The NFT Restaurant Boom and the Food Metaverse: 3 Trends To Watch

The term “metaverse” has come to mean a lot of different things for different people. For some, it’s a joke and a silly marketing gimmick. But for others, it’s the next huge breakthrough in technology. Despite the palpable confusion about what “metaverse” even means, numerous industries are already moving to get a piece of the pie — including the food and restaurant industry. 

If futurists are to be believed, we may soon be conducting a large portion of our lives in virtual reality by adopting digital avatars to work, shop, socialize, exercise — and even date. But where does food fit in? Since it’s not (yet) possible to eat an actual meal in a virtual world, food experiences in the metaverse are about more than the literal consumption of food. 

Chefs, restaurateurs and foodies are using the so-called “foodverse” as a place for people to form real-life relationships through exclusive dinner clubs and restaurants, invest in food and beverage companies, raise funds for charitable causes, and more. 

Much of the utility of the foodverse centers around NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. In simple terms, NFTs are tokens which represent an immutable record on a blockchain that can function as an irreplicable digital receipt for almost anything. NFTs have emerged as a new way to define ownership in a digital setting. Owning one signifies that you have exclusive ownership over something in the virtual space.