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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
To promote the special ‘Opperdoezer Ronde’ potato there was an event in the municipality of Medemblik last Saturday. Recently potatoes in general are negatively mentioned in the media as source of carbohydrates and starch that should be banned while dieting. This ban is unnecessary for the Opperdoezer Ronde and refuted by sufficient research. The potato has a protected designation of origin, which was granted by the European Union in 1996. A selection of professional athletes, nutritionists, growers and top chef Onno Kokmeijer (Ciel Bleu**) joined forces to get the Opperdoezer Round back on the menu.
Exactly 250 years ago The House of Ruinart created the world’s first Rosé champagne. The House of Ruinart celebrates this anniversary with a ‘Ruinart Rosé Salon 1764 pop-up bar’ at The Goring Hotel in London. The private gardens of the historic hotel are the scenery for the dedicated pop-up bar. From mid June until 3 July, the guests of the Goring Hotel and Ruinart are transported back to the time the first Rosé champagne was created. Nice way to celebrate an anniversary and we know a couple of places in the Netherlands with sceneries perfect for a pop-up bar of my favorite champagne as well ;-). ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Active summer camps are mostly organized for children. For the adults who prefer an active holiday as well; the ‘Jackson hole run camp’ is a great example where an hotel and a sport coach work together to organize an active summercamp for adults. Hotel Terra and the Teton Mountain Lodge are hosting a multiday camp in the heart of the Mountains of Jackson Hole, Teton Village, Wyoming, with running coach Eric Orton for experienced runners who are looking for a challenge.
Journalist Teresa Machan had the opportunity to write an article for the Telegraph about her experiences while having dinner at Sublimotion. As she describes it, having dinner at the new restaurant of chef Paco Roncero (2 Michelin stars) is an experience for all your senses. The chef reacted to the question whether his ‘theatrical dinner’ really is the most expensive meal in the world, with the following statement, ‘Sublimotion is the cheapest life-changing experience anyone can have.’ We will have to start saving to experience this life changing dinner for € 1.500,= ourselves. The video gives a short introduction of Sublimotion.
Imagine all the possibilities if you can ad smell to your posts as restaurant. That’s mouthwatering marketing! This seems possible with the oPhone. Watch the video to get some idea of the possibilities. All though we think that it will take a couple of years before we all can use this feature as standard ;-).
For those who will be watching our WK game this evening #NedChi, we wish you a lot of fun and many goals. For the next matches of the orange team, bar owners can still invest in urinal mats with a football goal. In the Netherlands, among others for sale with the seller of the bottlebob. And of course quite useful because with the way we’re winning a lot of beer will be drunk!
A great wine from a can? It’s possible according to Winestar. Winestar® offers a range of premium French wines. We tried a couple at the office last Friday; a white, red and rosé wine from the Corbières wine region. We have some great wine fans at the office and they all had problems with the paradigm shift from bottle to can. But even they liked the wine. Oké, they still prefer champagne with their picnic but #Winestar is a great alternative. The can contains 187 ml wine. Great for in minibars or for airline catering, unbreakable and light.
Hotel Theater Figi just made an orange cake for Parthen meeting service. Some hope that the Dutch team makes in to the quarterfinals of the EC!
To celebrate the opening of the renewed Vomar Supermarket the Haarlem based Jopen brewery created a special limited edition beer: Jopen Stephenson Beer. The Jopen Stephenson Beer is a blond beer with a refreshing taste and fruity hints from oranges. The beer resembles white beer a bit, contains wheat and oats and has a mild ‘hoppy’ (IPA, India Pale Ale) aftertaste. A wonderfull initiative where a supermarket creates a piece of local pride with a tasty beer, in my opinion more retailers should do this! ^ArmandSol
A new kind of booking site, Hotelied, offers luxury hotels the opportunity to target discounts towards influential travelers with a large social media influence. Hotels probably hope that by offering these deals, the discounts will be outweighed by the exposure and publicity. I am quite sure it’s been done already between bloggers and hotels. Some bloggers are quite clear in their communication about these deals. But now we have the website Hotelied where travelers have to create a profile and link to their Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. For people with a lot of fans or followers a great opportunity to gain some profit. But on the other hand, could this mean that the social media becomes less social? It seems that hotels can kind of buy ‘good reviews’ from influential travelers. Am I too suspicious and could we consider this as a win-win situation for the hotels, the booking site and the travelers? And assume that all those fans and followers will be able to read between the lines, what do you think? ^Marjolein van Spronsen
We couldn’t find an immersive Christmas Light Maze in Europe yet, howevere correct us if we are wrong. But we love the idea, another fun read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy has researched the wellness branch in the Netherlands. The focus of this research is the visitors’ view. The results of 800 questionnaires provide a clear and honest picture of both the visitors and non-visitors. The Dutch report provides insights on the motives and thoughts of the non-visitors (and thus potential visitors) and gives wellness related companies the tools to anticipate on the expectations of their target group.
Burak Kaynak has designed a Like tip box. This physical version of the Like button on Facebook will probably get you extra tipping because a wink like this always works. On top of that, guests see that you’re active on social media, so prepare for more ‘real’ likes and free-publicity.
This bag is made of old fabrics from airplanes, like the leather of the chairs and the curtains. The bag is made by Tierra Ideas in co-operation with Delta Airlines.
Advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy’s in Amsterdam offers a Christmas dinner for family and friends who live far away. Each person can log in and call with skype, there faces will be seen on screens. The room is decorated like a real Christmas dinner.
The Dutch product kale is one of the most popular vegetables in New York at the moment. They don’t eat this the way Dutch people do, but they eat this vegetable as a salad, they use this in pasta dishes and even in cocktails. Watch the movie or watch the web log of Erik Mouthaan for several recipes.
The South-Korean Yeonju Song created the ‘Whearable Foods’-line. Therefore she used ingredients like red cabbage, bread, shrimps and chewing gum. With this collection she wants to show the difference between reality and sham. Next week her collection will be shown in Los Angeles.
You can find this restaurant “Tusen” in Sweden’s ‘Ramundberget’ Mountains. This beautiful building is made from locally sourced materials and boasts its own water and sewage system, designed by Murman Arkitekter. The restaurant, which is an apres-ski bar as well, serves Swedish food and offers shelter against the cold for tourists. Tusen is Swedish for thousand.
Twitterdrink is a new drink that can be served during network events. This blue drink is a mix of wine, coconut, mandarin and pepper. You can order this drink with your own QR-code.
In Singapore eight indepent coffeeshops have made a disloyalty coffee card. This card stimulates to visit all the eight different coffeeshops and taste their coffee. When the card is full, you can get a free coffee at the shop where you got the card.
Bet365.com, a website for online gambling, has made a basketball field in the toilet of a sport complex to promote betting on basketball matches.
Twoppy is a tool that makes it possible to upload all the information about your event in an app. The tool is free and includes an interactive map and the possibility to upload a line-up.
On the website ChristmasSpiritTree.ca you can find an online Christmas tree that is illuminated every time somebody leaves a Christmas message online. The tree reacts to social media, messages at the website itself, blogs, forums and news media.
Burger King Russia has made a advertisement with rap music, unicorns, ballerinas and a DJ. The video shows a dad teaching his son how to eat a burger, a guy asking his girlfriend to marry him and more weird stuff happening in BK. The music in the clip comes from the popular Russian hip-hop musical “Cops on Fire”.
Noma, a top restaurant in Copenhagen launches a travel guide for the city. The travel guide shows all the hotspots in Copenhagen according to the international staff of Noma. The Travelguide is made in cooperation with Momondo, a travel booking site.
Hot Pocket Sadia comes with a X-treme Burger, to accompany this big sandwich DDB Advertising created huge sachets of mayonaise, ketchup and mustard.
To stimulate tourists to take and upload pictures of the city Toronto, the tourism agency of Toronto has come up with a campaign. At 21 strategic chosen touristic locations throughout the city, 2,5 meter high snowmen are placed, each in front of a famous building in Toronto. For each uploaded and liked picture, the campaign will donate to a charity.
We spotted the wild-knitting trend before, but now the Dutch potato/fries company Aviko is letting grannies wild-knitting in bus stops. Grannies were asked to come to the city Arnhem to participate in a wild-knitting event for charity. Wild -knitting is a trend were several objects on the street, from trees to lampposts, are being dressed with knitwear.
Burger King has recently opened a new location in Singapore; the Burger King Garden Grill. This restaurant is decorated with several comfortable sofa’s, soft colours and lot of decorative foliage. The menu is still the same. With this concept Burger King hopes to attract more families. The restaurant chain has no immediate plans to bring this concept to the United States.
The new commercial campaign of the American cooking channel Pillsbury allows Shazam users to scan the commercial. Hereby the viewer receives several recipes and further product information.
These brownies with a Santa Claus hat are really easy to make. You take a brownie and put vanilla-butter on top. Top this off with a strawberry, which serves as a hat, decorate this with some whipped cream. Nice to serve this with a cup of coffee during the Christmas period.
Top wine-expert Janne Rijpma developed a climate chamber especially for champagne. This luxurious leather-covered cooler is suitable for 40 bottles, you can control the temperature by degree, and the bottles lay in an optimal position.
Vitadrinks is coming with Funkin Cocktails, you only need to add ice and alcohol. These cocktails are available in tastes like Mojito, Cosmopolitan and Margarita. The Funkin Cocktails are available in a one-portion-package or in a big package for 10 cocktails.
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Heineken is building an 11 meter high Christmas tree in Singapore, it will be there from the 17th until the 26th of December. The Christmas tree consists of 48 LCD-screens, on which people can leave a Christmas message. You can make a interactive Christmas card with text, pictures and add friends. Heineken will show the Christmas cards on the Christmas tree.
McDonald’s is coming with a new marketing campaign, called ‘You want fries with that?’ On the website you can tell what you would like in combination with your fries, and the best idea wins $25.000,=. The idea behind it is that McDonald’s fries actually fit with everything.
The National Restaurant Association (USA) asked almost 1800 professional chefs about their opinion of the trends for 2012. They said about 223 items if it was a hot trend, yesterdays news or a perennial favourite. The results of the survey tell us that healthy food for kids, the use of local products, sustainability and social media are really important in 2012. Check youtube or the whole article for more information.
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