Ciel Bleu IPA made by Brouwerij ‘t IJ
13-4-2015
Three years ago, two-star restaurant Ciel Bleu launched its first IPA (India Pale Ale) in collaboration with the renowned Amsterdam brewery ‘Brouwerij ‘t IJ’. While the intention was a single collaboration, guests kept asking for a new beer.
The chefs Onno Kokmeijer and Arjan Speelman thus faced the challenge to brew a new gastronomical beer that would taste even better than the first IPA. After many sessions and trying all kinds of ingredients, they chose kaffir lime as the main element of the Ciel Bleu IPA 2.0 beer. This citrus fruit is also known as Djeroek Poeroet and is widely used in the Asian cuisine. The dry-hop with Waimea and Citra hops gives the beer a flowery, freshly bitter character.
Brouwerij ‘t IJ
The brewery of Brouwerij ‘t IJ has two locations, one in East Amsterdam, next to the Gooyer windmill. This is also where the brewery began and where the pub is located. The second brewery is located on the Zeeburgerpad. The pub is opened every day from 2 pm to 8 pm. All the beers are brewed in the traditional manner, without filtering or pasteurization.
Ideal food pairing and serving
In restaurant Ciel Bleu the beer is served in a wine glass at a temperature of 10 to 12 degrees Celcuis. Dishes with mostly fresh elements best match the Ciel Bleu IPA, such as citrus combined with sweet elements. Like any IPA beer, it tastes best within a couple of months after production. The beer is available at the Ciel Bleu restaurant and several specialty beer shops. Of course the beer is also available at ‘Brouwerij ‘t IJ’ itself, which is worth a visit as well!
Order your drinks through OpenTabs
10-4-2015
Guests of food court The World don’t have to wait to order their drinks anymore. They can order through their phones whenever they want to. The company eMove.me made this possible together with its German partner OpenTabs. They created the OpenTabs app and launched it in the Netherlands.
The World
On Wednesday 8 April The World officially opened its doors in Rotterdam. Guests can go there for the new dining concept by Wesley Ladage, son of the famous french-fries baker Bram Ladage. For this concept he works together with restaurants Asian Glories and O’Pazzo.
OpenTabs
You can order drinks from the espresso bar and wine bar of The World with your mobile phone. Each table in this section of The Word has a QR-code. This code can be scanned with the OpenTabs app and the menu appears on the screen. Make a choice and place your order. If you’ve paid, the restaurants promises to deliver the order within the five minutes.
Grab & Go
From half past seven in the morning, you can choose the ‘Grab & Go’ option. You can order for example a coffee and a sandwich and can pick it up when you want, without having to wait in a queue.
According to the CEO of eMove.me, Martijn Lukaart, this will be the future for the hospitality branch/industry and retail: ‘’The technology is becoming more sophisticated which, means we have the possibility to respond to your customer’s needs in a better way. This is not only convenient for the customer, who doesn’t have to wait any longer, but also for the entrepreneur.’’
The Roast Bar and Rotisserie
9-4-2015
The Roast Room is the new restaurant of Michael and Saskia Deenik and opened officially on 8 April. The Roast Room is a butcher shop, roast bar and rotisserie in one, located in the RAI Amtrium at the Europaplein in Amsterdam.
The butchers cut the meat that’s used in the restaurant themselves and they make fresh sausages and burgers as well. The vegetables and herbs for the restaurant come from a five floors City Farming space on the south side of the Amtrium.
The Roast Bar and Rotisserie
The Roast Bar on the ground floor is a brasserie which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If the weather allows, it’s possible to eat outside at the terrace. The bar is decorated with large copper beer tanks filled with Warsteiner lager and the special beers.
The Rotisserie, a fine dining restaurant which is open for lunch and dinner, is located on the first floor. It includes a roof terrace for sunny days. The open kitchen has a Rotissoire, a charcoal grill, Australian Beech-wood furnaces for gas burners and a California South Bend-broiler that can heat up to 1,400 degrees Celsius.
Interior
The interior is the work of Studio Modijefsky and Studio Molen, who were responsible for the interior of Visaandeschelde as well. Restaurant Visaandeschelde is from the same owners. A bronze ‘Tower of Babel’ with shiny sausages welcomes guests at the entrance, an iconic butcher’s leg dangles in front of the butchery and a giant bronze ‘Ginger’ chandelier is one of the other unique cool features of the restaurant.
A tip for wellness hotels: The Swimsuit Dryer
8-4-2015
Just put your swimsuit or swim shorts in the dryer after swimming and in 10 seconds your swimsuit will be 95% dry.
We’ve been to the Grand Hotel in Stockholm in December where we found a small hospitable gesture in the wellness center: a dryer for your swimsuit. Very handy for hotels where the wellness is often split into a swimming pool where the swimsuit is obligated and a sauna where it’s optional. Watch the video for an instruction.
The swimsuit dryer
The swimsuit dryer doesn’t use any heat to dry : in terms of energy consumption, it is 350 W instead of 3000 W for a simple dryer. If you multiply the energy saved with the number of user in a pool, you can buy more than one unit in a year…. Moreover, No heat = swimsuit textile fiber preserved!
The Swimsuit Dryer is easy and quick to clean and is available in the colours granite, white marble, sandstone and silver. There is also a version that is futuristically illuminated. Cleaning brush and disinfectant cleaner are provided with the dryer.
At this time our colleagues of Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy are working on a publication about the wellness branch. This will be presented later this month.
If you’re interested in our publication, you can let us know through vraag@spronsen.com.
DreamCheaper
8-4-2015
This is another website that helps their customers to secure the best deal possible. Book a hotel in the ‘flexible option’, forward the confirmation to DreamCheaper and let them find you the best deal possible. They will rebook and cancel the old confirmation, and you will still get the same room!
DreamCheaper promises cheaper hotel rooms
DreamCheaper, a German start-up, has automated the process to make a deal with fluctuating room prices by canceling and rebooking the room anytime it signals the same room at a better price. Customers have to create an account on DreamCheaper and forward their confirmation email. DreamCheaper starts a process of price-comparison that continues until the day before check-in. The startup’s automated system monitors the changing room prices on hundreds of travel websites (they do vary on supply and demand).
According to DreamCheaper, customers have no risk, the website first books the new room and cancels the old one later. They take a 20 percent cut of the money saved, so it is always incentivized to get the best price. They promise to optimize 2 out of 3 reservations.
A positive development for consumers but for hoteliers it’s another player on the market looking for the cheapest deals possible. Of course at the expense of the revenue of the hotel room.
Beam: The smart projector that fits in any light socket
7-4-2015
Beam can turn any flat surface into a big screen. It is a powerful projector equipped with a smart computer, all inside a beautifully designed casing.
Beam is already funded on Kickstarter
You can play games, watch movies or share content from your smartphone or tablet. You can also watch TV on your bedroom ceiling or project recipes on your kitchen wall. Next to that, Beam can assist you in your daily activities, like waking up in the morning with the latest news and your agenda or showing you your social updates when you come home. Beam is easy to set up and control with the Apple or Android app. You can screw it into any light socket or use the included power cable to place it on any flat surface.
With Beam the makers have created an easy to use ‘internet of things’-device that can entertain and assist you throughout the day. The patent for the technology inside Beam is pending. The fundraising went amazing, they raised more money than expected.
Inspiration
If you watch the video above you can easily imagine the use of the Beam in restaurants or hotels. Imagine your specialties of the day projected on the walls or a wall of pictures in your hotel lobby, presenting your menu, pictures of your wellness center or digital paintings. Or what do you think about presenting the kitchen crew while working on the plates of your guests? In a bar Beam could be used to project games on the tables.
Alternative for candles on the table: wine bottle with the Bottlelight
7-4-2015
The Bottlelight is a simple wine cork that has been hollowed out to place a mini USB powered light within it.
All you have to do, is to charge the lights and place it within a used wine bottle (or another alternative bottle). The white light of the LED creates a little lamp, the color is adjusted by the color of the bottle. The lamps will shine up to three hours on a full charge. Created by Suck UK.
Septem beer
3-4-2015
Septem beer is a Greek beer. In Latin Septem means ‘seven’. The meaning inspired the creators of the beer to create various beers and name them after the days of the week. During Terra Madre in Turin Armand tasted all the different types. This included the Tuesday and Wednesday variant, however these are not available anymore.
The beer variants are: Monday’s Pilsner, Thursday’s Red Ale, Friday’s Pale Ale , Saturday’s Porter, Sunday’s Honey Golden Ale en Septem 8η Μέρα (Septem’s eighth day).
Microbrewery
The microbrewery of Septem is located in Orologio (Greece). The microbrewery was founded by the Greek oenologist (wine expert) Sofoklis Panagiotou and the economist Georgios Panagiotou. They began with their first distribution of the bottles of beer in June 2009.
Masterclass in brewing beer
Sofoklis Panagiotou gives a masterclass in brewing beer in Amsterdam, on Monday 13 April 2015. He will explain how he creates his award-winning beer. It’s also possible to taste the beer afterwards!
You can reserve here to participate the masterclass.
Beer cocktail by Mongozo
2-4-2015
Mongoza introduced various beer cocktails last year’s April. Now the spring has arrived, it’s time to bring the beer cocktail back. You can make such a cocktail easily with the beers from Mongozo.
Mongozo has created five different recipes of beer cocktails. The cocktail choices are; Mongozo Banana, Mongozo June Bug, Mongozo Mango, Mongozo in the mix and Mongozo Orange Samba.
The beer cocktail is very popular in America recently and a surprising alternative, just like with a spoonful of jam
Recipes
- This is what you need to make a Mongozo Banana; 30 ml Tequila, 30ml of lime juice (1/2 lime), 20 ml of sugar syrup and top this all off with Mongozo Banana.
- To make the Mongozo June Bug you need 30ml of rum, 15ml of melon liquor, Mongozo Cocos and Mongozos Banana.
- The ingredients of the Mongozo Mango consists of 2 wedges of orange, 2 teaspoons of cane sugar, 30ml gin, 1/2 of a flesh passion fruit and top off with the Mongozo mango.
- The Mongozo in the mix is made with Mongoza Coconut and rum, Mongozo Mango and rum or Mongozo Banana and rum.
- To make the Mongozo Orange Samba you need 2 wedges of lime, 2 spoons of sugar cane, 20ml of Cachaça rum, Mongozo Banana and Mongozo Mango.
Chef’s Table Netflix series
1-4-2015
6 episodes on Netflix
Netflix introduces a new culinary documentary series about chefs and their philosophy about cooking. The documentary will be split into six episodes. Moviemaker David Gelb will visit a few top chefs during this series and has a look at their kitchens and private life’s. The trailer of Chef’s Table went online last Monday.
Participating chefs at Chef’s Table
Every episode the viewers of Chef’s Table have the opportunity to dive into the life of a different chef. The chefs will show their kitchen and private life for the viewers to have an idea. The participating chefs are Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy), Dan Barber (Blue Hill Restaurant in Stone Barns and in New York , USA), Francis Mallmann (El Restaurante Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Niki Nakayama (N/Naka Restaurant in Los Angeles, USA), Ben Shewry (Attica Restaurant in Melbourne, Australia), and Magnus Nilsson (Fäviken in Järpen, Sweden).
Chef’s Table is produced by David Gelb, Matt Weaver, Andrew Fried and Brian McGinn. The series is directed by David Gelb, Andrew Fried, Brian McGinn and Clay Jeter.
Chef’s Table premieres 26 April on Netflix.
