In OneRare, billed as the world's first gourmet virtual world, you can visit a virtual restaurant with a menu created by a celebrity chef, where the signature dish might be butter chicken or cacio e pepe. At the digital farmers market, you’ll be able to buy ingredients and then combine them to mint French fries or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of French fries. Singapore chicken and rice. You can even donate to a virtual community refrigerator that mirrors a real refrigerator in Indonesia. Of course, there are games you can play with other users, but the difference between Food Universe and games like The Sims is that what you do in OneRare, launching in March, has real-life consequences .
If futurists (and celebrities like Reese Witherspoon) are to be believed, we'll soon be spending a large portion of our lives in virtual reality. Our digital avatars will be able to work, shop, exercise, and even date. But where should the food be placed? If the biggest problem with brunchstagram is that you can't smell or taste them, can Metaverse solve that problem? Although you can't eat online yet, the first dining-related metaverse project shows that food is never just literally consumed. As the foundation is established, people are building real-life relationships through blockchain-powered supper clubs, investing in food and beverage companies through NFTs, and more.
In one corner of the developing virtual world, cryptocurrencies are used to support beverage producers. Wiv is a Norwegian wine NFT company that works with vineyards in Europe to sell NFTs corresponding to specific years. (Most prices are a little over 0.1 Ethereum, or around $300.) Purchasing an NFT gets you a certified bottle of wine that can be safely stored and traded while it ages. Wiv has also set up virtual world pop-ups, taking consumers on virtual vineyard tours where they can learn more about the winemaking process.
Wiv founder and CEO Tommy Nordam Jensen sees the process as another way to raise capital for winemakers. Jensen tells Bustle that because setting up a wine business takes years from growing grapes to selling the wine, winemakers have difficulty obtaining loans from banks that are necessary to improve the quality of their wines. The token solves this problem by selling vintage wines in advance, providing partners with capital to produce premium wines (and giving buyers an easy way to trade their investments without having physical assets on hand). For consumers, it's a splurge reserved for special occasions, such as buying a bottle of champagne to open on a 30th birthday.
Other Food Universe projects are less about protecting bags and more about building community. Dining DAO uses NFT to host face-to-face dinner clubs in different cities. (DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization and is a democratically run cooperative funded by members purchasing tokens.) Founders Austin Robey and Gabrielle Micheletti connected on Twitter in the summer of 2021 and decided they wanted to create a crypto/web3/Micheletti tells Bustle that “the tech world is becoming more user-friendly through Dining.” Case in point: They use Comic Sans on Dining DAO’s promotional materials to maintain an approachable vibe.
The organization has five DAOs, two in New York, two in Los Angeles, and one in Portland, Oregon. In order to join, people spend around $300 in Ethereum to purchase season pass tokens, which go into the group's coffers and fund three months of dinners. Eight members join the token-activated Discord channel and vote on restaurant options.
The first dinner in Portland was a vegetarian meal in the rain—with everyone sitting outside due to COVID precautions. “I don’t remember any bites, but there have been some neat projects and collaborations (like hackathons) that have come out of it,” says anthropologist Amber Case, who requested the launch of the Portland DAO after hearing about the project on Twitter. “It’s great to meet new people.”
Dinner DAO stands in stark contrast to pricey NFT supper clubs that sell out instantly, such as Resy founder-turned-crypto tycoon Gary Vaynerchuk’s Flyfish Club — think $7,900 for access to private lounges and restaurants, food Sold separately. Part of its mission is to show people how easy it is to build a community-focused web3 project in their city. Other DAOs, such as Crypto Packaged Goods, use the same framework to launch products such as chocolate and green juice co-developed by the organization. Proponents say DAOs could eventually become an alternative ownership structure for restaurants or brands, giving everyday consumers decision-making power in the products they buy. (You can find a seat at the table if you'd like.)
“Virtual experiences are not caused by virtual worlds.”
Andrea Hernández, founder of Snaxshot, a food and beverage forecasting consultancy and newsletter, likes how the Dining DAO works because it solves many of the pain points of setting up a supper club. (Anyone who’s tried to split the bill after someone’s birthday dinner will understand — two people didn’t drink and one person only ordered an appetizer.) That said, Hernandez warns that we’re still in virtual In the early days of the universe, "brands are just exploring what can be done." She praised projects that combine real-life experiences with virtual products as better options for consumers, noting that Burger King's November event included a focus on IRL burgers and its NFTs Make discounts. "Virtual experiences do not represent virtual worlds," she warns.
OneRare founder Supreet Raju, who has been working in the blockchain industry since 2017, agrees. "I don't believe virtual life can replace real life. It's not healthy and we're actively discussing it with our restaurant partners," she tells Bustle. Metaverse also needs to be more than a get-rich-quick scheme: Raju said OneRare "is not a one-time NFT drop." “It’s a whole food universe with an evolving concept,” meaning players should participate in it beyond just purchasing individual NFTs. Raju believes that all blockchain projects should prioritize community building to some extent—fighting hunger, for example, is an important mission of OneRare.
These emerging gastronomic universe projects understand that a fully online experience cannot replace hosting a dinner party or sharing a bottle of wine—especially since digital simulations of smell and taste are still a long way from becoming ubiquitous. Instead, the future of food in a metaverse means getting to the heart of what makes dining great: building connections and community. You just need to bring your own snacks.
