Ghost kitchen chain Casper from Belgium is going to expand to the Netherlands

20-4-2022

Casper, the fast-growing ghost kitchen chain in Belgium, announced it has raised €5 million in a Series A financing led by Amsterdam-based Slingshot Ventures, in partnership with serial entrepreneurs Zhong Xu & Jan Hollez (Deliverect) and Jürgen Ingels (Smartfin).

With this injection Casper will expand to various locations in the Netherlands (The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Utrecht), France (Lille) in the third quarter of this year and Luxembourg will follow in the fourth quarter. As of Q2 2024, Casper aims to have 50 international locations.

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Trends we spotted | Week 13

4-4-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles and amongst others three Instagram posts we spotted, the special branding of Mr. Charlie’s in Los Angeles with their red/yellow colors as well as the upside down smile. And Miss Crispy Rice who recently opened inside the Oasis Wynwood in Miami, serving crispy rice sushi!

Another Instagram post that we really love is one from Paris where restaurant La Bourse et la Vie hired 3 refugees from Ukraine and changed their cuisine and their name in Le Borscht et la Vie as of yesterday for 2 months.

Dubai is the 36th destination which will have its own Guide MICHELIN! The first selection of restaurants will be revealed in June. And McDonald’s USA surprises fans with unexpected Szechuan Sauce drop. Great idea a limited time offer of products from the past, which product would you bring back?

SALSA SHOP is a fast growing brand of fresh Mexican food restaurants, they recently opened the 10th restaurant in the Netherlands and they have big dreams for Europe. And a great initiative of Culinair Leiden in our hometown, a 6.5 km long festive ribbon of tables along the Singelpark route on 25 and 26 June 2022: Singelpark Dinner.

Restaurant commerce platform, GoTab, recently announced that it is partnering with Mastercard to transform the digital checkout experience in hospitality venues across the US with the implementation of Click to Pay.

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Trends we spotted | Week 10

11-3-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

Featuring links this week to articles including the launch of North America’s 50 Best Bars, by Perrier and the presidential suites at some Ritz-Carlton hotels will be turned into First Lady suites, named after the series with the same name on SHOWTIME.

China is getting 350 new Accor hotels, divided among the various brands of Acccor. And if you are in Paris, drop by the Broadway Caffe where you can dine in an iconic yellow taxi and be seated a swings!

Fast Casual Restaurant Shake Shack is going to test whether letting people pay with cryptocurrency attracts more young visitors. And the Michelin Guide Germany this year has more stars than ever, a whopping 327 with a new 3 Michelin star restaurant, restaurant Schanz in Piesport!

DAD in London delivers vegan dishes for less than £5. All meals come in compostable packaging and are delivered by bicycle. And also in London, in Soho opened The Thin White Duke Bar, inspired by David Bowie.

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Inspiration for the National Pancake Day on March 18 in the Netherlands

8-3-2022

While in America and England the date for the annual Pancake Day coincides with Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday after Carnival, the evening before fasting starts) and Shrove Day, we here in the Netherlands celebrate our National Pancake Day on March 18 2022. Because the dates differ, owners of pancake restaurants can use inspiration from the pancake days in England and the USA! Our colleague Jesse Oldenburg has created a list of inspiring promotions and tasty pancake recipes! If your pancake restaurant has a cool initiative for pancake day, we would love to hear it, but we also like to hear if you picked up one of the initiatives below!

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Zero Egg challenges students to make the world’s highest egg flip

1-3-2022

In its quest to make plant-based food accessible to everyone, Zero Egg is starting with the newest generation of food lovers — college students! The plant-based egg company took America’s largest college, the University of Central Florida (UCF) by storm yesterday, kicking off its partnership with the university by serving up delicious plant-based egg meals; delivering Zero Egg sandwiches to students around campus on their own branded tandem bicycle; and hosting an afternoon of fun and games on the campus’ Greek Row.

But the highlight of the show was the Zero Egg omelet flip! Currently, there is no world record holder for the world’s highest egg flip, and Zero Egg is on a mission to secure it! The brand will be scouring colleges across the country to find America’s highest egg flipper. Once secured, Zero Egg intends to work with Guinness World Records on capturing the record, because who needs another record held by an ordinary egg? Not when Zero Egg can get it done — doing all of the same things an ordinary egg can do, such as flip, scramble, bake and fry.

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Pulled Wheats | Meatless stew on the menu at Ellis

18-2-2022

At the restaurant chain Ellis in Belgium they know that the plant-based future is sizzling hot and they know how to be (plant)friendly to our planet. Whoever thought it stopped at the beyond burger was wrong, because pulled wheats are going way beyond that beyond burger as the newest all-vegetable meat substitute in their offerings.

Starting this week, Ellis is serving the sizzling casserole in all of its locations: a brand new vegan dish in which the revolutionary meat substitute ‘pulled wheats’ plays the starring role. 

Reading time: 2 minutes

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Trends we spotted | Week 7

18-2-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

IKEA in the Netherlands is also tackling food waste together with Too Good To Go as are more European countries. And the ‘Tasty by Greggs’ Café opened in a Primark in Birmingham, they will also sell a limited-edition Greggs collection.

With this week links to articles about amongst others: some last Valentine’s Day inspiration from 2022 for 2023, we spotted a wedding chapel on Valentine’s Day at Denny’s in Las Vegas and Topo Chico Hard Seltzer sent your ex a cactus on this day.

August 25 a tribute to the Beatles will be held in the courtyard of the Musée de Montmartre in Paris, their Candlelight Open Air may inspire other museums. And for all Harry Potter fans, you can attend a pop-up dinner in a ‘Hogwarts’-like castle in France!

McDonald’s plans to operate a virtual restaurant online with home delivery, in the Metaverse! And the new Michelin Guide for the UK and Ireland 2022 is out! With a new three Michelin star restaurant – L’Enclume.

Next Gen Foods announced this week that its first product, TiNDLE is now available in a range of iconic restaurants across the East and West Coasts in some of the country’s leading “foodie” cities.

Click on the title if you like to read the full article. Enjoy reading!

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Trends we spotted | Week 2

17-1-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles about Flipdish, an online ordering and experience platform, which has had a capital injection. And the nominees for the ‘Foodservice Award 2022’ (Horecava) election have been announced, on March 10 we will know who has won in which category.

A new De Beren delivery restaurant has opened in the center of Katwijk and KFC has opened a new restaurant in the WoenselXL shopping center in Eindhoven.

Albert Heijn is testing its own app ‘Overblijvers’ (remainers) against food waste and the Dutch app, Didiyo, delivers food from Turkish, Surinamese, Polish and Moroccan grocers.

It looks like Americans will soon be able to enjoy “Snoop doggs” hot dogs and more news about Nuro’s new model of “delivery” robotics in America.

The first non-alcoholic beer with vitamin D, the Corona Sunbrew 0.0%, is already available in Canada. And in Dubai in 2023, The floating luxury five-star resort Kempinski Floating Palace will open! With hotel villas that can ‘sail’ elsewhere.

At Taco Bell in America, you can take out a subscription to the Taco Lover’s Pass, for 10 dollars per month, you can get 1 taco every day. And an article about an AI-powered platform to make wine recommendations, Tastry.

And a link to an article about the first speakeasy non-alcoholic cocktail bar in Paris: Drinks&Co by Lyre’s, special! We don’t think we have a completely alcohol-free cocktail bar here in the Netherlands, do we?

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Is your Dry January still going strong?

11-1-2022

January has always been one of the longest and depressing months. While most of us have to unchill from a festive December month, we’re confronted with Dry January, Veganuary (and if you really want to go all the way, forget the Dairy too), we have Blue Monday (January 17 this year) and your own New Year’s resolutions.

But on the bright side: more and more delicious vegan and vegetarian products are available at the stores, restaurants and recipes on the internet. Besides trying out Veganuary lots of people try Dry January and for those who miss the taste of their cocktail, glass of beer or wine, more and more delicious (and even some distilled) non-alcoholic alternatives are hitting the market, we made a list of the latest drinks.

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Trends we spotted | Week 1

10-1-2022

At horecatrends.com we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week links to articles about amongst others the design of the new Hotel Piet Hein Eek in Eindhoven and Horecagroep RCE will open a new restaurant from the chain ‘Stan’ in the Sphinxkwartier in Maastricht in the spring of 2022.

Dutch Brave Food: that is what Katy Elst and Ron Okhuijsen, after more than 25 years of experience as restaurant entrepreneurs, want to put on the map at Blue Bar1 in Utrecht. We spotted ‘Taste the TV’ in Japan (with video) and this Monday, January 10, Beyond Fried Chicken debuts nationwide at KFC®.

Geoffrey is a cute 10-pound delivery vehicle/robot developed by Ignacio Tartavull and Gellert Mattyus of Tiny Mile. And it’s pushed of the streets of Toronto. Great idea for uniform shoes, the Zen Running Club shoes, if you want your restaurant or hotel to be as sustainable as possible. They are 100% vegan and plant-based.

A photo of food taken by writer Nicholas Gill in a famous BBQ joint in Brooklyn, NYC, will be auctioned as an NFT. And global lifestyle icon Martha Stewart will open her first-ever restaurant, The Bedford by Martha Stewart at Paris Las Vegas in Spring 2022.

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