A scratch card for the beer lovers
4-2-2016
Inspiration for craft beer bars, pubs and beer lovers: a scratch card filled with the beers for sale at your bar. Time for your regular guests to taste the craft beers you offer!
The idea of a scratch card was created at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart Lab. This company has recently made a checklist of 99 different types of draft beer with the ultimate goal to have drunk all of the beers on the list ;-).
The scratch card is divided into the two main categories of beer: ales and lagers. These categories are being divided into subcategories such as bock beer, wheat beer and lagers. A real challenge for the die-hard beer lovers to scratch the card as fast as possible.
A scratch card in your bar
We spotted this scratch card at Dutch Cowgirls and although the guys at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart Lab are mainly focused on the guests with this card, we think it could also be used within the hospitality industry. As owner of a bar or pub you could check if you’re able to develop a scratch card consisting of the beers you have on sale. Combine a good price with, for example, a free specialty beer and you create a solid piece of customer loyalty. In fact, try to contact one of your suppliers to arrange this.
Another possibility is to take a look at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart website. Here you will find an extensive range of wall decorations, wood carvings and products. How about a large wooden sign engraved about the interesting world of whisky? Or an information poster for your staff about wine?
Pop Chart Lab
Patrick Mulligan and Ben Gibson work together since 2010 with one single goal in mind: to render all of human experience in chart form. On their website you will find different wall decorations, wood carvings and products that are designed in a visually powerful way.
Live ‘ice cooking’ with the Gelato Machine
4-2-2016
The Gelato Machine is an all in one ice machine. Suitable for preparing, conserving and presenting fresh Gelato (ice cream).
The Gelato Machine saves the ice cream makers a lot of operating and investing. First you needed a separated preparation kitchen, ice cream machine, freezing installation and refrigerator, but now you only need one device. The ice cream machine is fully digitally operated and pre-programmed so it easy to use.
Ice cream made in just 15 minutes
Suitable for preparing, conserving and presenting of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet ice. The Gelato Machine produces in about 15 minutes 2,5 kilos of one of the previously mentioned ice creams. When the ice cream has been prepared the machine automatically turns into the ‘saving mode’. It’s optional to use the Gelato Machine with the Movuz IceMobil, provided with a plate (IceTeppanyaki) of -30 degrees Celsius. This makes it possible to ‘stir fry’ the ice cream within seconds.
Theo Clevers – master ice cream maker, also works with the Gelato Machine
SVH master ice cream maker Theo Clevers uses the Gelato Machine. Horecatrends asked him why the machine is suitable for his ice cream shops: “In the ice cream world, the experience is also becoming more important. Costumers want to see, smell and taste how we prepare ice cream. The Gelato Machine gives us the opportunity to make ice cream at receptions and parties. It is an addition to the traditional ice cream cart. Live cooking, but with ice cream.”
The wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’
3-2-2016
During the December month, restaurant ‘Lot & de Walvis’ (Lot and the Whale) in Leiden had a ‘wish tree’ instead of a Christmas tree. The guests of the restaurant could write down their wish and hang it into the tree. The wish that will be carried out by Lot is chosen through Social Media.
Utrecht
Everyone knows them; a ‘wish tree’. Especially when you visited Utrecht last December you couldn’t have missed it. The ‘wish trees of Utrecht’ were put down on five different squares in the city in which the people could hang their wishes. The trees on the squares were getting decorated with many different wishes and some wishes were granted. This idea came from entrepreneur Sidney Rubens in order to promote the Knuss Winterfest in an original way.
All about the wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’
It is also possible to apply a wish tree on a smaller scale. Guests of ‘Lot & de Walvis’ could write down their wish and hang it in the tree situated in the restaurant. Besides that, they involved their community on Facebook in the final decision for the best wish and managed to achieve a relatively large audience. The message in which the people could vote was shared, liked and received a lot of attention. Also the message with the announcement of the winner was popular with 132 likes. The power of Social Media!
The Hospitality Group Leiden
‘Lot & de Walvis’ is a part of the Hospitality Group Leiden together with Van der Werff, La France, City Hall and The Bishop. The board consists of the brothers Richard and Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen. Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen are responsible for the hospitality companies in Leiden. Richard van Leeuwen focuses on the four Harbour Clubs based in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and on Ibiza.
Bram’s, Gourmet Frites
2-2-2016
On 11 February Bram Ladage is opening ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites.’ At this new, international formula fries are prepared on a high culinary level and will be sold from a remarkable, black shipping container. The pilot store is going to be at the ‘Kop van Zuid’ in Rotterdam.
Bram’s, Gourmet Frites is going international
This new, international formula is going to be a worldwide standard for quality fries, says Bram Ladage partner Rocco Ladage. They are starting in Rotterdam but there is more and more demand from abroad. At the new concept ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites’ it’s about traditional preparation. The real Dutch potatoes from the Hoeksche Waard are cut into thick fries and prepared right in front of the costumers. Because these fries are so thick they absorb less fat and they also use oil with ‘good’ fats.
Collaborating with Herman den Blijker
Together with Herman den Blijker, Bram Ladage developed five new stews: Pulled pork BBQ, Captain’s beef, Asian chicken stew, the vegetarian Truffle mushroom and Pumpkin veal stew. With these stews, fries will no longer be a ‘side dish’ but a full meal component.
About Bram Ladage
Bram Ladage is a family company that’s originally from Rotterdam. But apart from Rotterdam they are getting more well known in Europe as well. Besides the formula Bram Ladage itself they also exploit BroodExpress, Ezprezzo, Ladage Events, Ladagerie and The Wold. With Bram’s they are taking the first step to go abroad.
The container is ideal for a franchise business; it will be delivered on location, it’s fully furnished and as franchisee you can start working immediately.
Get inspired by.. Spoon & Stable
1-2-2016
Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and is infected with the foodiebug, in this blog she writes about Spoon & Stable by chef Gavin Kaysen. In particular about his ‘after hours specials’.
Fall 2014 Gavin Kaysen, former pupil of Chef Daniel Boulud in New York (restaurant Daniel**), took the jump back to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he originally came from and opened his first, own restaurant: Spoon & Stable. Since then the casual fine dining restaurants have been a grand success, being noticed from coast to coast in the USA.
Other than super fresh food, beautiful presentations and a great atmosphere there is something else that sets this restaurant apart; their ‘after hours special’.
This genius gimmick is what we would love every fine dining restaurant to do. Every day the restaurant features a ‘fancy fast food’-like dish that is only available at the bar and not before 22h30. This can be a creative bowl of ramen (Japanese noodle soup), duck-confit tacos, freshly made corn tortillas and basically any crazy/yum/exciting dish they can come up with.
Why is this special at Spoon & Stable so great?
There are so many reasons, first it makes your food accessible for many more people than it is now, without having to lower your dining room prices. Secondly the bar of your restaurant will be much more exciting, shooting up beverage sales. Third it gives your team a little bit of freedom to experiment a bit outside of the box. Gives them the opportunity to create and test all their crazy ideas. And last but certainly not least, it could help greatly in eliminating food waste.
Personally, I’m 25, live in Paris and infected with the foodiebug. I would love if some of the great Parisian chefs would open their minds to this idea. Imagine yourself, at a random Tuesday night, 22h30, having a cocktail and grabbing a grilled cheese reimagined by Alain Ducasse.. could it get any better?
Check out this video to get to know chef Gavin Kaysen. He spoke at the Terroir Talks in October 2015. It gives a clear insight in 17 minutes….
Quake pop-up breakfast vending machine
28-1-2016
At the beginning of December Quaker Oats placed a pop-up vending machine at the train station of Antwerp, where travellers could order a free breakfast. This breakfast was prepared by two ‘robots’. We consider this a great example on how to pop-up and present your company in a positive way. Why don’t restaurants or deli’s use a pop-up location to present their food to the public?
About the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine
Most people are very busy nowadays and skip breakfast regularly. Quaker Oats wants to do something about this and chose the train station of Antwerp to place the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine, Just as a metaphor of our busy lifestyle. The goal of this campaign? Have people acknowledge how important it is to start your day with a breakfast. And with Quaker this can be done very easy, quick and healthy!
Different recipes
By-passers were able to choose from two different recipes. These recipes changed every day and were created by well-known Belgium breakfast eaters. If the choice was made, you pushed the button and the two people dressed as robots prepared your breakfast, for free!
Inspiration
As we mentioned before, this is a nice way to present your product. Offering it for free always works of course, but for most hospitality companies this won’t always be easy to finance. But such a great pop-up location on a prominent spot might be worth considering, it will bring positive attention to your restaurant or lunchroom somewhere else in the city.
Colourful Pantone cocktails
27-1-2016
Tealeaves and Pantone are developing a new concept together: #PaletteForYourPalate. Ten different kinds of tea cocktails in Pantone colours!
Colourful Pantone cocktails
Tealeaves collaborates with Pantone to develop the new project #PaletteForYourPalate. With ten different flavours of tea cocktails as the result. They have names such as ‘The Bold and the Blue’, ‘The Pink Monsoon’, and ‘Dreams of Sunset’. Merging expertise which results in a unique product, tea and Pantone colours. Their goal is to show how big the impact of colour on products can be. These tea cocktails aren’t just tasteful and aromatic but also a ‘feast for the eyes’.
Tealeaves x Pantone approached over 30 different mixologists and world-class chefs from across North America to come up with cocktails that followed the aforementioned themes. For over 20 years Tealeaves has been recognized as the leading luxury tea blender of choice for luxurious hotels and restaurants worldwide. Tealeaves understands that ‘the first taste is with the eyes’.
Tealeaves x Pantone reached out to Nike and nail polish manufacturer OPI, to get inspired by their way of using colour. Both manufacturers understand what colour can do with a product.
The project Tealeaves x Pantone: #PaletteForYourPalate has an online exhibition where you can check out the cocktails.
Pantone hotel & café
In previous articles we wrote about experiments of Pantone. For example the Pantone Café in Monaco and Pantone Hotel in Brussels.
The Hamperling: luxurious airplane meals
26-1-2016
Fortnum & Mason sell luxurious airplane meals to go. Hamperlings are pre made packages that vary in price from £15,= till £50,=.
Luxurious airplane meals
Do you often travel Economy class and are you craving a meal with Business class standards? Heathrow Airport now has the solution! Fortnum & Mason recently started selling inflight meals, regardless of which class you fly. No more rice with chicken or steamed vegetables as your inflight meal, but enjoying foie gras, caviar and other luxurious products. These hampers vary in price range from £15,= till £50,=.
Fortnum &Mason meals come in a turquoise coloured cooling bag, that include a fresh salad with herb mustard dressing, rye bread with butter, Napolitan squares as dessert and plastic cutlery including a caviar spoon.
There are five different variations divided in different price ranges. For example the £50,= option is for two people that includes a smoked fish selection, caviar, foie gras, a cheeseboard and different kinds of chutney, alongside the standard products.
There also is a vegetarian option for £15,=. This hamper included, alongside the standard products, a roast butternut squash, red unions, a cheeseboard and a lemon dessert.
The developers
Fortnum & Mason assembled its first hamper way back in the late 1730s. The speed of travel has increased hugely, but one decidedly negative side-effect of that exponential quickening is the equal and opposite fall in the standard of travel food. F&M thinks this is unnecessary and decided to renew their airplane meal hampers.
Smart safe
25-1-2016
G4S introduced a new cash deposit service for entrepreneurs, CAS. A smart safe in which the sales from the cash register can be deposited. The deposit service counts automatically every banknote, checks its authenticity and puts the money into your bank account. When CAS is almost full, an automatic signal will be send to G4S who will pick up the content.
“It was about time for a modern alternative for depositing money into your bank account.” says Bas Rodenberg, commercial director G4S Cash Solutions. “If it’s up to us, CAS becomes the cash version of the pin device. An inseparable duo in every shop.” Entrepreneurs are able to manage the sales safely and efficiently with CAS, apart from the level of sales. “Cash payments stay” says Rodenberg. “Recent research shows that Dutch people still pay half of their payments in cash. The big amount of cash that is received daily by entrepreneurs in the hospitality and retail industry demands a system to have your sales relocated to the bank in a safe and secure manner.”
Smart safe fits in a future-oriented business
Rodenberg explains why CAS is launched at the Horecava: “G4S sees collaboration with their costumers and chain partners as the key to a safer world. That’s why industry associations helped visualizing the needs of entrepreneurs with cash money in their enterprise, because they know exactly what they’re dealing with.” So, no more walks to a bank at different times of the day with shopping bags filled with money!
Flourish makes a difference!
22-1-2016
The people of Flourish try to bring positive publicity to properties in order to interest guests and potential investors. So far they have mainly used the concept of pop-up restaurants to bring attention to the empty properties.
About Flourish
A potential client sees the property in an innovative way due to the events. So far Flourish has done this by creating pop-up restaurants for several days in the empty properties. By up-cycling, building the restaurant with recycled products and materials which have lost their value, the property has been placed in a whole new perspective. The collected materials, to create an attractive atmosphere, have a price tag and will soon be sold online.
Omroep Brabant, a local broadcasting legacy, has filmed during the pop-up events in the Sacramentskerk in Breda, in the video above Danielle van Houtum explains what she wants to achieve with Flourish.
The possibilities at Flourish
Together with concept entrepreneurs they discuss how to present the best in every property, to eventually sell it, rent or stimulate further developments of the property. Therefor the property can be changed into a lunchroom, café, pop stage or for example a conference room in a short amount of time. For the owner of the property there are no direct costs. New footage will be made which can be used by the owner for marketing purposes.
