Broth-to-go at Brodo in NYC
3-9-2015
Broth is very popular, especially in those cities with very cold winters. Last year we’ve spotted Brodo in NYC at the end of wintertime. And as we’re all rethinking our winter menu’s it might be an idea to consider serving broth-to-go.
Broth-to-go instead of coffee-to-go
We already wrote an article about it last March, with the main focus on an European soup initiative in Montpellier (France) by chef Marc Veyrat, Urban Soup. At his soup place, guests can create their own soup. With the first week of bad weather in the Netherlands, we would like to inspire entrepreneurs to follow the example chef Marco Canora of Brodo gave us last winter and start serving broth-to-go during the cold days.
In NYC you go to the window of Brodo for a broth-to-go
Marco Canora started the trend of broth-to-go with his East Village take-out window dedicated to bone broth, offered in a few different varieties and served in a steaming paper cup for easy sipping. There are a handful of add-ins like bone marrow, fermented beet juice and fresh turmeric, plus a couple of more traditional soups too.
Check out Zagat’s interview with Marco Canora and reconsider serving broth-to-go this winter at your place, whether you’re a butcher, restaurant owner or a coffeeshop.
Van Dobben Corner in Amsterdam Arena
1-9-2015
At the first tier of the Amsterdam Arena, behind the F-side, opened the first ‘Van Dobben’ Corner. As from this footbal season, the beef croquettes, bitterballs (small round croquettes, famous in The Netherlands) and rolls with the Van Dobben veal frikandel or the Van Dobben luxury cheese soufflé are no longer only available at mobile snack carts. The Van Dobben Corner also serves: a ‘Van Dobben’ sausage roll and a special meatball roll with Hellmann’s Honey Mustard Sauce.
Van Dobben Corner
The first Van Dobben Corner just opened before the first home game of Ajax and was officially opened by former Ajax player Johnny Rep. There are already plans for several Van Dobben Corners in the Arena. Hans van der Linden, Catering Club and director Frank Visser, Commercial Director of Van Dobben are happy with their successful co-creation and have plans for more Van Dobben Corners in the Amsterdam Arena.
The Green Toaster, an asset for your café or restaurant?
31-8-2015
The Green Toaster is a smartphone cleaning device. One of the places the Green Toaster would be a benefit would be in cafes or restaurants. You could offer your guests a sanitization of their phone while they have a drink.
Smart phones do have a big effect on how to accommodate your guests
We’re already getting accustomed to delivering ‘free Wi-Fi’, some restaurants, grand-cafés are even able to give their guest the opportunity to charge their mobile phone. Through either charging tables or pillars like ‘Charge to go’ and ‘Implug’ for smaller businesses. And now we’re faced with a new ticker to boost our sales and another investment… Ad agency Innored and UK-bases design school Kinneir Dufort created a sanitizing device for Korean e-commerce giant Gmarket. The Green Toaster.
The Green Toaster
The Green Toaster cleans every smartphone. Did you know that there are up to 7000 types of bacteria living on every smartphone? How often do you clean your smartphone? Wouldn’t you like to have the opportunity to clean it somewhere?
The Green Toaster does deep clean any smartphone using UV light! Wouldn’t it be great to have as excuse to go to a bar; “Honey, I’m going to have my smartphone cleaned.”
More about the Green Toaster on Springwise.
Mix and match your favorite chips with a sandwich at Mr. Crisp
28-8-2015
Mr. Crisp is England’s first crisp sandwich shop supplying over 35 varieties of crisps to enjoy. It’s a shop in West Yorkshire, entirely devoted to the art of potato chip sandwiches.
At this moment in time the most new concepts we spot are preparing healthy foods or intent do it. But with every survey we take, people often admit not to have too much eye for the healthy cuisine when dining out. Potato chips in sandwiches is new to me! I did notice small bags of crisps served with sandwiches in the United Stated, but I always thought it was meant to eat them on the side. It seems that people put the potato chips on top of the sandwiches to add a crunchy bite to the sandwich.
Mr. Crisp
Marc Pearson, owner of Mr. Crisp, was inspired by a similar shop in Belfast and he offers 35 different varieties of chips and an extensive sandwich menu, tea and baguettes according The Daily Mail. Mix and match your own favorite flavour combinations in your ultimate crispy sandwich.
Pantone Café: color on the menu
24-8-2015
Inspired by the Pantone colors the Monaco Restaurant Group opened the Pantone Café in Monaco near the Grimaldi Forum, on the 14th of July. The exterior, interior, trays, chairs, napkins, tables and the food, everything has a color code matching the Pantone colors. Color is on the menu here!
Pantone
The Pantone café is inspired by the Pantone color matching system. Lawrence Herbert started in 1963 with the Pantone color systems company and in the meantime the system has become a cult. In 2010 we wrote about the Pantone Hotel in Brussels. And now the Monaco Restaurant Group (they’re the group behind Song Qi, the Beefbar and Le Bouchon in Monaco) realized the Pantone Café.
About the Pantone Café
The café serves sandwiches, salads, ice cream, drinks etc. and every food item is matched with a Pantone color. You can order a chocolate éclair (Decante Chocolate 19-1625) or a prosciutto sandwich (Parma Brown 18-1531), the packaging is tailored to these colors. You can order an Aperol Orange which is served with the colors 17-1464. The Pantone Café is open until 9 September, so if you go to Monaco ……
Great pictures at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pantone-Cafe/1668295040069683
Ripples coffee printer
10-8-2015
With Ripples coffee printer, you can print images and text on cappuccinos or lattes.
Ripples coffee printer makes latte art
The Ripples coffee printer can personalize a cup of coffee. The printer can print messages on the coffee like for example birthday congratulations or your name.
Within 10 seconds
The machine costs about € 915, – and combines 3D printing with an ink-jet system. The ink is made of natural coffee extract and is available in so-called ‘Ripple Pods’. The images can be chosen from the online Ripple library or uploaded via the Ripple app. One print takes about 10 seconds.
Wifi
The Ripples coffee printer has a WiFi connectivity and automatically prints on coffee cups up to 17 cm high and 11 cm in diameter. Printing Latte Art was seen earlier in Taiwan, at the Lets Caffe. However, that system was based on printing with cocoa and was not available to third parties. Additionally Ripples focuses its marketing much more on printing catchy messages rather than portraits alone.
Do you have a secret menu?
23-7-2015
Hot in the USA: secret menu’s at fast food chains. From fast food chain In-N-Out, to Shake Shack to McDonald’s. Why not create your own ‘secret menu’ as a cafeteria or small fast food chain?
Last year I did visit the fast food chain In-N-Out in California, my daughter who worked and lived in New York already heard about their (not-so) secret menu. Recently I saw a video of Anthony Bourdain discussing his appetite for burgers of In-N-Out. This chain has been offering customer-created riffs on the menu which have been passed down through word of mouth since the 1960’s. At their official menu it has just three burgers (a hamburger, cheeseburger, and the ‘double-double’), it’s ‘not-so-secret’ menu adds six more. I tasted the iconic ‘animal style’ burger with a lot of grilled onions and mustard. Did I like it? Well it certainly was the most tasty fast food burger I have eaten on the West Coast. But I didn’t eat many!
How to create a secret menu
The appeal of the secret menu is a delicate matter for restaurants. You can’t promote them because of the fact that it will instantly lose its secrecy factor. It’s a matter of involving your fans and let them spread their favorite ‘secret menu’ through social media and locally through word of mouth. For more information read the article ‘Secret Burger Menus, Explained’ on Eater.
You can even check the secret menu’s at fast food restaurants in your vicinity at the website Secret Menus. At this website I even read that one of the secret menus at In-N-Out is called the ‘Flying Dutchman’. Just two patties and cheese, very trendy without gluten! ^Marjolein
Chizza by KFC in the Philippines
17-7-2015
KFC Chizza (#KFChizza) is KFC Philippines’ newest product. It consists out of chicken fillet topped like a pizza!
Chizza
A combination of two of the most well-loved food in the Philippines chicken and pizza, KFC Chizza features KFC chicken fillet topped with pizza sauce, pepperoni, bell peppers, pineapple tidbits, and melted cheese. A chicken fillet (pizza) crust in style of KFC and the taste and ingredients of pizza all in one.
#KFChizza; Inspiration for your country?
Sometimes you do spot food combinations that make you wonder whether the Dutch would love that! And then we came across this video, an ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken. We prefer a piece of chicken and a slice of old fashioned pizza on the side. KFC in the Netherlands, what do you think?
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.”
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!
