- Bored & Hungry, the Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed restaurant in Los Angeles, has closed two years after its opening
- Concept creator Andy Nguyen stated it was never meant to be a long-term project
- Hungry DAO now controls the branding, with members set to decide its fate amid challenges facing the Bored Ape franchise
Two years after it opened its doors to Bored & Hungry customers, Bored & Hungry, the Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed restaurant in Los Angeles, has closed its doors. The restaurant opened in April 2022, right at the historical peak of the Bored Ape boom, and has now served its last burger, with the concept creator, Andy Nguyen, saying that the project was never intended as a long-term venture. The concept and branding have now been taken over by Hungry DAO, whose members will now vote on what happens to the venture at a time when the Bored Ape franchise looks to be in dire straits.
A Taste of the (Temporary) High Life
Bored & Hungry, located in Long Beach, California, opened its doors to customers on April 9, 2022, just three weeks before the floor price of the original Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs hit its all-time high of 153 ETH ($420,000).
Patrons were treated to Bored Ape-themed surroundings and food delivered with NFT-imprinted packaging featuring the ape that Bored & Hungry founder Andy Nguyen bought in March 2021.
Customers lined up around the block to get their first taste of a Bored Ape burger, but it seems that the lines grew thinner and thinner as the entire Bored Ape franchise suffered along with the crypto and NFT markets; the Bored Ape YAcht Club floor price is down 92% from its April 2022 highs and shows no signs of a recovery anytime soon.
Hungry DAO in Charge
Nguyen has now called time on Bored & Hungry, telling Decrypt that it had turned into a distraction:
Bored & Hungry wasn’t supposed to be a long-term project…and it was taking our resources away from our other work. The experiment took off a lot crazier than we ever expected.
The whole thing has been sold to Hungry DAO, a group that sells stakes in the ownership of the outlets it oversees in return for voting rights and potential returns. The DAO will vote on where to relocate, although they may want to wait until the NFT market picks up again before dedicating any money to reestablishing itself in the notoriously competitive restaurant marketplace.
