BY MORGAN LEGEL
Journal Staff
Walls
Providing a new opportunity for one forward-thinking businessperson, Peter Walls, co-owner of Sling Stone LLC — which includes Green Lizzard, Shamrocks Pub & Eatery and Sling Stone Coffee and Tea Co. — is selling his Irish-themed restaurant, Shamrocks, for five Bitcoin.
Opened in 2014 for an investment of $250,000, Walls decided that after being shut down for six months earlier in the pandemic, now is a good time to sell the 3,000 square-foot establishment.
“I know selling a bar or restaurant at this point in time sounds like a really crazy idea, no one wants to take a risk,” he said. “But I was a bungee-jumper for a time, and even with my whole business background, I guess I have a pretty big risk appetite.”
Even before the pandemic, Walls was thinking about what to do with the eatery.
“As our business expanded, I had less and less time,” he said. “Before the pandemic even, I was thinking, ‘Okay, I can still keep doing this, but for how long?’”
Currently, the restaurant is reaching about 50% of its pre-COVID sales, and Walls said tourism amounted to about a third of Shamrocks business.
“We actually got out of the red and into the black, and I’m pretty happy about where we are right now, it’s a good launching pad,” he said.
A launching pad right into the crypto-currency Bitcoin.
“This is not a dark, alley-way deal,” he said. “It’s legitimate and we pay taxes on whatever we gain or lose.”
Photo by Morgan Legel
As of the Journal’s May 24 interview with Walls, one Bitcoin was equal to $35,854. If he sold Shamrocks for five Bitcoin on May 24, Walls would receive an amount equal to $179,320, about 30% less than the $250,000 it took to build and start it.
And the dollar-to-Bitcoin ratio changes daily. “If Bitcoin goes down to $10,000 a piece, that means I will be selling my bar for $50,000; that’s crazy, but I like it,” he said.
Earlier this year, one Bitcoin reached about $60,000. Outside of the Shamrocks sale, Walls has six Bitcoin.
“My investment strategy does have high-risk things, and one of those is crypto-currency,” he said.
“That’s the idea, that it’s volatile,” he said. “I’ve had the bar for six years, we’ve made our profits and our margins back, so this would be an experiment.”
Walls also said he will not be accepting any dollar-currency offers.
But, for now and the future, Walls will continue to “experiment” with the currency.
“I’m not going to throw all my money into it, but I’m willing to see it go up and down, and I know I have a couple of other businesses to get me through,” he said. mbj
