I just got home and I’m annoyed.
So. This morning I had leftover pasta. I was pretty famished by the time I made it through baseball traffic downtown and found Craig (Spelunk.in). We walked over the Spring Street Smokehouse BBQ, a place that has a bitcoin sign on their door. Eliot met us there, as well as two redditors, Sean from Bithalo and his friend Adam. The food was really really good- I got brisket and tri tip, roasted veggies, and mac and cheese. It’s probably the healthiest thing I’ve had all week with the exception of the mac.
Our bill gets dropped off, and everyone wants to pay in bitcoin. We tell the waiter.. and he goes to the back to check on that. When he returns, he explains that nobody there knows how to do it, or even how it’s set up. We even offer to show him, or teach him, and he declines. I ended up having to send Craig bitcoin later, and he put it on his card.
My friend Colie showed up at the tail end of dinner, and we go to Ham and Eggs Tavern, site of the first Los Angeles bitcoin meetup. I’d read somewhere that they accepted bitcoin now (they didn’t at the event two years ago), and mentally gave it a 20% chance of happening. The nice girl at the bar said they weren’t set up for it and pointed at their archaic cash register.
Colie was pretty interested in hearing more about bitcoin, and bought my wine. I had her download CoinPocket, and taught her how a transaction worked. She was pretty happy to have .02 btc. We talked a lot about cryptocurrency through the night.
While I now have leftovers for tomorrow, and had a great night chatting crypto with friends old and new, I’m super bummed that these places advertise that they take bitcoin and don’t train their staff on it. I don’t blame the staff at all- as business owners you need to make sure new (and old) hires understand the process and that the equipment is in an accessible location. I know a lot of businesses got involved because a friend helped them set it up- don’t feel bad about asking for a refresher if you’ve forgotten how to bitcoin. I know there aren’t a whole lot of bitcoin users out there, so it’s very important that those groundbreaking restaurants who support the currency are consistent about it.
I was looking forward to Smoke Street Smokehouse since the weekend. While it’s tasty, I’d be a lot happier about it if I didn’t have to cheat on my challenge and pay through a friend.
Total Spent: .09 btc
Day Four: http://spelunk.in/2014/09/22/eating-crypto-for-a-week-in-la-day-4/
Day Three: http://spelunk.in/2014/09/22/eating-crypto-for-a-week-in-la-day-3/
Day Two: http://spelunk.in/2014/09/22/eating-crypto-for-a-week-in-la-day-2/
Day One: http://spelunk.in/2014/09/22/eating-crypto-for-a-week-in-la-day-1/
