Blackbird’s first anniversary revelation: Can cryptocurrency really revitalize the restaurant industry?

Written by Niamh Rowe, Fortune Magazine

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

Ben Leventhal, Founder, Blackbird

When you go to a restaurant, Ben Leventhal is more interested in telling you where to sit than what to order. "If you go to Balthazar, sit at table 62," he says, sipping tequila. "It's on the left side of the room, and that's where you get the best view."

Over the past two decades, the forty-something New Yorker has been instrumental in the rise of food culture. First, he founded Eater, a news site later acquired by Vox Media, in 2005 to tell us where to eat. Then, in 2014, he co-founded Resy to help us reserve tables; the company helped give rise to “reservation culture” by aggregating reservations for more than 16,000 restaurants into one app. Today, he’s throwing himself into his latest restaurant tech project: Blackbird Labs, a shared loyalty program for restaurants that gives guests access to a variety of information.cryptocurrencyintegral.

For Leventhal, the new company is about more than just finding a new way to blend technology and food. At a time when many small restaurants are struggling to survive, Leventhal hopes Blackbird can provide them with a higher level of economic intelligence and allow these restaurants, which he calls "happy places," to continue to survive.

Dining out is on the rise, but restaurants are on the decline

On a gray August afternoon in Manhattan, Leventhal took me to a place to escape the city’s rainy weather: the dark and stylish Temple Bar in NoHo. No matter the season or the time of day, there’s always a crowd of people perusing the menu by candlelight. The ’90s decor, with its mahogany walls, checkerboard floors and pay phones, pays homage to the decade when the restaurant first rose to fame: when art world types flocked to the bar to drink martinis in its signature oversized glasses.

We came to Temple Bar because it was one of Blackbird's early tenants, but also because of Leventhal's obsession with the dining experience. "It's not really about the food," he said, pointing to an Andy Warhol disco ball in the corner. "I'm excited to see the restaurant do well."

Even as iconic spots like Temple Bar retain their mystique, they can’t escape a harsh truth: Restaurant profit margins have been steadily declining as food costs climb, post-pandemic labor shortages persist and rents soar.

Still, the number of new restaurant listings on Yelp hit an all-time high last year. In June, New York lawmakers even passed a bill to ban reservation marketplaces, which sell for up to $1,000 on Resy. “They’re more popular now, and that’s what’s curious,” he said.

Given all that, Leventhal believes the restaurants he loves have a chance if they figure out how to make more money from the customers who come through their doors, especially the regulars.

吃饭赚取cryptocurrency

In cryptocurrency terms, Blackbird is a decentralized eat-and-earn app. Users who frequent Blackbird restaurants earn so-called “FLY points.” Another way to think of it is as a novelty-basedBlockchainA traditional loyalty rewards program for technology.

FLY is issued based on the Base chain.BlockchainDeveloped by cryptocurrency giant Coinbase, it aims to reduce the high transaction costs of using Ethereum.

食客们并不关心 Blackbird 所依托区块链的性质，也不关心 Visa 付款的背后逻辑。他们关心自己通过积累 FLY 积分可以获得的福利，例如免费菜肴、迎宾饮料等。

Vance Spencer, co-founder of venture capital firm Framework Ventures, told Fortune that he uses the app every day because his favorite breakfast spot happens to be on the app. The benefit? He hasn’t paid for coffee in six months. As of July, users can also pay bills with FLY within the app through payment network Blackbird Pay.

Blackbird builds on what Leventhal has learned about restaurant culture over his career. Namely, that in a city like New York, exclusivity can be sold. For example, if customers see that a restaurant is down to its last table, they’re more likely to make a reservation. Resy recognized this and commoditized reservations.

Temple BXiaobai Navigationar 而言，这家历史悠久的餐厅对区块链的接受程度肉眼无法觉察。但有一个环节却很容易发现这一点，Blackbird 用户到达后会扫描一个看起来像金属冰球的东西。区块链记录了他们在哪里吃饭、如何点餐以及花了多少钱，以估算他们的后续价值。企业每月支付 89 美元使用 Blackbird，然后就可以知道什么时候值得提供免费饮料或最好的餐桌。「如果你持续这样做，那么你就走上了经济可行性的道路，」Leventhal 说。

The road to adoption

Blackbird’s argument is persuasive, especially when articulated by the charismatic and supremely rational Leventhal. But on the restaurant front it aims to save, the service is still a work in progress. Shortly before he arrived at Temple Bar, his publicist asked a server about “the puck” and was met with a bewildered look in response.

“If I see a Blackbird device at a restaurant, I try to talk to the staff about the app,” one user, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Fortune. “But they usually don’t say anything about it.”

While restaurant employees seem confused or indifferent about the app, it appears to be gaining traction with a more important group: diners. In the year or so since its launch, adoption has grown 10-fold, with about 0.6% of restaurants now using the app, according to a Blackbird spokesperson.

However, if Blackbird wants to attract users, a certain number of companies must join. "As a regular user, I haven't really benefited from it yet," the user added.

When asked about the adoption curve, Leventhal acknowledged that there is a threshold for virality. While he didn’t reveal where that tipping point might be, he insisted it’s “lower than people think.” “In the meantime, we’re going to be very selective with the restaurants that are great.”

The task of convincing restaurants and users to sign up may be more smooth given that Leventhal seems to have a clear understanding of the appeal (or lack thereof) of cryptocurrency to the average eater.

“It’s not an effective sales pitch.” The crypto element isn’t obvious to end users. “The crypto people are just obsessed with putting the word ‘crypto’ in front of things,” he said.

Preserve industry value

Leventhal never intended to be the founder of a cryptocurrency project. Before Blackbird, he was just a curious "observer." In a conversation with Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist and partner at Union Square Ventures, at the beginning of the epidemic, he proposed a vague idea of creating a common currency between restaurants. Later, he mentioned cryptocurrency as the most meaningful technology to achieve this goal. In fact, blockchain technology enables restaurants to share customer data and adopt a single currency.

On the surface, Blackbird is a loyalty program, but at its core is Leventhal’s vision of a shared, growing pool of capital (FLY’s market cap) that would stay within the restaurant industry. In theory, users could earn FLY by dining at one restaurant and then use it at another.

“Restaurants should prefer that customers spend their money at other restaurants rather than on hotels or first-class flights. That preserves the value of the industry,” he said. In fact, FLY cannot yet be traded between users or used for out-of-app purchases, and Blackbird has not announced plans to do so.

In a cutthroat industry, Leventhal is encouraging restaurants to support each other. If he succeeds, date nights and birthday dinners may soon be paid for by FLY.

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