Orange County-based restaurateur Andy Nguyen spent more than a quarter of a million dollars not only in hopes that Long Beach goes bananas over his new restaurant, but also to prove that a jpeg can be turned into cash, or even crypto cash.

An April 9 opening is planned for Bored & Hungry, a new burger pop-up restaurant that will be based on the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token collection of 10,000 bored-looking apes that sell for six figures a piece.

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are digital and often one-of-a-kind creations of art, music, videos and other things that are bought and sold online usually with cryptocurrency.

“I wanted to connect it to the restaurant world, which is what people know me for already,” said Nguyen, a Costa Mesa resident and experienced restaurateur who co-founded the Afters Ice Cream chain and other spots including Matte Black Coffee in downtown L.A.

Nguyenwho purchased Bored Ape #6184, which is basically a digital image of a disinterested-looking ape wearing a striped shirt, on March 1 for $267,000.

“I was thinking ‘Why isn’t anyone doing this with NFTs?’ There’s this bad stigma that it’s just a jpeg but it’s not. It’s an intellectual property that you’re buying and what we’re doing is building a business, a new ecosystem around it,” he said.

The 37-year-old also bought two other of the collection’s slightly less expensive mutant apes for $133,000 for the pair.

Those who purchase a Bored Ape NFT have the rights to use the image for personal or commercial use.

So Nguyen is putting the bored apes to work by stamping his cups, burger boxes and fry holders with the images of the apes.

“It can become like a collector’s item for people,” Nguyen said.

His employees will be wearing striped shirts just like the Bored Ape.

The food at the 90-day pop-up, which will be located at 2405 E. Seventh St. in Long Beach in a spot that formerly housed Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken, will include smash burger-style vegan and beef burgers.

Nguyen said he is also looking at the possibility of having a Bitcoin ATM machine at the restaurant and on ways to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

“I think for people that are skeptical about this new NFT world, this is also going to give them a chance to come out and get educated about this new world,” he said.

For information, visit @andythenguyen on Instagram.

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