Grand Hotel de Draak opens new wellness

22-8-2014

After a fire in the oldest hotel of the Netherlands, Grand Hotel de Draak, the crew worked hard to renovate the monumental building. Following the grand-opening in June this year, the wellness opened recently in the former area of restaurant La Pidola. Hotel guests can go to the wellness for a Finnish sauna, a Turkish steam bath, infrared cabin, a cooling-shed with a splash- and rain shower and a relaxation room. The wellness is opened every day from 4 until 11 PM, but on request can it be opened during the day as well.

Restaurant Hemingway | Each season a new ‘Dragon egg’ as dessert

3-10-2017

Restaurant Hemingway of the oldest hotel in the Netherlands, Grand Hotel and Résidence De Draak (The Dragon) in Bergen op Zoom, has a new dessert item at their menu. A ‘Drakenei’ or in English a Dragon egg. The new chefs of the restaurant will make a new dessert every season with what nature has to offer at that moment and serve it in a ‘Dragon egg’. read more

13 December 2014, D-Day for the new Allergen Law

16-10-2014

13 December 2014 is the day, every food provider in Europe is obliged to tell their customers or guest which products are incorporated into their product or dish. At least if one of those products has one of the 14 Allergen groups in it. Does your company already have a menu with Allergen Labels indicated per dish?

Restaurant Hemingway

Hemingway Restaurant, from ‘Grand Hotel De Draak’ (Dragon Hotel) in Bergen op Zoom has already a menu indicating if one of the 14 Allergen Groups are processed in a dish . They have chosen the above solution; a chart. Other restaurants and bars choose to work with symbols. Recently a restaurant owner asked whether it’s mandatory to have this stated in all of his menu’s? You don’t need to publish it on every menu but the information needs to be available within the restaurant, so you are able to inform your guest suffering from an allergic reaction to one of the 14 Allergen product groups.

So if you have a restaurant or a bar serving food, you have to be ready for this Allergen Law within 2 months!

Trends we spotted | Week 49

11-12-2023

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. With this week links to articles about amongst others:

• An emission-free and energy-efficient coffee roasting line will be built in Belgium – a collaboration between Sucafina, Beyers Koffie and the Belgian cleantech company CEE.
• A recent study by the University of Wageningen researched the Dutch supermarket sector and reports a significant decrease in food waste.
• SVH (The Dutch foundation for professionalism in the catering industry) has announced the Top 3 Best Hospitality Training Companies and Best Trainers for 2023/2024.
• Fletcher Hotels, the largest hotel chain in the Netherlands, expands with the acquisition of Hotel Restaurant Oud London in Zeist.
• Mercure Hotels celebrates its 50th anniversary with the launch of ‘Discover Local: The Bucket List Edition’, a selection of 50 unique culinary experiences worldwide.
• Relais & Châteaux, a leading association of world-class chefs, has committed to protecting the critically endangered European eel by immediately removing it from their menus. #EELNOTANKYOU
• From Instagram: Christmas tree croissants as a festive delight; espresso Romano and gilded holiday splendor at Le Bristol Paris.

Enjoy reading!

read more

Hotels for Trees | Blycolin becomes Founding Partner

16-12-2021

Blycolin becomes Founding Partner of Hotels for Trees. The international specialist in linen service for the hospitality industry offers the foundation financial support for further European growth. Furthermore, Blycolin will promote the concept among its more than 2,000 hotel customers.

Hotels for Trees is committed to making hotel room cleaning more sustainable by converting savings into planting trees. Until now they have planted 5,000 trees, their goal for 2022 is 100,000 trees and by 2025 even 1 million trees. It is an easy concept to implement for both the hotels and their guests. A number of renowned Dutch hotels are already participating, such as Grand Hotel De Draak, Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, Banks Mansion and Hotel Kapellerput. More about this concept in this article.

Reading time: 2 minutes

read more

Restaurant Hemingway becomes Restaurant 1397 and sets a new culinary course

6-9-2021

Restaurant 1397 is the new name of restaurant Hemingway in Grand Hotel and Résidence De Draak in Bergen op Zoom. The restaurant, which is located in the oldest hotel in the Netherlands, has been given a new place as of September 6, 2021 in a beautiful historical setting, whereby the culinary level is further increased. The new name refers to 1397,the year in which De Draak certainly already existed as a business in the hospitality industry.

We already have written about Grand Hotel De Draak at www.horecatrends.com, curious about our articles about the oldest hotel in the Netherlands? Check them out here!

Reading time: 2 minutes

read more

Valentine’s Day inspiration | Culinary love in a box

18-1-2021

Within almost 4 weeks it’s going to be a special edition of Valentine’s Day, a day to celebrate love and embrace those close to you. Well it’s going to be though this year to embrace those friends and loved ones, not part of your household. How does the hospitality industry deal with all the restrictions? Well the most important fact is that most restaurants give their guests the opportunity to celebrate it on Friday 12, Saturday 13 and Sunday the 14^th of February. We found some great Valentine’s Day inspiration, like classic drive-ins, with carhop service at White Castle, a TLC Valentine’s Box by 2 Dutch chefs highly rated by Michelin and the Guilty Pleasures box by restaurant Hemingway in hotel De Draak (the Dragon) in Bergen op Zoom.

read more

Collabs & Crossovers

3-12-2019

Enjoy the blog by our colleague Niek Timmermans from Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultants. He blogs about the trendy collabs & crossovers, how hip and popular are they in 2019?

Earlier this year, Leonie van Spronsen wrote a blog about crossovers, how she felt 2019 could have been the year of crossovers. She kicked it off with an example of the Emmy Cheeseburger Dumplings of Mimi Chengs in New York. Two hospitality entrepreneur comrades that created a dish out of their individual bestsellers. We also have an example of this in the Netherlands, the Taiko X FEBO authentic FEBO snack wall in Tunes bar with limited-edition langoustine frikandels and Wagyu burgers specially created by chef Schilo van Coevorden.

read more

Instagram | the perfect social media network for hotels, restaurants and cafés

12-10-2016

The visual social network Instagram is the best marketing platform for sharing photos of hotels, restaurant or bars. You can share photos of your property, the surroundings, the food and drinks. All to make your future guest excited about the experience those photos promises. read more

Traditional French table service at Restaurant Hemingway

11-11-2015

‘Back to the Classics’, restaurant Hemingway from Grand Hotel ‘De Draak’ (the Dragon) is going to implement traditional tableside food preparation for two days this month.

Restaurant Hemingway is part of the oldest hotel and company in the Netherlands, Grand Hotel De Draak in Bergen op Zoom. The team of the restaurant is going to implement traditional French tableside food preparations. Examples of this are flambéing, filleting etcetera at every course of their menu on Thursday the 26th and Friday, the 27th of November.

‘Back to the Classics’ with the traditional French table service style

A French serving style is not very common, but is seen at some exclusive upscale clubs and restaurants. The waiter typically has a fancy cart that carries different types of food for the guests to look over before they decide what they would like. Sometimes this is only done for appetizers or deserts, and sometimes it is done throughout the entire meal.

At restaurant Hemingway one can chose a four course meal with a classic dish at each course. During the evening they will cut smoked salmon, fillet sole at the table, serve chopped sirloin steak with flambéed lardons and they finish with ‘cerises flambées’. There’s a lot of craftsmanship to witness on these evenings in restaurant Hemingway.

The craftsmanship of preparing classic dishes at the table is disappearing

In recent years, more and more restaurants stopped preparing the classic dishes at the table. This is mainly due to the labour intensity but it also isn’t taught anymore at the institutions. The classic tableside preparations are no longer regularly practiced and they seem to disappear due to these causes. Fortunately they are still used with some regularity at high-end restaurants. Often in a fancy way, such as preparing ice cream at the table through nitrogen, or preparing a cocktail at the table or the bar this way.

One will find variations of the classic dishes such as Crêpe Suzette regularly in the top restaurants. Like at Maison Lameloise (***) of chef Éric Pras where they still prepare a delicious Crêpe Suzette at your table.

In the end the traditional French table serving styles guarantee a show and your guest will experience a night out instead of just having dinner! We love to experience it in restaurants and we do wish the guests of restaurant Hemingway lot of fun and the team the best of luck on 26 and 27 November!