The week of Bonaire Blond

1-3-2016

Have you ever heard of the beer brand Bonaire Blond? Not yet? You probably will if you are in Bonaire next week! The week of Bonaire Blond (from march 5 till march 12) is full of activities that makes you want to drink a Bonaire Blond in the sun. There are lots of different events during the week; free tastings, workshops of beer-food combinations, art markets, jeu de boule games, lunch and dinner specials with live music, tours to the local aloe vera plantation, demonstrations and a treasure-hunt. It’s a shame that it’s so far away!

Do you want to know more about Bonaire Blond? We wrote about it before: Bonaire Blond.

Ice cream that tastes like chicken: the Chicken Gelati

1-3-2016

Do you like chicken and ice cream? Then you might like Chicken Gelati! Ice cream with chicken flavour, as snack on a cocktail party, daytime snack or dessert. read more

Nutella Festival

29-2-2016

  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet

What began as a joke on Facebook has now turned into the first Nutella Festival of the Netherlands, wich will take place on the 16th of July in Amsterdam. read more

‘Barbers, Booze & Tattoos’

26-2-2016

  • Facebook: Club Red
  • Facebook: Club Red
  • Facebook: Club Red

It is not easy nowadays to be the owner of a disco/nightclub with the ongoing decrease of visitors the last couple of years. Club Red in Leeuwarden has an extended calendar including ‘Barbers, Booze & Tattoos’. A men’s night out. read more

Ghee Easy – great cooking oil

25-2-2016

For decades long Ghee is popular in the Indian kitchen, the biological oil is also becoming more popular in the Netherlands now. Ghee Easy is prepared according to the traditional Indian method while using high quality Dutch butter. Large packaging is available now for the hospitality industry. read more

TonTon Club XL is coming back!

24-2-2016

In 2016 the TonTon Club XL is coming back to the ‘Westergasfabriek’ in Amsterdam. For up to two weekends in March you can enjoy pinball games, shooting games, air hockey and many more.  read more

The first popcorn store in the Netherlands

23-2-2016

 

Good news for popcorn lovers in the Netherlands. On March 5th the first popcornstore in the Netherlands will we opened in Amsterdam. read more

Bugsolutely – pasta made of crickets

22-2-2016

Some people may be disgusted by it, but the edible insects are becoming more popular. Currently you only see them as an exciting snack on exclusive parties, but they already are in the supermarket as well. This superfood pasta Bugsolutely consists of 20% cricket flour and also has loads of protein, calcium, iron and vitamins. Besides, cricket flour makes the pasta even tastier. read more

Food festivals: prevent queues or make sure your guests enjoy the queue…

19-2-2016

  • Credits: @dominiqueansel’s Instagram.

Guest blog of Leonie van Spronsen, living and working in Paris, heard her colleagues complain about the long queues during the ‘Taste of Paris’ last week. Due to the start of the festival season last weekend with the ‘Taste of Holland’, Leonie blogs about the annoyance of queues. It is not too late to do something about them yet..

Over the past few years they have been popping up all over the world, these “foodie-festivals”we mean, they are either indoor or outdoor, focus on astonishing gastronomy or on variations of our favourite snacks. I personally feel that this is a great development, as the average foodie enjoys these more than a dance festival. But much to our dismay, queueing up  has become a regular activity at all these “foodie-festivals”.

Every small but delicious bite you want to try is ruined by a spectacular waiting line. At ‘Taste of Paris’ the average waiting time was 30 to 45 minutes for basically every stand. But also last summer, while visiting ‘Rollende Keukens’we had to conclude that the festival has had its best days, the terrain gets way too busy these days and this takes the fun out of it for us and many others. Obviously these huge crowds are great for the organizers and illustrates the large demand for these types of events, but the negative effect of over-crowdedness will clearly affect your event and the future of your event quickly.

So how come this situation arises on these festivals? The fact that there are long lines at amateur festivals is to be expected, their organizers usually aren’t specialized in the logistics of F&B. Besides, true hospitality is usually not their main goal. But these “foodie-festivals” consists mostly of hospitality entrepreneurs am I right? How is then still possible that these festivals create such un-hospitable situations? Hospitality is their core business!

For the future of the “foodie-festival”it seems to be very important that we solve this ‘queueing up-situation’ because if not.. Will they still be as popular as they are or will people get sick of it soon?

You can either solve this or accept the lines and entertain your guests!

In regards to entertaing your queueing customers, festival entrepreneurs could take some inspiration from baker Dominique Ansel. With two lines a day in front of his bakery (early morning for the cronuts and at 4 PM for the milk cookie-shots) this is the man that can tell you a thing or two about lines and people in lines. He excels in entertaining his waiting customers, like last weekend when he personally handed out roses to ‘his line’ for Valentine’s Day at his bakery in New York City. But on any given day, him and his team hand out warm madeleines, hot chocolate milk, appel cider or lemonade if it’s hot out.

At the opening of his bakery in Japan they even went as far as doing social media challenges between the lines in New York and Tokyo. They arranged for breakdancers to entertain the crowd and when it got really sunny and hot, they sprayed their customers with water sprays to keep them cool.

You can check out our article about the opening of the Tokyo bakery on our website hospitalitytrends.eu.

So consider entertaining your guests while they wait and thus make sure your “foodie-festival” visitor keeps coming back for more. We would love to visit festivals without lines but if that’s too much to ask.. at least keep them entertained!

Leonie van Spronsen

 

Restaurant Yoepz Kip & Kreeft

18-2-2016

  • Credits: Yoepz Kip & Kreeft
  • Credits: Yoepz Kip & Kreeft
  • Credits: Yoepz Kip & Kreeft
  • Credits: Yoepz Kip & Kreeft

Lobster and chicken as main ingredient, slightly different as the old fashioned Surf & Turf. Restaurant Yoepz Kip & Kreeft (Chicken & Lobster) from Utrecht (The Netherlands) will soon open a store in Amsterdam. read more

Dishes from the former Dutch overseas territories at ‘t Soldaatje VOC

18-2-2016

  • Buitenaanzicht 't Soldaatje VOC
  • Klaar voor ontvangst
  • Fotomuur
  • Aan tafel bij 't Soldaatje VOC
  • Het team van 't Soldaatje VOC

Sunday the 21st of February ‘’t Soldaatje VOC’ (The Soldier) in Voorhout (the Netherlands) will be opened, located in the middle of the ‘Bollenstreek’. This restaurant serves dishes that are inspired on countries that the Dutch visited as soldiers in the colonial times, from Suriname to Indonesia. read more

The digital menu is getting more popular

17-2-2016

It’s getting more popular nowadays to use a digital menu. This was also noted by Vision Multimedia, the company behind Vision Menu. Through crowdfunding they managed to raise enough money to grow both domestically and abroad. But why would you switch to a digital menu? read more

The KarTent: the disposable festival tent made of cardboard

17-2-2016

Every year one out of four festival visitors leaves their tent behind on several festival campsites all over the Netherlands. The amount of waste that this creates is bad for the environment. The solution is simple: from now on you can camp in a cardboard. read more

Do you create the ‘Ultimate Bite’ for Hellmann’s?

16-2-2016

Hospitality entrepreneurs in Belgium and the Netherlands are challenged by Hellmann’s to make ‘The Ultimate Bite’. The winner gets a commercial campaign for his/her own business,  to the value of €5.000,=, at The Ultimate Bite live finale on the 23rd of May in the ‘Kookfabriek’ in Amsterdam. You can sign up till the 20th of March 2016 on UltimateBite.com.

Read more about the conditions in the rest of the article. read more

Fries with…

16-2-2016

  • Friet met kaviaar van Tante Nel
  • Friet met kaviaar van Tante Nel
  • Thrill Grill's friet. Credits: HOTSPOTHUNTER.COM
  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet

One of the unique characteristics of fries is that you can endlessly combine them with different ingredients. Fries with caviar, Parmesan cheese, truffle mayonnaise, chocolate, Nutella and stews. In the Netherlands, fries are very popular. We eat them with mayonnaise or ketchup but also with ‘mayonnaise, curry sauce and chopped onions’, with hot peanut sauce or sometimes even with truffle mayonnaise but the fries noted below aren’t often on the menu! In response to an article in the Dutch AD newspaper about Tante Nel (aunt Nel), the haute friture shop in Rotterdam, we made a list of unique and weird combinations with fries. ^Bram Kosterink read more

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