It looks like SHŌ — the NFT-backed restaurant/club in San Francisco that was supposed to open this fall as a two-story “culinary entertainment and nightlife experience” operated under SHŌ Group — is never going to happen. After Nation’s Restaurant News previously reported on apparent construction delays on the project following a groundbreaking ceremony in Aug. 2022, amid lower than anticipated response to NFT membership sales, the project will not be completed.
“We have reached the difficult conclusion that bringing SHŌ to life atop Salesforce Park is not possible at this time,” Josh Sigel, CEO of SHŌ Group said in a statement published by Eater.
According to Eater, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which oversees Salesforce Park, where the NFT restaurant was supposed to be located, terminated its lease in July. SHŌ Group did not respond to requests for further comment.
SHŌ was first announced in June 2022 during the NFT craze, when many operators thought that pricey crypto-backed digital memberships would be the future of exclusive dining clubs for an elite customer base.
For more on SHŌ’s demise and the NFT craze as a whole, we go to senior editor Joanna Fantozzi.