We’ve been to Busyfeet & Coco a couple of times now for their fornightly Bitcoin Dublin meetups, and alongside their bitcoin ATM, the café boasts accepting bitcoin for everything they sell. Since the Baggot Inn changed hands, and stopped accepting bitcoin a while ago, there was a gap in the market for people looking to buy food and drink in Dublin with bitcoin. It’s probably a smart move, as just being a stone throws from Dublin’s main shopping street Grafton Street, and at the core of the trendy South William Street, there’s a fair bit of passing trade.
So we knew that staff would be prepared for a bitcoin meeting, and we have paid our bills in bitcoin a couple of times there. But as we try and do honest reviews here on the site, we thought we’d try and catch them off guard, once on the very busy St. Patrick’s Day, and the other being a normal morning, while taking the dog for a stroll around St. Stephen’s Green. And we were impressed in both cases.
Busyfeet & Coco use a tablet with the Bitpay payment gateway in their till area. On both occasions, with different members of staff, there were no problems taking payment with bitcoin. They asked how I’d like to pay, I said bitcoin, and they took out the tablet, keyed in the amount, and presented it to me for payment using my mobile wallet.
On the first occasion, St Patrick’s Day, the café was particularly busy. Even under this kind of pressure, the staff were quick. Having 2FA text messages set up on my mobile wallets for transactions over a tenner, the delay was actually on my side, as I had to wait about a minute and a half for the text message to get through the phones, internet usage and text messages of a busy 17th March in town. I moved to the side, and they continued on with the people behind me, and as soon as my text message came in, I could finish the transaction, get my reciept and leave.
Before I went a second time, I changed the settings on my wallet so I could put a €25 bill through, without having to worry about the text message. A couple of weeks later, I then went back into the café to try again. This time, the process worked flawlessly. I timed it as well, and given that I had my mobile wallet out ready to go, I think it took half of the time that it took the person before me to complete their transaction, using a chip and pin card.
So looking at both cases, it’s great to see that the café not only advertises that it accepts bitcoin, but their staff are trained in how to use it. I read in an Irish Times article with the cafe’s owner a while back that the café has about 1%-1.5% of it’s turnover in bitcoin now. So overall, it was a very good experience getting food and drink with bitcoin in Busyfeet & Coco. If you’re in or visiting Dublin and looking for a place to support with your bitcoin, and get some decent food, coffee or beers, check it out.
