The restaurants fulfill orders for Bitcoin Pizza, a so-called ghost restaurant founded out of New York-based Popchew. The startup — which launched last year and raised $3.6 million this month — creates virtual restaurant brands, then partners with existing restaurants that make the food.
Anthony Pompliano, a crypto investor, started Bitcoin Pizza, in part because bitcoin and pizza share an unfortunate history. His virtual restaurant went live May 22 on “Bitcoin Pizza Day,” the day someone bought two pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins in 2010. Today, that purchase would be worth nearly $400 million.
You can buy Bitcoin Pizza with crypto in Boston, but Pompliano doesn’t recommend it.
To be clear, Bitcoin Pizza doesn’t come with bitcoin.
But it does have quirky crypto-inspired menu items such as “Satoshi’s Favorite,” a ham, pineapple, and jalapeño pie that honors the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin. Pompliano donates his slice of the profits to a fund for bitcoin developers.
I placed an order Wednesday for the “Laser Eyes” and “No Keys, No Cheese” pizzas for about $29, before delivery fees and a tip. The website indicated that my order would have cost 0.00075316 bitcoin, equivalent to about $30.
After about half an hour, I received a text that my order had been “modified or canceled.” Because of my address sleuthing, I knew the restaurant making my order was Newtowne Grille, so I called it.
“We stopped doing Bitcoin Pizza two or three months ago,” said Camden Lapierre, a general manager. He wasn’t sure how I was still able to place an order online.
Newtowne Grille put an end to Bitcoin Pizza because it was too popular, according to Lapierre. The shop only has one pizza oven, and couldn’t keep up with the demand.
“There were nights when it felt like the entire world had a secret group chat and planned to order those pizzas all at once,” Lapierre said.
So it was on to Penguin Pizza.
I ordered the Laser Eyes and No Keys, No Cheese pizzas on Uber Eats, but only a 14-inch Capital Greens pie, showed up at the office, topped with broccoli, onions, and mushrooms.
There was nothing different about that pizza than other any pie I could have ordered from Penguin Pizza; it arrived in a Penguin Pizza packaging, though I was hoping for the Bitcoin Pizza boxes I’d seen online.
So what’s the point?
Bitcoin Pizza is just another version of the virtual restaurant, a food trend that has been growing in popularity.
Travis Lowry, a venture partner at Vinyl Capital in Boston, said he’s bullish on them. And he thinks it is inevitable that companies with no relation to the food industry (think Beyoncé, Peloton, the Mormon Church), will use their recognizable brands to launch and promote them.
Anissa Gardizy can be reached at anissa.gardizy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @anissagardizy8 and on Instagram @anissagardizy.journalism.
