Winter Warming Cocktails
14-10-2013
Wine brand Barefoot shows that you don’t have to drink cocktails during the summer months exclusively. For the cold winter period, the wine brand has introduced two Winter Warming cocktails; the Choco-tini and Mull-licious. The base for the Choco-tini is the Barefood Merlot, a wine with notes of raspberry, blackberry and chocolate. The Mull-licious is made with Barefood Cabernet Sauvignon with notes of ripe berries and currants. The ideal cocktails for the winter.
The BaseCamp Young Hostel in Bonn
11-10-2013
A new hostel has opened in Bonn, Germany. ‘The BaseCamp Young Hostel Bonn is located inside a former storage facility, it’s a covered campsite with a hostel feeling. All the ‘rooms’ of the hotel are camping trailers and other retro vehicles. The hostel accommodates 120 beds across 15 caravans, trailers and airstreams. The rates for a night range from €54 up to €76. The hotel is an idea of the German hotelier Michael Schlösser and is in business as from August. The trailers, airstreams and caravans are all classic models that definitely remind many of the holiday experiences of their childhood. The youtube video is a bit long but shows the whole campground.
Lazy Sunday Afternoon in Amsterdam
11-10-2013
It pays to work together. In the Netherlands we see more and more restaurant- and hotelowners looking for ways to work together. In April we spotted a pop-up restaurant by two-star chef Edwin Vinke from the south of Holland in Buitenplaats Amerongen. On October the 27th (fully booked) and November 24th SchultnHues&Friends will provide Amsterdam with their Lazy Sunday, a combination of good music and culinary delights. Normally their Lazy Sunday is held in Zutphen where their restaurant is located. Peter Gast of restaurant ‘t Schulten Hues will work with André Gerrits (‘het Amsterdammertje’ in Loenen a/d Vecht / one Michelin star) and DJ Hans Stroeve to provide a swinging and succulent Lazy Sunday Afternoon, in the famous Café Americain on the Leidseplein. For us who live in the West of Holland a fun way to get acquainted with the cooking of Peter Gast without having to drive the 2 hours to Zutphen.
Become a feedie besides being a foodie
10-10-2013
Share your food photos online and share actual food with those children who need it. Feedie, a new free app, aims to channel all the food ínstagrammers’ toward a common goal. After a restaurant guest uploads a photo on Feedie and shares it on his or hers social networks (Google+, Foursquare, Facebook or Twitter), participating restaurants donate money to The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a daily meal to extremely poor school children. The app has been launched officially on October 9 at The Lunchbox Fund’s annual gala. Quite some restaurants in New York are participating, including Del Posto, The Spotted Pig and La Esquina. Feedie says on their website that they are already working international.
Pizza like ice cream on a stick
10-10-2013
A real Italian promotional short film, a bit old fashioned, but the product is innovative. The Italian company Hasta La Pizza has introduced ‘pizza on a stick’ on the Anuga fair in Cologne. It is designed for the on-the-go market. Hasta la Pizza is available in the flavors Margherita, ham and salami, in packs of 60 grams. Gerardo Acampora came up with the concept two years ago when he saw two boys on the beach. One ate a slice of pizza, the other an ice cream on a stick. That gave him the idea to combine the two. He went to work and four months later he applied for a patent. You can warm them in a toaster or in the oven and the makers promise that the pizza’s won’t leak tomato sauce and you will not get dirty fingers. Hasta la Pizza offers ‘pizza on a stick’ in license to producers from outside Italy.
‘s-Hertogenbosch is most welcoming city again
9-10-2013
This article is only available in Dutch:
Den Haag, 9 oktober 2013 – ‘s-Hertogenbosch is voor de vierde keer op rij uitgeroepen tot Meest Gastvrije Stad. Net als de afgelopen drie jaar kreeg de Brabantse hoofdstad dit jaar de hoogste waarderingscijfers van haar bezoekers.
Op basis van uitgebreid onderzoek, uitgevoerd door VVV Nederland en Van Spronsen & Partners horeca – advies, is de gastvrijheidsbeleving van ruim 8.000 bezoekers van de 21 grootste steden van ons land voor de vijfde maal in kaart gebracht. Lees verder.
Brugal Refreshingly Dry Bar
9-10-2013
Brugal rum from the Dominican Republic is celebrating their 125th birthday! To celebrate this they have challenged bartenders from the Netherlands to create their own Brugal Dry cocktail recipe and to create a concept for a Brugal Refreshingly Dry Bar. From all entries 10 bartenders were selected from witch the jury will taste their cocktail. Three finalists will continue and decide who makes the best cocktail and came up with a great concept on the 21st of October in hotel Droog (Amsterdam). The winner wins his or her own Refreshingly Dry Bar for a night in hotel Droog. They can invite their friends and Wyane Collins – an internationally renowned and award winning bart trainer – will join as colleague.
Your entry 24 hours in the sunlight
9-10-2013
Drawing the attention of all passersby, the vegan restaurant Rayen at Lope de Vega street in Madrid creatively redesigned its store entrance facade. The installation is titled (fos), which means “light” in the Greek language, and “melted” in Catalan. The entry of this small eatery invites their passersby to stop and step into the ‘spotlight’. Created by Eleni Karpatsi, Susan Piquer and Julio Calvo, the (fos) trio. The team introduced an unique installation that paints the illusion of an artificial light beam shining from above. Effectively highlighting the restaurant front door for 4 days and nights, was made using yellow tape, pineapples, a lamp, and painted pieces of art and lawn furniture. At the Facebookpage from the (fos) trio, you can find a lot of inspirational pictures.
Dutch hospitality game
8-10-2013
Late September, our colleagues Lennert Rietveld and Laura Stoter got introduced to the Dutch board game ‘Gastologie’. Jeannine Sok who developed the game together with students from the ‘Cas Spijkers Academy Twente’, played the game with visitors during the event ‘Gastvrij Rotterdam’. Nice to play the game with your staff or to use it to increase the Hospitality level that you want your guest to experience in your business.
Hotel Mitland uses the HotelBooQi
8-10-2013
Recently our managing director, Hans van Spronsen, wrote a column ‘Generation 0.0’ from witch we quote the following paragraph, ” Maybe the fact that the majority of hotel guests in the middle and upper segment is older than 40 years and is not active on the social media. That’s why I’m always amazed when I see that these hotels have a Facebook page and are very active on Twitter. Who are you trying to reach? Not the target audience, I think. We do not read tweets or likes.” In his column which is published in a Dutch magazine he explains that this generation checks all the reviews at bookings.com or Tripadvisor and that hotelmanagers better check these reviews at a daily base and react to the reviews in a personal way.
Hotel Mitland in Utrecht is responding with the introduction of the hotelBooQi . This communication tool , a folding flyer credit card size , serves as a holder for the room key, contains practical information about staying in the hotel and a map with landmarks. The hotel thinks that despite the attendance of mobile applications, that at this moment in time it is still more effective to inform their guests this way. This in addition to the information on their website and taking into account the 0.0 generation. Besides that the unfolding of the HotelBooQi is still faster than downloading and opening an application.