MOOY Bakery in Antwerp | Your ‘stairways to sweet treat heaven’
3-8-2021
Disclaimer: this article is more interesting for Dutchies and those living in Belgium.
Opening in Antwerp – With MOOY Bakery, the popular pink lunch spot ‘MOOY Food & Drinks’ is introducing a completely new concept across the street from the current store. Here they serve milkshakes, cupcakes, cake slices and fancy sweet & savory toasts! All sweet tooths can gather here! Owner Yana Lamon starts with one establishment, with the aim of being able to expand it later or even develop it as a franchise concept. The stairway to sweet treat heaven? You can climb it from this summer at the Lombardenvest 33 in Antwerp.
Looking at the images, the concept reminds us a bit of the very popular and Instagrammable EL&N cafes in London. And if MOOY Bakery will be as busy as this chain is in London, it can expand quickly! Nice to visit if you go shopping with friends in Antwerp. The cake slices look deliciously sweet!
Reading time: 2 minutes
Gold foil-wrapped burritos at Chipotle to celebrate American athletes competing in Tokyo
23-7-2021
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) announced this week it will be serving gold foil-wrapped burritos for a limited time at participating locations in-restaurant and through digital orders starting today, July 23. The limited-edition gold foil will celebrate American athletes competing in Tokyo and rally fans to cheer on first place finishes over the next three weeks. This is the first time Chipotle has introduced gold foil nationwide since it celebrated its 18th anniversary and debuted gold foil-wrapped burritos in 2011.
Do you celebrate your athletes also competing in the same Olympic Games? Five years ago, in 2016, we made a list of ten original celebrations with an Olympic theme from Brasil, check out this article for inspiration. And check out the way Chipotle made a pre-announcement on their social media channels!
Reading time: 2 minutes
Rising Sun from De Leckere brewery | The new hazy IPA based on Kumquats
21-7-2021
Disclaimer: this article is more interesting for Dutchies.
De Leckere brewery from Utrecht in the Netherlands introduces its first summer special of this year, namely: Rising Sun, a Kumquat IPA. Their brewers have brewed a fresh new beer based on this special Vietnamese fruit. The Kumquat is an elongated orange that is eaten with the peel and all. The skin has a sweet taste and the flesh has a fresh sour taste. In addition, the kumquat contains special bitter notes. Ideal for beer.
Reading time: 1 minute
The NEST pop-ups | Hackney’s restaurant NEST hits the road with summer series of pop-up’s across the UK
12-7-2021
This summer, Luke Wasserman, Toby Neill and Johnnie Crowe, the team behind popular Hackney restaurant NEST and the recently opened restaurant FENN in Fulham, will celebrate seasonal British dining by launching a summer series of pop-up restaurants in rural locations across the UK.
Great idea for city restaurants? A paid team building in another surrounding? Might work for other restaurants as well and it’s great inspiration to work with local produce, who knows what you might take back to your menu in the city. We have seen a lot of initiatives of chefs working together to create food festivals, trading places or joining a team of chefs cooking in each other’s restaurants (The Grand Gelinaz Shuffle), but in this case the whole teams goes on an adventure in the summer. Inspiration for their guests to get to know the restaurant and for the team to have fun and get to know more about the local produce!
Novotel X LUCA | A love letter to Italy, youth, friendship and the young guests of the chain
29-6-2021
Novotel, a leading brand within the Accor group, recently announced its latest collaboration with Disney and Pixar’s LUCA – a family-friendly original feature film about an unforgettable summer for two best friends in the Italian seaside town of Portorosso – which was released on June 18 on Disney +. Novotel X LUCA does celebrate the launch of the new movie with special offers and delightful surprises for its guests, fans and followers, across more than 40 participating countries, including the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Canada, China, Mexico, India and many more.
We have seen many more releases of special offers and surprises by hotels and restaurant chains in collaboration with new movies but we love the social media part of this collaboration. Novotel has created a co-branded advert featuring clips from the film (shown in this article), and they invited guests to capture memories using their Luca-inspired Face Lens. Inspiring way to use Instagram!
Reading time: 2 minutes
Pop-up boutique and restaurant ‘Dior at Alto’ in Selfridges London
14-6-2021
This summer, Selfridges London is showcasing the Dioriviera capsule in a pop-up boutique with a seaside atmosphere at their iconic rooftop restaurant, Alto by San Carlo. The pop-up is named Dior at Alto and the space celebrates the art of living dear to the House and is adorned with toile de Jouy, an emblem revisited by Maria Grazia Chiuri in blue, chartreuse or raspberry.
We always love collaborations and this is another example and if you’re travelling to London this summer, another great restaurant to visit with delicious dishes on the menu. Already open and it will remain open till September 30th 2021. Check out where you can make a reservation further in the article. And as inspiration for restaurants and hotels, why not collaborate with local designers to create a pop-up?
Reading time: 1 minute
The Ritz Paris Le Comptoir | La Boutique Gourmande by François Perret
4-6-2021
I must admit that I am a real Francophile, and reading the press releases about the opening of Ritz Paris Le Comptoir on the 7th of June, really made me want to go back to Paris! High on my to-do-list would be picking up a croissant or a square piece of cheesecake with wild strawberries at Le Comptoir! François Perret has reinvented the croissant in the new Ritz Paris Le Comptoir store, this boutique gourmande is located at 38 rue Cambon a few blocks from the entrance of the hotel on Place Vendôme. With only a few seats (5 tables), it is mainly a takeaway boutique where, in addition to its ‘reinvented’ croissants, you can order luxury sandwiches, ‘les boissons pâtissières’, madeleines and lots of viennoiserie to go.
So if you go to Paris this summer, treat yourself to a visit to the boutique and enjoy your delicacies in a Parisian park! ^Marjolein
The Munch platform in Hungary | Food, environmental and social awareness
28-5-2021
Munch is a platform that enables restaurants, bakeries, shops, and hotels to sell or donate their unsold but high-quality food at a discounted price, offering it to consumers, who can also make donations.
Here we have the Too Good To Go app which is highly popular, but 4 students in Hungary created the platform Munch, also to prevent a food waste and thus creating food, environmental and social awareness. They even made a strategic partnership with the Hungarian Food Bank, which makes it possible for them to help those in need. This project called MunCharity, connects Munch customers and the people in need with the surplus food of the restaurants. A contribution by Katalin Gecsei from Hungary.
Opening this summer | the biggest London restaurant by the Big Mamma Group, Ave Mario
17-5-2021
The traditional osteria Ave Mario is London’s new place to pizza, cocktails, and good times. This 7,000 square feet of Italian heaven by the Big Mamma Group will open on the 25th of June by an enthusiastic bunch of 120 Italians.
We first came across the Big Mamma Group in Paris, we even wrote about their enthusiastic use of Instagram Stories in 2017, the guys working at their restaurants we’re really Instagrammable. The Group now has 2 restaurants (soon 3 with Ave Mario) in London, Gloria and Circolo Popolare. In Paris they have 7 restaurants, 1 bar and 1 Food Market. They also have restaurants in Lille (Osteria tradizionale Bellazza), Lyon (Cucina popolare Carmelo) and Madrid (Trattoria & Terrazza Bel Mondo). This is a great restaurant chain to visit if you’re in the neighbourhood!
Fruit and Vegetables Week | Launch ‘We’re Smart Academy’ and exclusive 5 Radishes Chefs Club
10-5-2021
Top international chefs will join forces in the We’re Smart Academy, starting on the 10th of May. They share their knowledge about healthy, ecological cuisine in webinars, manuals, cookbooks and Clubhouse sessions with other chefs, food companies and consumers. The academy gets off to a flying start on the first day of the Fruit and Vegetable Week. On the same day, We’re Smart World, the organization behind the week, launches the 5 Radishes Chef Club, an exclusive club for the 79 best vegetable restaurants in the world.
When we see the enormous press interest in the transition of Daniel Humm from Eleven Madison Park (***) to only cooking vegetarian, it is unavoidable that there will also be a boost in vegetarian and vegan cooking. A very positive vibe towards healthier food! With 2 recipes in this article with the Vegetables of the year – Peppers and Fruit of the year 2021: Watermelon, both from the well-known vegetable chef Frank Fol.
Reading time: 4 minutes, required time for the recipes are separately stated.