With your BTC, yes, you can easily, quickly, efficiently buy a Hamburger

Bitcoin is both a store of value as well as a currency for commerce.

Like many, you may be skeptical about Bitcoin: “Sure, it’s a digital asset, but can you actually use it to buy real stuff like lunch? Merchants don’t accept it, fees are too high, and transactions take forever. It’s not real money.”

Today, that’s not the case.

Steak 'n Shake

Steak ’n Shake is a classic American fast-food chain founded in 1934 by Gus Belt in Normal, Illinois, that is known for its premium Steakburgers made from fresh-ground steak cuts and their hand-dipped milkshakes.

The chain specializes in serving quality burgers, beef-tallow fries, and shakes, with a nostalgic, diner-style experience.

Almost a year ago, in May 2025, Steak ’n Shake deployed, nationwide, Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network. Now all its U.S. locations accept BTC.

It is a solid real-world marketplace if you want to try buying everyday food with cryptocurrency.

Funding your Wallet

If you are a real tyro, just getting started with Bitcoin, you'll need to sign up with a crypto exchange and transfer some debasing fiat USD into your wallet.

For this narrative, we'll assume you already have a Coinbase account and have funded it with at least $12 USD that you've converted to BTC on the exchange.

This is all very easy to do, these days - but it does take some time to get set up.

Do it at home before stopping in at your hamburger diner; don't hold up the line of hungry customers trying to set up accounts.

Buying your Hamburger

Once your Bitcoin wallet is funded, Visit Steak ’n Shake and order a classic single Steakburger with a side of their crispy, golden beef tallow fries.

Given current prices, you can expect to pay:

• Single Steakburger: around $4.79 to $6.49
• Regular fries: around $2.99 to $3.99
• Total before tax: roughly $8 to $10.

In the store, the clerk at the point of sale generates a Lightning QR code at checkout, whether that's at the counter, drive-through, or touchscreen kiosk. The transaction works on existing web-enabled devices like your phone or iPad.

The clerk or the kiosk app simply selects Bitcoin as the payment option, the system displays the invoice/QR code for you, the customer, to scan with their wallet app (like Coinbase), and Speed’s backend processes the instant Lightning payment while converting your BTC to USD in real time for the merchant, ensuring seamless and fast confirmation that doesn't disrupt the service flow.

In your Coinbase or Base wallet app (which is designed with Lightning enabled), you:

• Scan the QR code.
• Confirm the amount.
• Confirm the Pay process.

The payment process is almost instant: it takes only milliseconds to a few seconds. The store receives real-time confirmation, so your order starts cooking right away. This is all often faster than a standard card authorization.

Fee Efficiency

Both you and the merchant benefit from more efficient, lower-fee, transactions.

Your fees.

Coinbase charges about 0.2% of the amount. For a $9 to $10 meal, that comes to roughly $0.02 to $0.04. Lightning Network routing fees add fractions of a cent (usually under $0.01).

Total: under $0.05, it's practically negligible.

Merchant fees.

Steak ’n Shake saves around 50% on processing costs compared to cards (with instant USD conversion through their partner, Speed).

Compare that to a conventional credit card:

Merchants typically pay 2% to 4% in processing fees (interchange, network, and processor charges), often summing up to around 2.5% to 3.5% on average.

For your $9 to $10 meal, that equals $0.23 to $0.40 (or higher) deducted from the merchant’s side.

These costs frequently get factored into menu prices or added as surcharges in some places. Meaning, you pay more for your meals with conventional processing - and we can hope that prices come down as vendors pass along fee savings to us, their customers.

Bitcoin via Lightning ends up being about 10 times cheaper (or more) than typical card fees, with instant settlement instead of any noticeable delay.

This is not speculation. It’s a working, everyday market that shows Bitcoin and Lightning function as practical money for buying food and for many other micro-payment transactions (micro compared to the macro billions of dollars being exchanged in the crypto markets that make the daily business news).

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