An NFT Restaurant Where Membership Costs Thousands Will Replace NYC’s Iconic Sunshine Cinema

The Dimesquarification of the Lower East Side apparently wasn’t enough. Now, the city’s ‘first NFT restaurant,’ Flyfish Club, from former Resy founder Gary Vaynerchuk, has flown down onto a lease for an 11,000-square-foot, three-level space at 141 E. Houston Street, between Eldridge and Forsyth streets, the New York Post reports. Upon opening, Flyfish Club will house a seafood-focused restaurant, bars, and lounges. The Post reports that, as of January 2022, membership that included a private omakase room, in collaboration with chef Masa Ito, from Tribeca’s Ito, was going for $14,300 in NFT tokens (4.25 Ethereum).

The sticker shock might not be a surprise for a members-only club that raised millions in memberships before a space was even established. The elite clubhouse is currently under construction, and, to twist the knife deeper, takes the place of the iconic Sunshine Cinema, which was demolished in 2019, after first opening in 2001.

A historic pay increase for delivery workers

Delivery workers for food apps like DoorDash and UberEats would be paid $23.82 an hour plus tips by 2025 under a new city proposal, the City reports. Long classified as independent contractors, a 2021 law established that there must be a minimum wage for the reportedly 60,000 app-related delivery workers in New York City. The proposal would establish a $17.87 minimum wage, starting January 1, 2023, to increase over the next two years.

Fort Greene will get a restaurant from an alum of Rhodora and June

Margot is set to open at 69 Lafayette Avenue, near South Elliott Place, in Fort Greene, by March 2023. The new restaurant is a “little bit French, a little bit Italian.” It comes from Halley Chambers (former director at the Oberon Group, behind Fort Greene wine bar Rhodora and Cobble Hill’s June) Kip Green, an alum of June, Eleven Madison Park, and Aska, and executive chef, Alexia Duchêne who did stints at Frenchie London, old-school Paris bistro Allard, and Datsha Underground, also in Paris.

Queens fried chicken stand expands to another neighborhood

Korean fried chicken spot Rokstar Chicken opened in a Douglaston, Queens supermarket in December 2021. Now the team tells Eater it's expanding with a second location in front of a Long Island City Food Bazaar, at 42-02 Northern Boulevard, at 42nd Place. It’s set to open sometime by December 1.