about bitcoin in front of a live audience, the owners say.

The hands pull apart a triangle of fried mozzarella. — Fried mozzarella comes three triangles to an order ($12).

A hand holds a smash burger on a sesame seed bun with a few pieces taken out of it. — Smash burgers can be ordered with one or two patties ($14 to $17).

A man takes a large bite of a sausage topped with fried shallots on a poppy seed bun. — The Dirty Dog: whole grain mustard and fried shallots on a toasted poppy seed bun ($8).

Sausages, burgers and waffle fries are spread across a worktop. — The menu features seven sausages in regional styles.

When you walk in, it’s not immediately clear that the bar they opened is meant for crypto-heads. The space feels more like a polished pub, a place that will probably look better once a few more beers have been spilled on the floor. Off the front bar is a back room outfitted with tables, holiday lights, a stuffed raccoon—was it real? — and a TV that seemed to be playing ONE Christmas story when I visited.

A framed “buy bitcoin” sign hangs from one end of the bar, but really most of the customers here seemed oblivious to the theme, likely having blown in from nearby Sixth Avenue, known for its hellholes and nightclubs. It took some patience to find someone ready to talk shop.

“This is a bitcoin bar, but you don’t have to like bitcoin,” says a customer who would only identify himself as Mr. G. “It’s for everyone.” It’s G’s third time at the bar this week, and each time he’s traveled to lower Manhattan from the Bronx, where he lives, to show support for what he believes is the city’s first cryptocurrency bar. He gave me an invitation to a meeting hosted by the Harlem Bitcoin Community for the following week, then returned to his grilled cheese.

A customer bites into a grilled cheese at a bar. — Mr. G came to talk about bitcoin.

Suddenly everyone starts clapping. An ‘applause’ sign has lit up at the back of the bar – a sign that a food order is ready for collection in the kitchen. A few minutes later, hot dogs arrive in a variety of regional styles: There are New Jersey rippers (a fried frank with chili on a potato bun), Chicago dogs with all the trimmings, and an “al pastor dog” that is much better than it should be . Smash burgers, chopped cheese sandwiches and hero rolls piled high with crunchy chicharron cost a few dollars more.

Everything is well priced for the area. Nothing on the food menu costs more than $21, and the most expensive hot dogs are $8 each. Drinks, including a beer cocktail made by pouring shots of sweet vermouth and Campari into a bottle of Miller High Life, are also reasonably priced.

The team plans to accept payment with bitcoin using the Lighting Network, a technology built on blockchain that allows individuals to instantly exchange cryptocurrencies. Currently, it is cash and card. “We want to scale into that more and more,” says Pacchia. “We’d be out of business pretty quickly if we needed bitcoin.”

Find Pubkey a few steps down from street level Monday through Wednesday, from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Thursday to Saturday, from 13.00 to 04.00; and Sunday, from noon to 2 a.m. The kitchen is open until one hour before closing.