The world’s first restaurant that accepts NEM as a method of payment moved from Nagoya to Tokyo. The restaurant was originally established in Nagoya where it was operating until October last year.
The small restaurant is called St. Arnould and it is specialized in Belgian beers, offering around 200 different beers to its clients. The restaurant began gaining popularity after one client back in 2016 requested to pay the bill with a cryptocurrency called NEM. The bill for a pizza was 1,200 Japanese yens, but thanks to the general rise of the cryptocurrency market in the meantime, it is now worth around 54,000 Japanese yens.
Yosuke Sato, the owner of the restaurant, started accepting cryptocurrencies as a method of payment after the aforementioned case with the pizza bill. He also said his interest for the cryptocurrencies dates back to five years ago. In an interview for the Japan Times, Sato urged the owners and employees of restaurants not to have doubts about the cryptocurrencies.
Besides the usual announcements about the restaurant and its services, the official Twitter profile of St. Arnould contains numerous messages related to the blockchain ecosystem: “Two minutes from the Akasaka station. Shop specialized in Belgian cheese and beers. In the cryptocurrency world since five years ago. The first shop in the world to accept XEM, we manage to relocate the shop after an ICO. We accept payment in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, XEM, MONA and Ethereum. Known as the sacred place of the cryptocurrencies.”
A testimony of one client praises that each beer offered by the restaurant is served in its own glass. The same customer also praised the duck pastrami served by St. Arnould.
After eight years in Nagoya, Sato chose to move the business to Tokyo, near the Akasaka station. The relocation of the restaurant happened after St. Arnould executed an initial coin offering (ICO) campaign, during which it emitted its own cryptocurrency and raised 8 million yens (around 80,000 US dollars).
In relation to the massive robbery of NEM that occurred last month when cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was attacked by hackers who stole 58 million yens (around 500 million US dollars), Sato assured he did not see any problems in the concept of the cryptocurrency, but he believes the necessary security measures had not been taken by the cryptocurrency exchange.
At the same time, Sato said the cryptocurrencies were still young and that makes them the object of so much speculations. He added he was happy the cryptocurrencies were not banned in Japan, one of the most permissive countries when it comes to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, where these currencies are accepted as a method of payment. The owner of St. Arnould assured it was still early to say what the future will bring for the cryptocurrencies. His restaurant accepts Bitcoin, XEM, Bitcoin Cash, Monacoin and Ethereum.
On the other hand, the Director of the Japanese Central Bank said recently the cryptocurrencies would not have negative influence on the Japanese yen, although he said they should be cataloged as financial assets and not as currencies of legal tender.
