Yoga in parking garage
18-4-2013
The building 11 11 in Miami Beach, Florida is a beautiful example of an elastic environment. The building is designed to function as a parking garage as well as a venue for weddings, wine tastings, yoga classes and more. The building can ouse up to 300 cars but the seven floor structure can easily be transformed to suit a variety of purposes. The building is developed by Robert Wennett and Herzog & de Meuron. The building features high ceilings and thanks to the absence of exterior wall it offers guests stunning views of the city.
Spark The Hague opens its doors
17-4-2013
Today the new bar Spark The Hague opens its doors. The bar is part of the Hilton Hotel The Hague, but has its own entrance and address. The trendy bar is a location to relax with night entertainment like Funky Jazz Live, Ladies First and Sparks & Bubbles. At the Spark The Hague you can enjoy quality cocktails, wines and champagnes supplemented with Asian finger food and international snacks. The cocktails are made by bartenders Michael-John Straatmand and David van Panhuys who have a broad knowledge of cocktails and wines.
Race to the top
17-4-2013
The Ramada Apollo Amsterdam Centre and Urbanics Amsterdam organize the ‘race to the top’ on Saturday April 20th for the first time. Participants will run up and down three times and will finish on Floor 17 (bar). They need to overcome a total of 51 floors and 2020 stairs. The race starts outside at the parking lot and the stairs runners will be welcomed with a drink and a healthy snack at the top. The fastest man and woman will both win a hotel stay including breakfast for two.
The friandise Tresor
17-4-2013
The friandise Tresor is chosen by the INN Awards (Belgium) as one of the best innovations of 2012. INN Awards are the premier award of innovative food products in the Retail sector. This friandise of grilled gingerbread, bloc de foie gras and onion preserves provides a sophisticated snack during the aperitif. It’s delivered frozen.
Suspended fries at friturist
16-4-2013
Following the ‘Caffe Sospeso’ and the ‘Suspended Coffee’ we now spotted the ‘Suspended Fries’. Owner Eric Duhamel, of the snackbar Bompa in Brussels, is the initiator. His customers can buy one portion of fries for the price of two! They can leave the voucher they receive for social workers in the neighborhood or give them away to Brussels’ homeless people. The first week the friturists sold sixty portions ‘Suspended fries’ and thirty were claimed. There are several frituristen in Belgium who will follow the initiative (a Friturist is an owner of a snackbar in Belgium).
Pat & Mat water bottles
16-4-2013
The sustainable brand ‘Well Water’ celebrates its tenth anniversary with the introduction of a ‘Pat & Mat’ bottle. To get even the smallest children to drink water, their spring water is packaged in a handy bottle for small children’s hands, with a resealable cap. In addition Well Water works with Simavi to provide thousands of people in Malawi clean and safe drinking water in 2013.
Only Snapchat and Poke allowed
16-4-2013
Many dishes are photographed worldwide. There are more and more restaurants that no longer allow the use of instagram or camera’s. This is partly due to the inconvenience to other guests (flash for example) but also to the poor quality pictures that are spread across the net. Maybe the apps SnapChat and Poke are a solution to this problem. These apps enable users to share images that can only be viewed by the recipient for a few seconds before they ‘self-destruct’. As restaurant owner you can make a sign to indicate that you only allow your guest to take pictures with Poke & SnapChat ;-).
Street Feast in Ireland
15-4-2013
This video shows the Street Feast in Ireland 2012. Street Feast started out in 2010 as a non-for-profit event to bring local communities in Ireland together through social lunches. The initiative has grown ever since, and will have its fourth edition on Sunday June 23rd around noon. People are invited to take the initiative and organize a lunch themselves, or to join a community lunch that’s happing near them. Read more about this initiative at The Pop-Up City. This is an opportunity for local restaurants and cafes as well, why not co-organize a similar event to get acquainted with your neighbours?
A bicycle drive-in
15-4-2013
By 2025 the number of cyclists is expected to double in Switzerland’s largest metropolitan area. Because of these staggering statistics, Zurich’s City Council has created the stadtverkehr 2025 program, which aims to improve the pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, and reduce motorized traffic. Part of this initiative includes the opening of the Velokafi – a ‘drive-in’ for bicycles on the outdoor terrace of the Rathaus Cafe, which is a popular spot next to the Limmat river. Two wooden docking stations with tabletops enable cyclists to pull up and have some food and a coffee without getting off their bike. Nice gimmick but we prefer to drink our espresso at the terrace. But the initiative gives a lot of rumour around the ‘Stadtverkehr 2025 program’.
From tap water to pure table water
12-4-2013
Serve pure table water made from tap water.. With the special ‘ecotap’ and bottles the entrepreneur can offer the guests tap water with the appearance of mineral water. The ‘ecotap’ provides an economically and ecologically alternative for mineral water. By special filtration the water is safe and tasty. It is also possible to obtain the ‘ecotap’ with a coolingsystem and as sparkling water.
Kids cooking for their mother
12-4-2013
It is Mother’s Day at 12 May. In the coming weeks we will occasionally publish remarkable recipes and actions on horeacatrends. Do you have a special recipe or does your restaurant or hotel plans a special activity, let us know by mail via tip@spronsen.com. Who knows your company might be on horecatrends.
Steakhouse Midtown Grill in the Amsterdam Marriott hotel organizes a special Mother’s Day brunch for the whole family. Under the skilled guidance of the pastry chef, the kids will get a cooking class in making and decorating delicious pancakes for their mothers. During the brunch the family can enjoy the pancakes prepared by their kids and other delicacies.
DAMn Food Waste
12-4-2013
40% of the food in the Netherlands disappears into the trash of consumers, supermarkets and producers. DAMn Food Waste wants to bring the food waste to the attention. On June 29 in the heart of Amsterdam they organize a free lunch for 5,000 people, made of food that would have ended up in the trash. However, they need 5,000 registrations on Facebook to organize this lunch. Previous actions against food waste were organized in London en Sweden.
No more dirty fingers with Grippys
11-4-2013
Grippy’s are designed napkins to ensure that you don’t get dirty or greasy fingers when eating finger food. Because of the shape of the Grippy’s, the guest will always grab one napkin form the pile and can easily pick a small snack. Through the small size, the Grippy’s can be served on the serving dish. The napkins are hygienic and its small size reduces waste. The Grippy’s are developed by EF-FIS.
Responsible organic hot dog
11-4-2013
Cool green events will introduce the old hot dog, but with new tricks. The hot dog will be made of honest meat with a transparant background, multigrain bread, topped with beetroot and parsnips (depending on season) and artisanal sauces. The organic hot dog is made of biological ingredients and fits the current trends like healthy, pure and sustainable food. The organic hot dog will be served this summer by the ‘Cool green house’ (kind of a food truck without wheels) and be available on events and festivals. Maybe they can serve this organic hot dog at the new ‘healthy’ hot dog restaurant of Jamie Oliver?
Temporary campsite in a Zoo
11-4-2013
Sleeping between the snarling animals in a zoo.. This year ‘Dierenpark Amersfoort’ organizes ‘Father Night’ for the second time on 14 and 15 June. During ‘Father Night’, fathers can sleep with their children in the ‘Dinobos’ at the zoo. They can set up their own tent and in the evening a barbecue and entertainment will be available. In the morning the mothers are welcome for breakfast and a visit the zoo with their family.
Alcohol free cocktail competition for the Royals
11-4-2013
Happy Drinks started an original competition together with The Greenery and ‘Voedingscentrum’. The most inspiring cocktails will win a royal weekend at Hotels van Oranje or a blender. Pierre Wind already created a culinairy ode to the future royals. The recipe is only in Dutch.
Croquette made of the kings of vegetables
10-4-2013
Spring has started, the sun begins to shine and to introduce the asparagus season Kwekkeboom launches the spring croquette in mid-April. The spring croquette is filled with ragout based on white asparagus. The asparagus croquettes will be produced in a limited quantity and is available in a number of cafes and restaurants, so they can distinguish aselves from supermarkets. We already look forward to the winter croquette filled with sauerkraut and sausage pieces
Greenhouse on the roof of Whole Foods Market
10-4-2013
Food store ‘Whole Foods Market’ and supplier ‘Gotham Greens’ are building a greenhouse farm of 20.000-square-foot on the roof of the forthcoming Whole Foods Market store in Brooklyn. Gotham Greens has been a valued local supplier of fresh produce and will grow in the greenhouse farm premium quality, pesticide-free produce. In this way Whole Foods Market can offer consumers the freshest leafy greens, herbs and tomatoes, year-round. Whole Foods also plans to offer educational opportunities for area students and local schools to learn about greenhouses and farming.
Douwe Egberts gives coffee advice
9-4-2013
The (cold) weather in the Netherlands is currently a ‘hot’ topic. The Douwe Egberts coffee café responds to that in a great way. Every week they give coffee advice based on the weather. For example with cold weather they advise a choc-au-lait or when the sun shines an Ice-Cappuccino. The drinks are bit easy chosen but a nice idea.
Authentic from head to tail pig roasting
9-4-2013
The company ‘Varkensroosteren’ (pig roasting) was founded by two Dutch entrepreneurs Roel van Vliet and Baaf Spark. ‘Varkensroosteren’ uses pigs that are sustainable bred by the retail/farm the Lindenhoff, the black ‘Baambrugse pigs’. They roasts their pigs from head to tail over a burning wood fire for hours. ‘Slow food’, at this authentic way the meat remains juicy. The company serves the meat in sandwiches with home made sauce. Nice to serve at festivals….
Mobile Sauna Festival
9-4-2013
Last 6 and 7 April, the ‘Saunakaravaan’ organized the first Mobile Sauna Festival at the Sloterplas in the Netherlands. The festival consisted of three mobile saunas, a massage wagon, hottub and showers. And cooling down in the Sloterplas! Beside the sauna’s and healings the festival offered storytellers, performances and poets. A great event for adventurous sauna enthusiasts. We think that the previously spotted ‘bike sauna‘ would have fitted in…
Robot entertaining in a restaurant
9-4-2013
‘Robot Restaurant’ in Tokyo gives you a real entertaining during a dinner. The restaurant has four, 11.8-foot tall robots who are ‘fighting’ with each other. The robots are controlled by scantily clad women dancers and accompanied by loud electronic music. Building the robots and the interior of the restaurant did cost 125.8 million dollar. The entrance of the restaurant is $ 51 and even though there is nobody eating in this video, it does include dinner and drinks. The restaurant opened in august 2012.
Incredible coffee art
8-4-2013
Barista Mike Breach turns a simple cup of coffee into a wonderful creation. The draws detailed images into his lattes and make real coffee art. Earlier we saw a cup of coffee elevated to true art with the 3d latte art. But we think that Mike Breach is the Rembrandt in latte art…… He should be able to show his art at our recently opened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam ;-).
Exclusive cocktails at Bluespoon bar
8-4-2013
BlueSpoon is located in the recently opened Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht hotel, a lifestyle and boutique hotel in Amsterdam. The Bluespoon Bar is inspired by the American Prohibition and gives you the atmosphere of a traditional pub in an international and dynamic environment. The cocktail bar serves hand-crafted cocktails made with traditional ingredients and focuses on the three different periods of the American Prohibition: pre-Prohibition, Prohibition and post-Prohibition’. The freshly picked herbs, fresh juices and carefully distilled liquors are processed in cocktails with funny names like ‘One Minute Delft Blue’ or ‘Lucky Librarian’.
Gastronomic experience between wine appetizers and jazz
5-4-2013
The first edition of ‘Sunday Jazz & Wine’ in the MC Theater Amsterdam takes place on Sunday April 7th. An event with a special wine arrangement, culinary tastings and live jazz music from jazz artist Aruan Oritz from Cuba. Sunday Jazz & Wine is initiated by the MC Theater, Aubergine Cuisine and ‘De Wijnengel’ a supplier of classic European wines. Chef cook Aldwin Veenstra (Aubergine Cuisine) prepares the appetizers and accompanied by performances of jazz artists. Each new season starts with a tasting of wine and appetizers.