In a real signal of a vibe shift in Washington, a DC bar beloved by Republican staffers introduced that it was shuttering its doorways – and can reportedly get replaced by a bar that solely accepts cryptocurrency as fee.
Local information website PoPville first reported on Thursday {that a} D.C. outpost of Pubkey, a bar positioned in Greenwich Village that describes itself as a “vibrant bitcoin neighborhood”, had taken over the lease of Hill Country, a preferred Texas barbecue restaurant and music venue, which lately introduced it might shut its doorways in Penn Quarter after 14 years.
It’s a part of a development of crypto-centric social venues opening up throughout the nation previously a number of years. Pubkey, which opened in 2022 close to New York University’s Manhattan campus, has a notably informal ambiance: a subterranean dive bar-slash-podcast recording studio, with a pub grub menu designed by an Eleven Madison Park alum, the place anybody might hang around – as long as they paid with cryptocurrency. (When Eater visited in 2022, they noticed “quite a lot of regional types” of scorching canines on the menu, in addition to a stuffed raccoon subsequent to “a tv that gave the impression to be enjoying A Christmas Story”.) But not like its rivals, Pubkey has a singular hyperlink to the White House: Donald Trump made a high-profile go to through the 2024 marketing campaign and used $998.70 value of bitcoin to purchase smash burgers for the whole bar, changing into the primary president to conduct a bitcoin transaction – a symbolic embrace of the crypto neighborhood.
When reached for remark, Pubkey proprietor Thomas Pacchia confirmed that they’d be opening a DC location within the coming months, however declined to specify the placement. “The DC location may have podcast studios, occasion house, all that stuff,” he advised The Verge. Although he acknowledged the destructive publicity surrounding Trump’s go to, Pacchia added that Democrats reminiscent of Rep. Ritchie Torres and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had visited Pubkey as properly and hoped the brand new location would draw a bipartisan crowd. “Anybody that wishes to return and speak about Bitcoin is welcome. Literally, anybody.”
The bar it’ll reportedly substitute has diametrically opposed vibes. Located near DC’s energy lobbying corporations, Hill Country, a bar whose decor couldn’t scream “TEXAS” any louder, has lengthy been generally known as a DC nightlife spot notably beloved by Republican staffers on the lookout for dwell nation music, a very good smoked brisket, and decently priced properly liquor. It’s additionally a spot the place one might witness high-powered GOP lawmakers letting unfastened: Rep. George Santos was as soon as noticed singing “I Will Survive” on a Wednesday karaoke night time in 2023, whereas underneath a federal and Congressional investigation for fraud and mendacity about his background. (This reporter has personally attended a number of dwell karaoke nights and not less than one firm vacation occasion at Hill Country over the previous a number of years.)
Pubkey’s arrival in Washington comes at a notable time in crypto’s historical past, whether or not it displaces the Republican bar or not. Once thought of an unserious group of libertarians by lawmakers, the cryptocurrency neighborhood now has large affect with the Trump administration, because of key crypto gamers reminiscent of David Sacks and Elon Musk supporting Trump’s reelection. Trump himself has embraced cryptocurrency greater than earlier presidents, launching his personal memecoin, appointing Sacks as a “crypto czar” and asserting a possible cryptocurrency strategic reserve. (The rise of crypto has inadvertently stoked competitors between the nativist MAGA proper and the worldwide economy-focused tech proper, a pressure so palpable that Vice President J.D. Vance lately needed to name for a truce between the 2.) With the upcoming opening of Pubkey, it seems that within the nation’s capital, the crypto faction is actually gaining floor.
