Pubkey, a Bitcoin Bar, Is Hosting Trump in New York

The Trump campaign trail is taking the presidential candidate to a Greenwich Village bar and Williamsburg restaurant this week.

Pubkey, a Manhattan bar that’s crypto-currency-themed — and stationed near the NYU campus, where his son, Barron Trump, is a freshman — is a stop for Donald Trump today, ahead of his rally on Long Island.

“It’s definitely amazing that, you know, he wants to come here and, you know, experience some of the Bitcoin community while he’s in town,” Pubkey CEO Thomas Pacchia told the New York Post of the first former U.S. president convicted of felonies. Eater has reached out to Pubkey for more information.

The bar was presumably selected as Trump announced his own crypto business earlier this week.

Ahead of the Pubkey visit, nearby Greenwich Village residents blasted Taylor Swift’s music from their apartments, according to the Post, perhaps a reference to the fact that Trump had long courted the pop singer’s support before she endorsed Kamala Harris for president. A few protesters were picketing in front of the bar, the Post reports.

Trump arrived at Pubkey at 4:40 p.m., reports NY Post, staying for around 20 minutes, “handing out burgers and beer to customers, signing autographs, and answering reporters’ questions.” While he was there, Trump made a Bitcoin transaction to buy food and drinks for the crowd. The stop was a turnaround from his visit to Miami’s Versailles restaurant, where he promised to buy “food for everyone” and didn’t follow through.

Trump has been labeled a “picky eater” known more for eating overcooked steaks with ketchup and drinking Diet Coke. But he has made several restaurant visits throughout his campaign trail in 2024, including recently to a Vietnamese restaurant in Eden Center, a Falls Church shopping area in Virginia.

Meanwhile, it was reported that on Thursday, the Republican nominee seems to be headed to Williamsburg to stop by longtime kosher restaurant Gottlieb’s — in a part of the neighborhood marked by its Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish community, according to Yeshiva World News. The campaign stop comes on the heels of Trump’s continued support for the Israeli government following the devastating October 7 Hamas attack, after which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, prompting protests on college campuses and around the world.

Secret service agents were reported to be scoping out Gottlieb’s this week, the publication stated. The Forward, another Jewish publication, speculated whether it would actually be a stop for Trump’s vice president choice, JD Vance, who himself recently had blunders in a food service establishment this year when videos circulated of an “awkward” encounter inside a doughnut shop. Gottlieb’s restaurant owner Menashe Gottlieb told the publication he believed it would be Trump himself.

Updated 9/18/2024 at 8:30 p.m. to reflect Donald Trump’s visit to Pubkey.