‘Lecker Chess Tournament’ in Utrecht
9-11-2021
Yesterday the ‘Lecker Schaken Schaaktoernooi’ (Lecker Chess Tournament) started in Utrecht (The Netherlands). The ‘Lecker Chess Tournament’ lasts four weeks and has been organized by the ‘De Leckere Brewery’ in collaboration with local cafes and restaurants.
Great idea to organize at a local level, we also happen to know people who started playing chess again after seeing the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. And great that after a lot of online quizzes we can finally play a board game with each other again! By organizing it on the first days of the week, the De Leckere brewery creates an extra source of income for the catering industry. Inspiration for other cities? Or some bars?
Reading time: 1 minute
Trends we spotted | Week 44
1-11-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu 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 the pop-up ‘Vurger King’ in Madrid, this Burger King location will serve only meat-free items. And Ruby Hotels outlines their Asia expansion plans.
The Accor group will also be entering the house rental market, the accor-residences.com website shows the group’s selected collection of homes.
Last weekend was Halloween, which is also becoming more popular in Europe. Some Halloween inspiration for 2022: ‘Haunted House of Fryght’ by Wendy’s, ‘Haunted Restaurant with Fright Castle Takeover’ by White Castle and in Paris you could go to a Halloween party at ‘Le Manoir de Paris’.
You can enjoy the afternoon tea, ‘Prêt-à-Portea‘ autumn/winter 2021 collection, again in The Berkeley hotel! And recently the Chiaro restaurant opened in the Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome in Berlin. Here chef Tim Mälzer developed an Italian cuisine with Japanese elements.
Pop-up Petit Latour by Ruinart | Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin
29-10-2021
This week, Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk opened a temporary champagne bar: Petit Latour by Ruinart. Located on the first floor of the iconic hotel, this stylish champagne bar is open til the end of February next year. At Petit Latour it is possible to order various special champagnes with matching French dishes, such as crostinis with salmon and Gillardeau oyster with champagne-mignonette. The bites are created by chef Marcel van Lier of big brother restaurant Latour, the restaurant of Huis ter Duin, which has been awarded a Michelin star. Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin is located at the coast of the Nord Sea, half a hour drive from Amsterdam.
Reading time: 1 minute
Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort | Caribbean’s only CO2-neutral hotel shares framework for sustainable holidays
28-10-2021
It’s been 29 years since the world-famous UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and Ewald Biemans, owner/CEO of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort in Aruba, is still as inspired as the day he heard the call to action made to the world at that conference. As an passionate news follower, Biemans read and watched all the coverage he could find about the summit in 1992 on the tiny island of Aruba. The conference, which he described as ‘a wake-up call’, accelerated his efforts to what has been awarded the Caribbean’s most ecologically and first CO2-neutral hotel since 2018 and eventually led to an award from the United Nations in 2020: the prestigious Global UN 2020 Climate Action Award for Climate Neutral Now.
This year, Ewald Biemans has been invited to be one of speakers at the 26th annual UN climate conference – the Conference of the Parties or COP26 – which will take place from 1 to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland and is expected to attract 30,000 attendees. COP26 is considered the world’s most important climate change conference in the race to keep the temperature rise within 1.5°C as mentioned in the 2015 Paris agreement. The importance grows with just nine years to go before the ecological consequences would be catastrophic and irreversible.
Reading time: 2 minutes
Trends we spotted | Week 43
26-10-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu 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… ‘The Great Feast’ in The Old Selfridges Hotel in London and Dole suggest carving a pineapple instead of a pumpkin for Halloween. 😉 With a downloadable pineapple Jack-O’-Lantern carving template!
REEF has a great view on redesigning urban spaces in communities hubs and REEF Kitchens uses a unique real estate strategy to its advantage. They opened the first two ghosts kitchens of Wendy’s in the UK. Furthermore, they will open 700 ghost kitchens in the USA, Canada and the UK.
And some sustainable inspiration for sustainable building: the De Halo building in San Francisco made of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and the HAUT building in Amsterdam. And a link to an sustainable fabric for carpets and flooring: Econyl. Just as strong as nylon and made of recycled waste.
A design graduate from the Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands, has created a project to highlight how renewable energy derived from tomato vines could be used to run a cloud server. And a link to an article about artfully Cannabis-infused confections.
In the Netherlands, women’s average gross hourly earnings are 14% lower than men’s, which seemed entirely outdated to De Koffiejongens. So they ask men to voluntarily pay more… And the Franz Fisher ‘Alpenhütte’ in Austria is the first mountain restaurant to serve vegan-vegetarian dishes only.
We spotted a new chain in the USA: The Sweet Paris Creperie & Café with cafes in Houston and one in Mexico opens new locations in Miami.
Next Gen Foods introduces plant-based chicken ‘TiNDLE’ to the European market in Amsterdam
25-10-2021
The fast-growing Singaporean food-tech startup Next Gen Foods – founded in 2020 – will make its European debut this year, starting in Amsterdam. The company has a state-of-the-art production facility in the Netherlands, where its main product – plant-based chicken ‘TiNDLE’ – is made. TiNDLE has been successfully launched in Asia and the Middle East and people recently had a sneak preview at The New York City Wine & Food Festival, where the product received critical acclaim. TiNDLE is now available in about 150 restaurants.
Reading time: 2 minutes
Ruby Hotels | This hotel chain continues to expand, now also to Italy
22-10-2021
The Munich-based Ruby Group continues its growth and brings their Lean Luxury philosophy to Italy. In a historic building in the heart of Florence, Ruby, together with GB Holding Group, is realizing a Ruby Hotel with 118 rooms and a Ruby Workspace with a total surface area of approximately 300 m². The images accompanying this article are from Ruby Hotel Louise in Frankfurt. The rooms are the same at all Ruby Hotels, only they can differ in details regarding decoration. Ruby does the design for all her hotels herself, every hotel has the Ruby ‘signature’ but the theme differs, often in line with the history of the building or the location.
Ruby Hotels currently has 12 hotels in Düsseldorf (3), Vienna (3), Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Zurich and London. Founder and CEO Michael Struck is breaking new ground in the hotel industry with his Lean Luxury philosophy. Through a lean organizational structure and with a concentration on the essentials, Ruby hotels know how to create a contemporary, affordable form of luxury for modern, cost- and style-conscious customers. The group was founded in 2013 and, in addition to the 12 hotels, has nineteen more hotels under construction and/or in the planning stages. With the Ruby Asia joint venture, founded in 2018, Ruby is expanding into Asia. In addition, Ruby offers Ruby Workspaces in Munich, Hamburg and Düsseldorf: perfectly equipped workplaces in a creative environment with access to an inspiring office community.
Reading time: 2 minutes
How spooky do you want it to be? | 13 bits of Halloween inspiration
19-10-2021
On American inspiration websites you can’t miss Halloween. Halloween is major in the US and slowly but surely more and more people in the Netherlands are celebrating it too! In our Dutch village it will be celebrated as well. The organization normally responsible for our King’s Day celebration will this year also organize a Halloween spooky tour along ‘haunted houses’ where the children get hot chocolate and can pick up ‘creepy’ candy. Such a fun night! How can you celebrate Halloween as a hospitality provider? Would you profit from a celebration and would your Dutch or European guests enjoy it? The last point is of course clear; it is fun and it always makes sense to positively surprise your guests, even if it is with a freshly baked ‘ghost’ cookie or a mini pumpkin of marzipan. To get in this spooky atmosphere before the actual holiday (31st of October), we have listed 13 bits of Halloween inspiration for you! ^Marjolein
Reading time: 3 minutes
Trends we spotted | Week 42
18-10-2021
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu 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 NANKA that makes patties from Jack Fruit in combination with mushrooms, chicken and beef to help meat-eaters to reduces their meat intake in Malaysia. And in Germany Essity and McDonald’s are recycling the paper cups into toilet paper.
The Brooklyn Dumpling Shop from New York is growing fast through franchising, they’re opening 5 new locations in Florida. And the Singapore-born, Instagram-famous Paradise Group debuted in California last September with their Rainbow Soup Dumplings!
The Dutch cider producers and importers of CiderCider will open ‘the Ciderbar’ in Rotterdam Hofbogen by the end of December. And in Groningen the first RavioliBar in the Netherlands opened. They make fresh ravioli daily!
The Cheesecake Factory has been sharing a slew of their incredible recipes for readers to make in their own kitchens since the COVID-19 crisis. Inspirational! And the Dutch Vegan Junk Food Bar will open in Germany this fall.
Goût de France ’21 & the gastronomy of tomorrow
15-10-2021
The Goût de(/Good) France culinary event is back, for its 6th edition! From October 14 to 22, 2021, chefs from around the world will be serving dinners “à la française” as an ode to French cuisine. In previous editions, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Provence took center stage, but this time the cultural and culinary heritage of the Centre-Val de Loire region is on the menu, with a sustainable sauce.
Goût de France is an initiative of the well-known French chef Alain Ducasse and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is initiated by Explore France and the 2 Michelin star chef Christophe Hay from the Vendôme is their ambassador this year. Interesting to read about his initiatives to put freshwater fish from the Loire back on the menu and his permaculture vegetable garden.
Lecker Schaken Schaaktoernooi
Bierbrouwerij De Leckere
