Valentine’s Day is all about attention
No red roses, bonbons or discount but attention! That’s what Droste’s attends its guests on with a nice little envelope for your telephone during the Valentine’s dinner.
No red roses, bonbons or discount but attention! That’s what Droste’s attends its guests on with a nice little envelope for your telephone during the Valentine’s dinner.
Since last weekend, you can go bowling in nightclub Trouw in Amsterdam. There are three professional bowling lanes in the basement of Trouw where you can play from February 7 to March 2. Club Lebowski places pop-up bowling alleys at various locations and it took three days to place the bowling alleys at Trouw. During restaurant and club hours guests can throw strikes, spares and gutter balls along with up to six friends. The bowling alleys are open from Tuesday to Saturday for €10,= per hour.
A real bacon lover? Visit the bacon restaurant ‘BarBacon’ in New York City. The restaurant opened last month and is completely in the theme of artisan bacon. The menu includes a variety of bacon sandwiches, salads, bacon chocolate chip cookies and even a bacon whiskey variant. When serving ‘The Tasting’ the guest will receive a selection of four types of bacon and there is a bacon of turkey or vegetarian bacon. ‘BarBacon’ serves local craft beers and whiskeys in combination with various types of bacons. Maybe they can serve a shot bacon liqueur?
‘Pin’ and ‘Interest’, also known as Pinterest. The social online bulletin board where users can share their images has become a lot more popular in the Netherlands the past year. Currently 1.1 million Dutch use Pinterest, compared with 530,000 users a year ago. Pinterest has extended the functions, so there are more opportunities for the users.
The first Dutch hot tub cinema is located in Amsterdam from 6 to 9 March. In the ‘Machinegebouw’ at the Westergasterrein are 21 hot tubs and two cinema screens. You could book a hot tub with five friends and you will get a waiter service, bottle of cava and a private bath robe but it is already sold out. After the movie there is a bathrobe after party with a DJ. The concept is inspired by the Hot Tub cinema in London.
The first crowd funding platform especially for the Dutch hospitality industry is developed: Hospitality Crowd funding Netherlands. The platform helps hospitality businesses to raise capital. Hospitality Crowd funding Netherlands brings investors and hospitality business in touch with each other, so that the Dutch hospitality industry can continue to innovate.
Article by Julia Soldic.
This year the Copenhagen-based Nordic Food Lab revealed another shocking new ingredient that had awakened the lab’s curiosity. The team had examined the re-integration of animal blood into our food chain.
The Nordic Food Lab was founded in 2008 by the brain and hands behind restaurant Noma, Rene Redzepi. The lab has, ever since, shown the world that the uneatable can be eatable if only your stomach can take it.
The famous Australian chef Justin North opened ‘The Burger Shed’ last year. He is the first of many chefs to develop a gourmet burger food concept. Because of the financial crisis in Australia, many customers choose for the opportunity of dining out inexpensively. ‘The Burger Shed’ is designed by Mima Design based on the concept; an inviting restaurant that expresses quality and affordability. The burger restaurant has brick walls, a concrete floor with elements of wooden pallets, raw materials and industrial lighting. Back-to-basics. The menu of ‘The Burger Shed’ focuses on the use of local and high-quality products. The menu offers four types of burgers (beef, lamb, chicken and Portobello), fish tacos and chicken tortillas.
Tripadvisor gives an overview of 10 jaw-dropping hotel pools around the world. Like the Hanging Gardens Ubud in Bali with a beautiful view over the rainforest or the swimming pool located at the 24th floor of the Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao. The video above shows ‘The Library’ hotel in Ko Samui, Thailand. The name of the hotel pool ‘The Red Pool’ says it all. The pool is not made of the standard blue tiles, but of yellow, orange and deep red mosaic tiles. The pool looks like red blood, but the red mosaic tiles give a warming and special effect. The video is a bit long, but shows the inspiring design of the hotel. Look for the other pools at Tripadvisor.
Late 2013 Maison F opened in Paris, a high-end restaurant specialized in French Fries. They serve the fries with all their dishes. As guest you can choose the size (7 or 10 mm), with or without skin and the taste of the day fries. Clotilde Dusoulier, food blogger from the website Chocolate & Zucchini has eaten fries made of saffron risotto with her duck fillet. The fries are served with dishes that are prepared with products of the best craftsmen. They also have a bar with an extensive cocktail menu. Nice to visit when you’re in Paris!
Master croquette maker Piet Brink from ‘Van Dobben’ travels to Sotsji to make croquettes and ‘bitterballs’. He expects to make an average thousand per day that are sold in the ‘Holland Heineken Huis’. It was hard to arrange the paperwork for the import of frozen croquettes, this way the producer bends a problem into an opportunity.
Bidroom is a commission free booking website where hotels can offer rooms via a reversed auction. The guest selects a city and a room (3 to 5 stars and choice between single, double of triple) and within 24 hours hotels can make an offer, while the prices of competitors are visible. In the future Mark Bradshaw (CEO), Michael Ros (COO) and Casper Knieriem (CFO) want to generate revenue from advertisements.
In 2014, 2015 and 2016 Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the weekend. This means that you have three opportunities in a row to use all your Valentine’s weekend ideas! We gathered some fun suggestions for you here.
Last Sunday Joris Bijdendijk (Executive Chef Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam ) organized a Lobster Night for the hospitality industry in Amsterdam at Restaurant Bridges. The goal of the night was to create more bonding between the Amsterdam hotels, restaurants and cafés. For € 35,- (drinks excluded) invited guests could indulge themselves with unlimited lobster and selected wines by ‘Kwast Wijnkopers’. Chef and DJ Ron Blaauw arranged the musical context.
The Golden Egg Bar is the latest restaurant design by BAM (Ballistic Architecture Machine) and located in Beijing. The design is a blend between Chinese elements and a typical American dining from the fifties. The polished Egg functions as a bar and service counter. The extraordinary combination of contemporary Sichuan cuisine and fifties dinner culture creates a vibrant and convivial dining atmosphere.
The new ‘Presto e la Carte’, like the Otoucho which we are familiar with in the Netherlands, is a tablet which is used in restaurants. Through this tablet, guests can watch the menu, ordering dishes, pay the check, but as well play games during the waiting and writing reviews at the end of the dinnerparty. This tablet is not meant as replacement for the human staff, but rather compliment a pre-existing service.
After the succes of bottles Monte Scroppino Originale in 2005, the developers found a new practical way to satisfy both (re)seller and customer: the Macchina. A stylish machine that creates the perfect Scroppino (wodka, prosecco and lime ice cocktail) and will bring sunshine to the terraces this summer! Curious?! From mid June available at Lion Noir, Red Sun, Dauphine the Harbour Club Scheveningen and Rotterdam.
Vogue Kitchen teaches us how to cook, Vogue style! A pretty Italian woman in a strapless dress shows us the ins and outs of a the preparation of a healthy meal. On top of that, all nutritional values are shown. The movies are in Italian with English subtitles.
The Acadia Tree Tower is a new solution for overpopulation. The building itself resembles of a birds nest and is designed by Petr Pospisil. The tree pilars that support the building are filled with office spaces and elevators. The Nest is used for condo’s, shopping malls and entertainement facilities. Energy and drinking water are gained from nature by solar panels and harvesting rainwater.
City planners in Abu Dhabi are developing Masdar to be an urban zone with sharp ecological goals, as it relies completely on solar and renewable energy. The city is designed by Foster & Partners.
Representatives of the Canadian insurance company Kiln are developing a new insurance that protects companies from claims and damage by tweets. The insurance company doesn’t exclude that other social media with be part of this insurance in the future.
This vending machine was spotted in Japan. Each compartiment holds a net with 10 to 12 fresh eggs, which costs around $3,-. The eggs are from a nearby farmer who fills the machine with the fresh eggs.
Coffee sleeves with slogan’s, they are reusable and give an extra dimension to your morning coffee
The Social Vending machine from Pepsi is connected to a computer network. People can buy a drink like on a normal machine, but they can give away a drink as well. Type the name and telephone number of the recipient on the touch screen and add a text message or personal video. The gift can be picked up at the nearest Social Vending machine.
Airline company Norwegian wanted to advert their new low priced flights to mediterranean destinations on a special way. On more than 30 locations in and around the center of Gothenburg they’ve placed little figures that express sunny vacation activities.
Jesse Herbert already designed a bike beer holder a short while ago, but now he has introduced the bicycle wine rack. It’s adjustable to almost any size wine bottle , made of brass and leather.
This device can make a beer in 7 days that comparable is with the quality of commercial beers. Twelve of the most common problems with brewing beer are solved at ones with this device. The most important is the carbonation process, temperature control and clarification that are self controlled by the device.
Restaurant L’Ilôt 13 in Genève uses a piano to create cocktails, every cocktail an other melody. It’s pretty labour-intensive that way!
A new, free iPhone application shows people the way on the Amsterdam canals. The application is called ‘Vaarwater’ (free translated as waterway) and is an initiative of Waternet. Besides eight channel routes, the app includes information about the opening of bridges and locks, water taps, places to spend the night, gas stations, bars, marinas and in the near future also hotels.
Every child can play with food, but with this set, the dinner becomes a total playground. The toy castle is designed for kids and can be broken up into separate pieces like a plate, cup, bowl and utensils.
Coca-Cola has approached Belgian top chocolate maker Dominique Persoone to celebrate the start of Coca-Cola on the 8th of May 1886. A special box is created with 3 chocolates that provide a real Coca-Cola experience. The set contains a birthday praline (with sparkling sugar), an ice cube praline (that resembles the taste of cola at 4 degrees Celsius) and a cacao praline (the ideal taste combination with cola).
The new ‘Liefde voor Limburg’ iPhone app has all asparagus routes in Northern Limburg and shows you the way to the right places for the best asparagus dishes. Besides this information the free app for iPhone users provides a complete overview of the touristic and recreational offers in the region.
With a Royal Wedding in England today and Queensday in the Netherlands tomorrow, it’s not weird that royal mechandise is thriving. This time, the Aristocakes cupcake mold caught our attention. Designed by Liz Goulet Dubois and withstanding 450 °F / 230 °C, they guarantee a royal treat.
The ordinairy pen as a writing instrument is slowly losing its battle to computers. But Dine Ink offers a new reason to keep the pen at your work desk. Dine Ink comes with three plastic caps to use your pen as a spoon, fork and a knife, so you don’t have to leave your desk for lunch.
The Anti-Griddle, by PolyScience is a box about a size of a small microwave, the device freezes sauces, purees and any liquid quickly with great results. The cooktop maintains a standard 30°F (- 34.44°C). The developers of the antigriddle won the Food Network’s Award for Tasty Technology with this revolutionairy way of cooking.
The Donut Project. A guerilla campaign for Superette in New Zealand. By putting indented plates across the city at bus stops an park benches, those who sat down wearing short shorts or skirts walked away with the ad campaign ‘ Short Shorts on Sale’ imprinted on the back of their legs.
With the new outdoor kitchens and showers, created by interior designer Piet-Jan van den Kommer, you can create a unique outdoor eating experience. The outdoor kitchens (with shower) consist of individual units that are connectable in a various ways.
Simple and effective, a little nod to the excellent concept of sugar cubes that takes the shape of individual bricks inspired by the famous video game Tetris. Designed by the graphic designer Russian Danil Zdorov.
The Belgian concept agency C03 has made a new design for the traditional ‘frietzak’ called Frietzak 3.0. The bag has a separate box for sauces and a sausage, frikandel or skewer can be balanced easily on top of the notches.
The founders of Dutch beer websites Bier-Blog.nl and Bier-TV start an adventure with their mobile application for iPhone and Android smartphones. From the 13th of May it’s possible to navigate to places were you can buy your favorite (special)beer. The developers want to build an extensive database by using crowdsourcing techniques.