BEND, Ore. — Shopping around downtown, you’d probably pull out your credit card or even grab some cash. One restaurant in Bend is introducing a new way to pay: cryptocurrency.
“Here, I finally have a retail location to showcase what I’m passionate about; and it’s coffee, it’s sandwiches, it’s saving kids, and it’s bitcoin,” Beach Hut Deli Owner Sean McDonell said.
Customers can now use bitcoin to pay for their food and drinks at the restaurant. It’s an idea the community seems to support.
“I think it’s great that it is an option, and someday it might be a bigger thing than it is today, but for now it’s just a little quirk I guess; which is pretty cool,” Bram Gerken said.
“I think it’s great, I think it’s an option people can take advantage of,” Ben Haag said. “Obviously if people have bitcoin, they need to spend it somehow buying something real.”
McDonell also founded Coffee 4 Kids, and a portion of the money it raises goes to an orphanage in El Salvador that his father started. El Salvador uses bitcoin as its national currency, and McDonnell says these transactions make it easier to support those kids.
“Basically I grew up with these kids. I’ve seen their struggles, I’ve seen what they’ve gone through, my dad has dedicated his entire life to this since 1989,” McDonell said. “He’s making a real difference in these kids’ lives, and so basically I think maybe genetically I’m very similar to him.”
He’s also inviting anyone who doesn’t know about cryptocurrency to learn about it at the restaurant.
“There is no better education than having someone come in and buy a beer, or a salad, or a sandwich or a soup with cryptocurrency,” McDonell said. “We can show you how to buy it, you can do it right from your phone.”
