Restaurant in Leiden with homely atmosphere
15-7-2015
The historic building ‘The Volharding’ at the harbour in Leiden in The Netherlands is the home base of homely restaurant ‘Lot & de Walvis’ since a few weeks now.
Homely atmosphere at restaurant in Leiden
The fictional tour of Lot and her van that was named ‘De Walvis’ (translated as The Whale) went through Southern Europe and South Africa and recently ended at the port of Leiden. At ‘Lot & de Walvis’ American Barn wood and authentic weathered materials are used, mostly gleaned together by co-owner Rob van Wijnen himself. In the opening week, neighbours were personally invited for a drink and 80 people attended the neighbourhood drink. Friends and residents got a 25% discount to have a taste of the food in the first week.
Nightmare
The walls are plastered and transformed from sleek and straight into coarse and wavy. It was a nightmare for the plasterer who was used to deliver plain walls, but the result feels very natural. The various areas are named after the various rooms as you would expect in someone’s house. By using the same tables and style both inside and outside, the various areas of ‘Lot & de Walvis’ feel as one. On the toilet hangs a sign “The toilet design is Lot’s next project”, indicating why this space is less connected to the rest of the restaurant and still needs a make-over.
Food and drink
The extensive menu provides the opportunity to have breakfast all day. In addition, there is a cacophony of categories with headings like ‘bites’, ‘sandwiches’, ‘soups’, ‘small dishes’, ‘homemade burgers’, ‘Lot’s favourite dishes’, ‘desserts’ etc. The fans of refreshing fruit water can eat their hearts out with complimentary glasses of water from three jars with for example fresh melon water, citrus water or lemongrass water. There are beers available from the local brewery Pronck Leiden, wine lovers can definitely enjoy themselves and trendy Gin and Tonic lovers are served as well.
The Hospitality Group Leiden
Just as you would expect when visiting someone’s home, new guests are given a tour of the property, which, with its many nooks and spaces is well suited for a discovery tour. The waiters are already experienced in welcoming guests because a part of the crew worked at the party centre La France in Oegstgeest. Lot & de Walvis is part of the Hospitality Group Leiden together with Van der Werff, La France and City Hall. 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 four Harbour Clubs based in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and Ibiza.
It was a warm welcome at the harbour of Leiden. Although we would have loved to get acquainted with the real Lot!
Unique pop-up restaurants in Amersfoort
15-7-2015
Coming Friday, 17 July there will be a pop-up dinner at a secret location in Amersfoort. There are still some seats left for adventurous food lovers.
Adventurous dining at pop-up restaurants
Visitors of pop-up restaurants are open to adventure and often naturally spontaneous. In addition, the hosts do a lot to break the ice and the reactions to the diners are positive. An interesting side effect is the free publicity the host location gets with such a dinner, and it offers unique closing events for locations as well. Two weeks after a dinner at the Porsche dealer one of the dinner guests bought a car and a number of sites closed shortly after the pop-up event, where the dinner leaves a nice final memory. There have been dinners at a gym, a library, a car dealer, a farmer barn and an art gallery. The initiative for the pop-up restaurants at special locations in the region was created three years ago at restaurant ‘Bergpaviljoen’ in Amersfoort.
Surprise
The dinners host never more than 50 people at a communal table. Visitors come alone, in pairs or small groups. The location of the dinner will be a surprise until the day itself. When ordering tickets, guests fill in their mobile number and dietary wishes and leave their mobile number. They receive a text message with the location on the afternoon before the dinner. For € 59.00 per person, guests receive a welcome cocktail, appetizer, a 3-course dinner, plenty of white and red wine and mineral water, bread, coffee and tea with a digestive and sweets.
Superfast dinners in a giant jukebox during the funfair
13-7-2015
Ibiza Restaurant in Tilburg (The Netherlands) turns its façade temporarily into a giant jukebox during the most famous funfair in the Netherlands.
Superfast dinners
Restaurant Ibiza lies at the fairground and at any day of the funfair the public can enjoy a delicious dinner at a number of fixed times. Dinner will take no more than one hour, guests don’t want to lose too much time! The meals in the jukebox are accompanied by musical entertainment. The giant jukebox will be on the ‘Heuvelring’ in Tilburg from 17 July to 26 July. Tickets are available through the website and range in price from € 19.99 to € 29.99 for a meal and two drinks.
Inspiration from the funfair in Tilburg
Tempting your guests with a great meal, served within the hour and a special entrance and music … Ibiza restaurant becomes part of the fair. A great way to approach their potential guests. What happens nearby your restaurant this summer? Anything you could anticipate on at an original manner? What would generate a lot of free publicity in advance and a lot of extra guests at the event? Restaurant Ibiza really understands the guests that are coming to the funfair, they love theatrical gestures, a good dinner and they need a lot of time to enjoy the amusement rides!
Playground CS is a pop-up beach opposite to Amsterdam Central Station
10-7-2015
A pop-up beach for young families with children opens opposite to Amsterdam Central Station on 15 July. For six weeks, the former construction site of the North / South metro line will be a pleasant and safe place to play.
Playground CS
The pop-up beach is named ‘Playground CS’ and will be located at the Prins Hendrikkade. The beach will be over 1500 square meters and approximately 250m3 sand is shipped to the spot from the former World Cup beach volleyball court at the Dam square.
Initiative
Playground CS is an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs and is supported by the municipality of Amsterdam. The project is part of the ‘City in Balace’ program, which experiments to find a healthy balance between the growth of Amsterdam and the city life in clever ways. The project is conducted in collaboration with Tosti Creative and Amsterdam Verbindt.
Program
Creative and sporty activities will take place on the beach every day for six weeks starting from 15 July onwards. Children can join activities like jeu des boules, a sand castle contest, child yoga, painting courses or an outdoor movie night. Although the initiative is mainly focused on children, it should be a nice place for parents and local residents as well. Adults can participate in tai chi or yoga classes in the morning, or start their day with a coffee and a newspaper in the sun. Cold drinks and snacks are for sale in a shipping container on the premises. More information about the project and its programming will be available on the Playground CS website.
Co-founder Joost Aartsen (Tosti Creative): “We hope to see five hundred happy faces daily at this exceptional location. It’s great that the municipality supports this initiative and wants to realize the project with ambitious entrepreneurs. The goal of this project is to form an Amsterdam collective to get the city in motion together. Anyone with good ideas is welcome to contribute.”
Antwerp’s urban park: Summer Josephine’s
10-7-2015
This summer it’s already the second edition of the Summer Josephine’s, an urban park in Antwerp. The storage areas of City Brewery De Koninck are this summer the place to enjoy summer cocktails, specialty beers, fine food and a nice atmosphere again. Owner Kasper Stuart created a great space here to escape the hectic pace of the city life.
Daily summer festival
There is a central ordering caravan where you buy drink tickets and order food. there is a gourmet restaurant as well. The meat is purchased locally and cooked on the Big Green Egg or Mibrasa-wood oven. They also serve fish and vegetarian dishes.
Responsible for the design with a high vintage feeling is Designer Not Before Ten, this company is, among others, responsible for the design of Balls & Glory Antwerp & Ghent, The Brewery De Halve Maan (The crescent) in Bruges and Club La Rocca in Lier.
In the area of Summer Josephine’s, which is reached by a long hallway where you can enjoy graffiti by famous graffiti artists, you’ll find plenty of eye-catchers. Like, pallet constructions, vintage sofas, old-fashioned lampshades and second-hand accessories. And have a look at the beach chairs, a sandbox for the kids and picnic benches.
Inspiration: special cocktail evenings at Summer Josephine’s
Kasper Stuart also organizes special evenings around :Pimm’s Cup, one of our favorite cocktails. But also around the Cointreau Fizz. With a special cart for the Pimm’s Cup and a Cointreau Fizz bike on the site. Fun for a large summer terrace!
Affordable quality in cosy and casual restaurant Jack Dish
10-7-2015
Restaurant Jack Dish opened at the Stadionplein in Amsterdam on 7 July.
Sometimes you stumble upon something and everything seems to fit in. After a spontaneous visit to the unfortunately fully booked BautZuid, a round at the major construction site of the Stadionplein in Amsterdam didn’t gave much hope for another proper cosy and casual dining place. Until we spotted Jack Dish. At first glance, a small cafe, but once inside it was visible that the restaurant consist of two rooms. Add a huge terrace to that, and you have a restaurant that can feed many mouths and steel as many hearts this summer.
Affordable quality
With a cosy interior, a lot of plants and a half open kitchen, the restaurant is decorated with a fine touch. The Facebook page gives an impression of the recent renovations of the restaurant. The high kitchen counter is the best spot in our opinion. There you are at eye level with the enthusiastic former chefs of Restaurant Braque who are already nicely attuned with each other and the equipment (including a Big Green Egg). Restaurant Braque got a 10- by late Johannes van Dam (famous Dutch food critic) in 2010 and restaurant Jack Dish continues the aim for affordable, high quality and tasty food.
Holy Günter
The menu offers various main courses such as chicken, salmon, eggplant (vega) and rib-eye. Although the rib-eye unfortunately was sold out, the pain was eased by a drink on the house. The crowd was relatively young and was merely from the neighbourhood, which made it a fine casual atmosphere with congratulations, greetings and smiling faces all around. With crispy fries and a variety of specialty beers, of which Holy Günter is my absolute favorite, this restaurant will provide a lasting boost to the Stadionplein. ^Armand Sol
Inflatables Festival for adults only in Amsterdam
9-7-2015
On 29 and 30 August, the first inflatables festival of The Netherlands is organized in Amsterdam.
From ball pit to inflatables festival
Because ball pits and inflatables are popular at festivals, Michael Döbelman and Bob Wisman (party organization ‘Dagverblijf’, freely translated as ‘Day Care’) came up with the idea to organize an inflatables festival. After overwhelming and positive responses online, they have decided to actually organize it. On 29 and 30 August there will be 2.000 visitors a day in a temporary world of crazy bouncy fun. With a minimum age of 18, the party animals don’t have to be afraid that they will trample little kids.
Inflatables fun
A total of 7500m2 will be filled with inflatables fun. It will be a Valhalla of bouncy castles, assault courses, water slides, bumper balls, base jumps and of course the classic ball pits. DJ’s will spin dance music that will enhance the bounce fun. Those interested for the event at Sportpark Sloten in Amsterdam can register on the website and receive a link to the ticketing system that will be available as from Saturday.
Clothing
The Facebook page of the organization challenges visitors to dress up as a team to win prizes, also the organization advises to wear clothes that are okay to get dirty and above all to bring dry / clean clothes. Inflatable items are allowed.
The inflatables festival: “Jump, dance, dive, fall, get up and move again”.
Magic Placemats, the new coloring
9-7-2015
Pamper your little guests with a magic placemat, a 3D digital coloring picture, and give them a visual experience in your restaurant. They are likely to remain in their seat longer, because seeing your own drawing come to life with the Prismar 3D Studio app is, of course, super cool!
The possibilities of the magic placemats
You can choose from standard magic placemats that can be brought to life in 3D with the Prismar app. The ‘magic drawings’ can be personalized and you can even create your own magic placemats. Photos of the magic personalized placemats can be shared through social media. Great for a ‘Share and Win’ campaign to gather email addresses, likes etc …
Additionally, certainly with older children, the possibility exists that they will be able to concentrate longer…. with the result that the parents can drink an extra glass of wine. It’s an ideal combination of old (coloring) and new (apps). So grandparents can enjoy watching their grandchildren draw a coloring picture and kids can still use their parents’ mobile or iPad!
A postcard instead of a digital message
8-7-2015
In restaurant Eastwood guests can send their greetings on a provided postcard, the recipient can collect a free beer with the card.
Postcard
On every table in restaurant Eastwood guests can find a tool box with napkins, cutlery, menus and even a postcard that they can fill out and send. For people that are quickly bored, this is a much prettier solution than reaching for their instead. The receiver of the card can hand it in for a free beer at the restaurant, now that’s a great thing to find in your letterbox!
Special visit
Guests can indicate how they feel and why they feel like that on the postcard. It’s a nice addition to the gimmicks that we’ve noticed earlier during a visit to the multifunctional (hotel) restaurant. Caroline Receveur is the general manager of DoubleTree by Hilton Amsterdam Centraal Station and also responsible for the restaurant. She says: “We are looking for ways to make the experience for both the guests and the staff as special as possible. Our most recent addition is a book for kids that that describes ‘The tale of Eastwood’, written by Bavo Galama.”
For anyone that wants to be surprised at a dinner, Eastwood is definitely recommended.
Beer pong cleaner with The Slip Cup™
8-7-2015
The Slip Cup creates ‘clean’ beer pong without changing a single aspect to the game. Mighty popular in the USA: beer pong. And often played in bars, whereas the ball touches the ground, the beer doesn’t get any healthier!
The Slip Cup™, is a cup insert for beer pong that fits into 16 and 18 ounce disposable cups.
Catch the ball and it doesn’t land in your beer anymore. The patent-pending protective barriers fit right onto your typical party cups and even feature a ‘catch element’ that keeps the ball from bouncing out and falling on dirty floors. The brothers behind the invention have raised over $40.000 (at Tuesday 7 July) toward their $70,000 Kickstarter campaign goal. The backers will score a 20-pack of Slip Cups when they’re ready later this summer for all kinds of ‘clean’ beer pong gaming. They added numbers at the bottom of the Slip Cups and created 15 Brand-New Drinking Games with the Slip Cup!
