The Ground of Alexandria

12-6-2013

Café ‘The Ground of Alexandria’ is located in an old pie factory from the early 1900’s in Sydney. ‘The Ground of Alexandria’ has a coffee research center and a garden with vegetables, fruit and herbs. In the coffee research center they experiment with different roasting profiles and techniques based on individual types of coffee and beans. Several classes are organized for people of all ages to learn more about the journey of coffee and food from seed to plate. A bakery is located in the café where they make fresh bread and sweet pastries every day. The café has an extensive coffee menu and serves a rustic menu of sustainable ingredients, mainly from their own garden. ‘The Ground of Alexandria’ is nominated for the ‘Restaurant and bar design award’.

Fathers day photo shoot with T-bonesteak

12-6-2013

On June 16 it is Father’s Day again. The steakhouse ‘Midtown Grill’ of the Marriott Hotel in Amsterdam organizes a nice photo shoot. Fathers with sons can take a picture in cooking clothes, surrounded by cooking utensils in the kitchen of Midtown Grill. They will pose with the famous dish of the restaurant, the sea salt grilled T-bone steak of 3.5 pounds. After the shoot they can eat the dish together.

Sharing is caring

11-6-2013

On a regular basis we hear that the ideas we show at our website are too far from the daily reality of the restaurant or hotel entrepreneur. There is too little time to bring ideas, with your own twist, in practice. We recently visited Paris and at two restaurants we had the opportunity to enjoy one dessert for the whole table. A giant profiterole filled with ice-cream and topped with chocolate at Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie. Not a great dessert in looks but delicious chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Based on the sharing part I made a ‘Meringue Peche Melba’ this weekend, fresh peach and raspberry combined with meringue and fresh strawberry sauce and ice-cream, for 4 persons on one plate. And if you prepare this dessert on the table, by breaking the gigantic meringue, your dessert becomes even more spectacular! This idea is based on the video of the dessert for the whole table of Alinea, Chicago. Watch the video once again on what they do with the chocolate ball! This is an example of how you can use ideas and make them your own, enjoy being creative! Your guest certainly will with a dessert like this! ^Marjolein

Branded eclairs

11-6-2013

Just to show you how immense popular the éclairs are at the moment in France. In February we already reported about the savory eclairs being popular in Paris. This time we spotted them during the Rolland Garros French Open. French sportswear brand Lacoste celebrated its 80th anniversary during this tournament with limited-edition éclairs by French bakery Fauchon. More iconic French brands were invited to participate at the event and each came up with a unique product inspired the Lacoste crocodile logo.

Welcoming gestures to kids by the NY Public Library

11-6-2013

PSFK placed great pictures of the new NY Library in Harlem where teenagers can interact, play video games, eat snacks, and hang out without having to worry about parents’ or elders’ eyes watching. Harlem’s Hamilton Grange branch is home to this full-floor 4,400-square-foot hangout space specially dedicated to teenagers. There only two librarians on watch from one end of the room. The space includes a 20-foot-diameter glass wall where they can play Wii and Guitar Hero available with special speakers preventing much of the noise from filtering out. The NY Public Library also provides summer readings for kids. Watch the movie for this hospitable gesture to kids. Getting the kids back into the library and sharing reading experience online.

More information at New York Libraries.

The Croque Monsieur Rap or the Bitterballen rap

11-6-2013

The ‘Croque Monsieur’ Rap By Wordburglar pays homage to the classic French sandwich. The YouTube video features a lot of Croque Monsieurs. Wordburglar is far from the first rapper to express his love of food, though. Check The Huffpost Taste for a list of food raps. And we would like to suggest a rap to pay homage to our classic Dutch ‘Bitterbal’.

Coca-Cola ice cold

10-6-2013

Coca-Cola Colombia, has created Ice Bottles. The bottles where introduced in Cartagena, sunny Colombia. A red Coke-logo band lets you hold the frozen bottle without chilling your hand too much. With only leaving the band with the logo behind, an innovative and environmental friendly packaging! Remains the question about hygiene. Agency: Ogilvy Colombia.

#RCMemories through promoted by

10-6-2013

The official twitter stream of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. Tweeting for global travelers, collectors of #RCMemories and lovers of #luxury. We do not often see examples of hotels using the ‘promoted by’ opportunity via Twitter. Recently we spotted the above mentioned tweet promoted by @RitzCarlton: ‘Travel inspires the most treasured memories. Share yours on @twitter & @instagram with #RCMemories. We can’t wait to see what you discover‘. They gather photos taken by their guest at #RCMemories at Twitter and Instagram. Thus the story of vacationing at the Ritz-Carlton locations worldwide are told through pictures by their guests. Great marketing campaign! And inspiration for each hotel or restaurant. As to come up with a hash tag for your own business is easy. Getting your guest to send in pictures is a challenge! We contribute to the #RCMemories by placing the picture of the Bathmenu from the Ritz-Carlton in Kuala Lumpur. Also shown in our booklet ‘Royal hospitable gestures‘.

Mouthopia,Think With Your Mouth

10-6-2013

McDonald’s has taken a fresh approach with their most recent advertising campaign called “Think With Your Mouth”. Created by New York-based ad agency Translation, the outcome is a series of 20-second videos, which all feature a Big Mac as the centerpiece. Each of the videos has a distinct style with the goal of appealing to a different segment of Internet users. With this tactic they aim to increase the number of people who are likely to click on any one of the company’s videos, thus increasing the effectiveness of the ad campaign.

The Ibis Snuggling Bunnies

10-6-2013

The Ibis hotels introduced their most comforting hotel bed ever with this ad. More information at #ibisbunnies and if you like them at Facebook you can even see more exclusive behind-the-scenes YouTube videos.

Bar Saint Jean

7-6-2013

Johann opened the ‘Saint Jean’ bar in the center of Berlin in January. The bar is mainly focused on long drinks with the not so usual gin or vodka and a broad selection of whiskeys and tequilas. Saint Jean has a robust, neutral look without too many details. The bar is made of wooden planks this gives it a tough look. Great inspiration to make a bar out of waste wood or an old wooden floor.

Away on business by Accor

7-6-2013

Accor Hotels introduces an iPad-app for the business traveler. The app ‘Away on Business by Accor’ offers business travelers a planning tool and it gives tips. Travelers can book a hotel room at a Accor Hotel through the app, but it also offers suggestions for restaurants and attractions, manages travel costs and you can import and personalize a planning. The app includes practical tools, such as the weather forecast, a map of the public transport and a LinkedIn conncection search in the area.

Swim with pigs

7-6-2013

Everybody has heard of swimming with dolphins, turtles and other marine creatures. But the Bahamas is the only place where you can swim with pigs. In the Netherlands you see the pigs at the farm but at the Bahamas they swim around. What animal could we swim along in the Netherlands… with cows?

Pop-up bar Tobias Rehberger

7-6-2013

German artist Tobias Rehberger has made a copy pop-up bar of his favorite bar ‘Bar Oppenheimer Frankfurt’ in Hotel Americano New York . The pop-up bar has exactly the same proportions as the original bar in Frankfurt and contains the same furniture and details. The only difference is that each area of the pop-up bar is converted with black and white stripes and shades of red and orange. Tobias Rehberger is known for stripe patterns in his works. Earlier we saw the retro and striped pop-up bar in Venice at Cool Hunter.

Whoopie Pie

6-6-2013

The Whoopie Pie is not well known in the Netherlands. Whoopie Pie consists of two small cases in the form of a cookie with in between a filling. It looks like a macaron made out of cake. The ‘Whoopie’ shop in New Zealand sells freshly baked Whoopie Pies, Pops and Cakes. The Whoopie Pies are available in a lot of flavors, like rosewater, mint chocolate, walnut espresso and hazelnut. ‘Whoopie’ also makes special Whoopie Pies for events as birthdays, weddings or valentine. The shop also serves Whoopie shakes, sundaes, coffee and hot chocolate. If you like sweets, you should definitely visit the ‘Whoopie’ shop.