Heetch
12-7-2014
Heetch makes it easier to enjoy a night out in Paris and tries at the same time to reduce drunk driving by offering convenience and by their pricing. Users request a ride via the app and will be matched with a nearby driver. The price of the taxi fare is based on donations with a suggested amount per distance. The average ride is roughly 30% cheaper than the running meter of a cab in Paris. They offer an alternative to the heavy weekend surcharges of their competitors. Everybody with a car can join the Heetch driver’s community.
&Samhoud places is all about the summer
12-7-2014
From 13 July onwards &Samhoud places organizes a weekly ‘Feel Good Sunday Summer’ event on eight Sundays. Visitors can enjoy Happy Oysters, Street Style Fish and Gastronomical Burgers while listening to live music and DJ’s. The first ‘Feel Good Sunday package’ can be reserved for € 25,- and takes place from 12:00 till 17:00 o’clock.
Orange cocktail with Colombiana kola
11-7-2014
A nice idea for the Holland – Argentina match today; an orange cocktail with Colombiana kola. Colombiana kola is a sparkling drink from South America with a unique flavor. It is alcohol-free and has less calories and sugar than other kola brands. It exist since 1904, but recently sold in the Benelux as well by PaisaNL. PaisaNL has a social dimension by working together with local entrepreneurs and investing in local projects. The thing we like most about Colombiana kola is that it works really well in orange cocktails, what makes it perfect for the World Cup.
Chocomel tastes best when it’s ice cold
11-7-2014
This week, our colleague Jelle came across these Chocomel flyers advertising its Ice Cold Cups. Chocomel uses these Cups to promote that the chocolate milk tastes best when it’s ice cold. The Ice Cold Cup is a special freezer cup, that keeps the drink ice cold.
AH starts with pilot thuisafgehaald.nl
10-7-2014
The Dutch retail chain ‘Albert Heijn’ started a pilot in cooperation with website ‘thuisafgehaald.nl’. ‘Thuisafgehaald.nl’ is an online platform that connects home cooks with people who don’t have the time to cook for themselves. In this way the website connects people in the same neighborhood and reduces waste at the same time. In one ‘Albert Heijn’ in Amsterdam, a Touch screen is placed, where people can find and order meals.
Roof-vegetable garden from restaurant Bolenius
10-7-2014
Restaurant ‘Bolenius’ grows its own vegetables on a roof-vegetable garden next to the restaurant. Chef and co-owner Luc Koster keeps in control of the quality of the vegetables this way. The vegetable garden also serves as a way to create more awareness among children about how vegetables grow and where they come from.
Interactive wristbands
10-7-2014
Last year’s ‘South by Southwest festival’ introduced a wristband that measured audience interaction. By measuring motion, volume and temperature through sensors, the individual interaction was ranked and rewarded. At the ‘Lollapalooza’ festival, wristbands, that can be linked to credit or debit card information are offered to festivalgoers. These wrist bands allow people to pay for food and drinks without paying by cash or card.
The Magical Tomorrowland bracelet
9-7-2014
‘Magical friendship bracelets’ as ticket and communication device at Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is one of the largest dance-music festivals in the world. These bracelets will not only serve as ticket, but also as a way to connect with other visitors of the festival. At the press of a button, visitors of the festival will be able to send out Facebook friend requests and stay in touch with new friends. Take a look at the video to see how it works.
Overheated World Cup fans receive ice cold treat
9-7-2014
Russian soccer fans, who were in Brazil for the World Cup, were treated to a six-pack of ‘Skol’ beer entirely encased in ice. The unique packaging was designed to chill the beer without freezing it and included a handle for easy transportation. The ice-pack was designed as a reminder that packaging can be both beautiful and multifunctional. Although the video is spoken in Russian and Portuguese, the reactions speaks for themselves..
Hey Joe on the go
9-7-2014
Your own fresh coffee during a picknick or a festival. It’s possible with the ‘Hey Joe Coffee Mug’. This isn’t only a coffee flask, but also a portable coffee machine. Making a cup of coffee is simple; add water and coffee, press one, two or three times on the button to decide the temperature and the ‘Hey Joe Coffee Mug’ does it’s magic. The device is battery operated, which allows the ‘Hey Joe Coffee Mug’ to be used everywhere. The ‘Hey Joe Coffee Mug’ can only be preordered via Kickstarter (crowdfunding platform).
A kitchen garden in a water bottle
8-7-2014
With the ‘Petomato’ you can grow your own vegetables 365 days of the year. The originally Japanese product exists out of a special bottle cap, which you can place on a plastic bottle filled with water. The next step is to choose from the seven different seeds, such as cherry tomato, basil, strawberries and fresh mint, and place these in the cap. The ‘Petomato’ is a great product to recycle used plastic bottles. Available in Japan and the USA.
A patriotic beer fridge
8-7-2014
The latest promotional stunt from Canadian beer brand ‘Molson Canadian’ is testing the country’s patriotism with a special beer fridge. The fridge only unlocks when people sing the country’s national anthem, ‘O, Canada’, with perfect timing and passion. The fridge is released in honor of the 147th birthday celebration of the nation.
Ripe Near Me
7-7-2014
RipeNearMe is an online platform from Australia that helps users find fruit and vegetables in the neighborhood. Visitors of the platform keep track of the ripeness of the fruits and vegetables and buy or collect these when they are ripe. They could also contact the growers and give their vegetables a review. In the neighborhood of New York you can collect free Butternut squash at this moment because somebody has to many in his of her garden.
acting sustainable by having fun
7-7-2014
The Green Plugin is a modular system whit which festivals can be built sustainably. It uses sustainable sources as wind-, solar- and human power. The Green Plugin has several items such as a dance floor, that gathers the energy of the people who are dancing and lights itself. Or an interactive recycling installation, where visitors can take their cups and transform them into a 3d-printed item. The Green Plugin is a initiative from UMEF (United Music Events Foundation), the Perpetual Plastic Project and Energy Floors.
Weber Grill Akademie
7-7-2014
Recently a Weber barbecue academy opened in Berlins Mitte area. Our neighbours from the East will thus have complexer barbecue-dinners this summer as well. In the Netherlands we can prepare ourselves for the Big Green Egg barbecue competition at the FG Food terrace and are already serveral Weber BBQ academy days.
Chips made from Crickets
7-7-2014
To make insect meat palatable for the western world, the brand Six Food has created ‘Chirps’. The ‘Chirps’ are made of a mix from ground beans, rice and cricket powder that’s baked rather than fried. The result is a gluten-free, natural, low fat chip full of protein. Chirps are available for pre-order now.
Inglorious fruits and vegetables
7-7-2014
The third largest supermarket chain in France, Intermarché, introduced the campaign ‘inglorious fruits & vegetables’. The supermarket buys the ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables that would normally be thrown away and sells it 30% cheaper. It is a win-win-win campaign: consumers get good quality fruits and vegetables for a cheaper price. The growers are paid for products that normally would be discarded and Intermarché increases its sales with this new line of products. Besides the ‘inglorious’ fruits and vegetables the supermarket sells soups and juices made from these products as well.
Intermarché launched this campaign nationwide trough billboards, social media, television and radio. In the Netherlands we have seen a number of actions to promote these ‘ugly’ products as well. In 2013 we saw the crooked cucumber action of the ladies of Kromkommer and the store Zegro in Rotterdam and in 2014 we’ve spotted the crowdfunding action for ‘kromkommer’ soups.
The Heavenly Rembrandt weeks
3-7-2014
The Rembrandt Tower Boardroom will be transformed into a temporary restaurant of the highest level. Led by chef Wilco Berends, a dinner inspired by ‘The Amsterdam of Rembrandt’ is composed. Museum ‘Het Rembrandthuis’ exhibits a few paintings of Rembrandt, together with a collectors item that has never been exposed before. The ‘Heavenly Rembrandt’ weeks take place during the ‘art & culinary’-weeks of Amsterdam, from 22 September till 4 October, and is available for everyone with a reservation.
Free online ordering system
2-7-2014
GloriaFood has released a new worldwide online ordering system for restaurants. Different from other online ordering websites, GloriaFood is free of charge for restaurants who participate. The system is easy implemented and managed by the restaurant owners themselves. Orders can be placed via the website, the app and facebook.
TWEAK
2-7-2014
TWEAK doesn’t just keep your kitchen sink draining smoothly, but solves the problem of scooping cold leftovers out of the sink with your bare fingers. We don’t think that this, via kickstarter (crowd funding platform) financed product, will be used in a lot of professional kitchens. But in the smaller kitchens this silicone washing strainer can be useful.
Riviera Music Lounge
26-6-2014
The Riviera Music Lounge opened in the basement of the Riviera Hotel in Benidorm (Spain). It is a New York Jazz club with the warm atmosphere of a hidden club and it has live music as main attraction. Special features are the backlighted marble bar, that fills the room with a magical golden light, and the walls, that are mainly covered with the names and portraits of famous jazz masters.
Tip this much in…
26-6-2014
Ever wondered whether you did tip sufficiently? With tipthismuch.in you will always know. Check if your holiday destination is mentioned on the website. The idea for the website was stolen from Jessica Hische who tweeted the following: ‘Someone should make something similar to http://umbrellatoday.com for international tipping practices #stealmyidea’. Great to see that the idea was picked up by Kate Sigrist, who designed the website and Jolyon Russ who built it.
#BDOYL by Thrillist in East Village in NYC
25-6-2014
#BDOYL, which means ‘Best Day of Your Life’, has been organized on 21 June, the longest day of the year. Thrillist took over a dozen well-known locations around New York, mainly within the East Village, and transformed them into one-day-only experiences. The event focused on food, drinks and special surprise events that were kept secret until they happened. Although all the pictures at Twitter and Instagram with #BDOYL look great, we hope, besides this introduction video, for a movie showing the well-kept secret events! Maybe we can learn how to throw a different party than all the culinary parties in many Dutch cities this summer.
The Tomato Greenhouse at Best Kept Secret festival
25-6-2014
During the ‘Best Kept Secret Festival’ the Food Line-up introduced the ‘Tomato Greenhouse’ together with Crick’s (by Agro Care) and Jord, chef cook and owner of Smokey Goodness. During the weekend a stunning 10,000 fresh tomatoes from the festival greenhouse were processed. The combination of a catering-connector, grower and rugged barbecue chef was a great seasonal starter, especially for the winners of a fresh breakfast including Bloody Marys.
RoominaMinute.com
24-6-2014
The booking website Roominaminute.com reverses the traditional booking model. Guests can fill in their accommodation preferences for a certain city or area, arrival date, departure date and additional preferations on the website. Within 25 minutes the affiliated accommodations respond to the request with a proposal and the guest can choose between the options. This reversed system is very convenient to get full occupancy during busy periods or no-shows and is developed by Nico Dijkstra. Earlier we saw that Bidroom.com launched a similar platform.