Valentine’s day: Je t’aime wine

8-2-2016

Now available in Dutch stores, the La Tulipe ‘Je t’aime’ Merlot wine. Ilja Gort, a famous Dutch winemaker in the Bordeaux, developed a new etiquette for his Merlot wine, especially for Valentine’s day. On the etiquette a big heart with the words ‘Je t’aime’ on it. At the backside of the bottle it is possible to write the name of your loved one.

Ilja’s idea

The idea for this wine was to produce a limited edition of a soft red wine, especially for Valentine’s day. Own research by Ilja showed that woman within his own circle of girlfriends who love red wine, are not that fond of wines with rough tannins. Heavy, oaked wines didn’t suit the ladies taste as well. This is the reason why Ilja picked accessible , juicy red wines made from 100% Merlot grapes. The wine originates from the vineyards situated in the Languedoc, the same location as where the Slurp wines are produced.

The description of the ‘Je t’aime’ wine, by the maker

“The Tulipe winery loves to make wine from Merlot grapes. From the start Ilja Gort, founder and winemaker at Tulipe winery, fell in love with the Merlot grapes because of the juiciness, elegancy and seductive tasty flavour. No difficulties, just enjoyment. That is how wine is meant to be. This Merlot fits the profile. Drink it slightly chilled or warmer. Enjoy a glass of ‘Je t’aime’ but it also great to combine with a dinner. ‘Je t’aime’ handles it all. According to the etiquette the wine can be drunk at its best if you listen to Serge Gainsbourg while you’re having the wine in your mouth.”

About the Escape Rooms in the Netherlands

8-2-2016

Unfortunately this publication is only in Dutch….

STACH the new shop in shop formula situated in the Mercure hotel Amsterdam City

5-2-2016

The from origin in Amsterdam situated foodshop STACH, well known for their sustainable products and specialties from local suppliers, has opened a shop in shop formula in the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City.

Foodshop STACH

STACH, the Amsterdam foodshop, with sustainable to-go products and specialties from local suppliers has opened a shop in shop formula in the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City. STACH is already owner of nine different shops, situated in Amsterdam, Utrecht & Overveen, the Netherlands. The new shop in the Mercure Hotel will be added to their portfolio.

Guests can choose in the new foodshop for local brewed beers, healthy bars, freshly baked biscuits, salades and take away meals. “Due to the changing needs of the customers it is important to develop concepts who meet these needs. STACH offers an unique and qualitative eat experience on an approachable level. STACH is thereby, just like Mercure, locally inspired, this makes the concept suitable for our promise; a unique experience inspired by the local environment”, says Ad Hoondert, the General Manager of the hotel.

Curious (hotel) guests

Within a short amount of time the foodshop had already a lot of guests who were curious about the concept. The fresh salads and especially Dutch products like ‘stroopwafels’ are very popular. “The appearance of STACH does give the hotel lobby a complete new impulse. It creates an cosy environment, a reason for guests to stay longer in our bar and lobby. Also guests who are not staying in our hotel and people living nearby are welcome to make use of the STACH products. It creates a link between us and the local environment of the hotel”, says Ad.

A scratch card for the beer lovers

4-2-2016

Inspiration for craft beer bars, pubs and beer lovers: a scratch card filled with the beers for sale at your bar. Time for your regular guests to taste the craft beers you offer!

The idea of ​​a scratch card was created at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart Lab. This company has recently made a checklist of 99 different types of draft beer with the ultimate goal to have drunk all of the beers on the list ;-).

The scratch card is divided into the two main categories of beer: ales and lagers. These categories are being divided into subcategories such as bock beer, wheat beer and lagers. A real challenge for the die-hard beer lovers to scratch the card as fast as possible.

A scratch card in your bar

We spotted this scratch card at Dutch Cowgirls and although the guys at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart Lab are mainly focused on the guests with this card, we think it could also be used within the hospitality industry. As owner of a bar or pub you could check if you’re able to develop a scratch card consisting of the beers you have on sale. Combine a good price with, for example, a free specialty beer and you create a solid piece of customer loyalty. In fact, try to contact one of your suppliers to arrange this.

Another possibility is to take a look at Brooklyn’s Pop Chart website. Here you will find an extensive range of wall decorations, wood carvings and products. How about a large wooden sign engraved about the interesting world of whisky? Or an information poster for your staff about wine?

Pop Chart Lab

Patrick Mulligan and Ben Gibson work together since 2010 with one single goal in mind: to render all of human experience in chart form. On their website you will find different wall decorations, wood carvings and products that are designed in a visually powerful way.

Live ‘ice cooking’ with the Gelato Machine

4-2-2016

The Gelato Machine is an all in one ice machine. Suitable for preparing, conserving and presenting  fresh Gelato (ice cream).

The Gelato Machine saves the ice cream makers a lot of operating and investing. First you needed a separated preparation kitchen, ice cream machine, freezing installation and refrigerator, but now you only need one device. The ice cream machine is fully digitally operated and pre-programmed so it easy to use.

Ice cream made in just 15 minutes

Suitable for preparing, conserving and presenting of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet ice. The Gelato Machine produces in about 15 minutes 2,5 kilos of one of the previously mentioned ice creams. When the ice cream has been prepared the machine automatically turns into the ‘saving mode’. It’s optional to use the Gelato Machine with the Movuz IceMobil, provided with a plate (IceTeppanyaki) of -30 degrees Celsius. This makes it possible to ‘stir fry’ the ice cream within seconds.

Theo Clevers – master ice cream maker, also works with the Gelato Machine

SVH master ice cream maker Theo Clevers uses the Gelato Machine. Horecatrends asked him why the machine is suitable for his ice cream shops: “In the ice cream world, the experience is also becoming more important. Costumers want to see, smell and taste how we prepare ice cream. The Gelato Machine gives us the opportunity to make ice cream at receptions and parties. It is an addition to the traditional ice cream cart. Live cooking, but with ice cream.”

The wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’

3-2-2016

During the December month, restaurant ‘Lot & de Walvis’ (Lot and the Whale) in Leiden had a ‘wish tree’ instead of a Christmas tree. The guests of the restaurant could write down their wish and hang it into the tree. The wish that will be carried out by Lot is chosen through Social Media.

Utrecht

Everyone knows them; a ‘wish tree’. Especially when you visited Utrecht last December you couldn’t have missed it. The ‘wish trees of Utrecht’ were put down on five different squares in the city in which the people could hang their wishes. The trees on the squares were getting decorated with many different wishes and some wishes were granted. This idea came from entrepreneur Sidney Rubens in order to promote the Knuss Winterfest in an original way.

All about the wish tree of ‘Lot & de Walvis’

It is also possible to apply a wish tree on a smaller scale. Guests of ‘Lot & de Walvis’ could write down their wish and hang it in the tree situated in the restaurant. Besides that, they involved their community on Facebook in the final decision for the best wish and managed to achieve a relatively large audience. The message in which the people could vote was shared, liked and received a lot of attention. Also the message with the announcement of the winner was popular with 132 likes. The power of Social Media!

The Hospitality Group Leiden

‘Lot & de Walvis’ is a part of the Hospitality Group Leiden together with Van der Werff, La France, City Hall and The Bishop. The board consists of the brothers Richard and Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen. Wouter van Leeuwen and Rob van Wijnen are responsible for the hospitality companies in Leiden. Richard van Leeuwen focuses on the four Harbour Clubs based in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and on Ibiza.

Bram’s, Gourmet Frites

2-2-2016

On 11 February Bram Ladage is opening ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites.’ At this new, international formula fries are prepared on a high culinary level and will be sold from a remarkable, black shipping container. The pilot store is going to be at the ‘Kop van Zuid’ in Rotterdam.

Bram’s, Gourmet Frites is going international

This new, international formula is going to be a worldwide standard for quality fries, says Bram Ladage partner Rocco Ladage. They are starting in Rotterdam but there is more and more demand from abroad. At the new concept ‘Bram’s, Gourmet Frites’ it’s about traditional preparation. The real Dutch potatoes from the Hoeksche Waard are cut into thick fries and prepared right in front of the costumers. Because these fries are so thick they absorb less fat and they also use oil with ‘good’ fats.

Collaborating with Herman den Blijker

Together with Herman den Blijker, Bram Ladage developed five new stews: Pulled pork BBQ, Captain’s beef, Asian chicken stew, the vegetarian Truffle mushroom and Pumpkin veal stew. With these stews, fries will no longer be a ‘side dish’ but a full meal component.

About Bram Ladage

Bram Ladage is a family company that’s originally from Rotterdam. But apart from Rotterdam they are getting more well known in Europe as well. Besides the formula Bram Ladage itself they also exploit BroodExpress, Ezprezzo, Ladage Events, Ladagerie and The Wold. With Bram’s they are taking the first step to go abroad.

The container is ideal for a franchise business; it will be delivered on location, it’s fully furnished and as franchisee you can start working immediately.

Get inspired by.. Spoon & Stable

1-2-2016

Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and is infected with the foodiebug, in this blog she writes about Spoon & Stable by chef Gavin Kaysen. In particular about his ‘after hours specials’.

Fall 2014 Gavin Kaysen, former pupil of Chef Daniel Boulud in New York (restaurant Daniel**), took the jump back to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he originally came from and opened his first, own restaurant: Spoon & Stable. Since then the casual fine dining restaurants have been a grand success, being noticed from coast to coast in the USA.
Other than super fresh food, beautiful presentations and a great atmosphere there is something else that sets this restaurant apart; their ‘after hours special’.

This genius gimmick is what we would love every fine dining restaurant to do. Every day the restaurant features a ‘fancy fast food’-like dish that is only available at the bar and not before 22h30. This can be a creative bowl of ramen (Japanese noodle soup), duck-confit tacos, freshly made corn tortillas and basically any crazy/yum/exciting dish they can come up with.

Why is this special at Spoon & Stable so great?

There are so many reasons, first it makes your food accessible for many more people than it is now, without having to lower your dining room prices. Secondly the bar of your restaurant will be much more exciting, shooting up beverage sales. Third it gives your team a little bit of freedom to experiment a bit outside of the box. Gives them the opportunity to create and test all their crazy ideas. And last but certainly not least, it could help greatly in eliminating food waste.

Personally, I’m 25, live in Paris and infected with the foodiebug. I would love if some of the great Parisian chefs would open their minds to this idea. Imagine yourself, at a random Tuesday night, 22h30, having a cocktail and grabbing a grilled cheese reimagined by Alain Ducasse.. could it get any better?
Check out this video to get to know chef Gavin Kaysen. He spoke at the Terroir Talks in October 2015. It gives a clear insight in 17 minutes….

Quake pop-up breakfast vending machine

28-1-2016

At the beginning of December Quaker Oats placed a pop-up vending machine at the train station of  Antwerp, where travellers could order a free breakfast. This breakfast was prepared by two ‘robots’. We consider this a great example on how to pop-up and present your company in a positive way. Why don’t restaurants or deli’s use a pop-up location to present their food to the public?

About the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine

Most people are very busy nowadays and skip breakfast regularly. Quaker Oats wants to do something about this and chose the train station of Antwerp to place the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine, Just as a metaphor of our busy lifestyle. The goal of this campaign? Have people acknowledge how important it is to start your day with a breakfast. And with Quaker this can be done very easy, quick and healthy!

Different recipes

By-passers were able to choose from two different recipes. These recipes changed every day and were created by well-known Belgium breakfast eaters. If the choice was made, you pushed the button and the two people dressed as robots prepared your breakfast, for free!

Inspiration

As we mentioned before, this is a nice way to present your product. Offering it for free always works of course, but for most hospitality companies this won’t always be easy to finance. But such a great pop-up location on a prominent spot might be worth considering, it will bring positive attention to your restaurant or lunchroom somewhere else in the city.

Colourful Pantone cocktails

27-1-2016

Tealeaves and Pantone are developing a new concept together: #PaletteForYourPalate. Ten different kinds of tea cocktails in Pantone colours!

Colourful Pantone cocktails

Tealeaves collaborates with Pantone to develop the new project #PaletteForYourPalate. With ten different flavours of tea cocktails as the result. They have names such as ‘The Bold and the Blue’, ‘The Pink Monsoon’, and ‘Dreams of Sunset’. Merging expertise which results in a unique product, tea and Pantone colours. Their goal is to show how big the impact of colour on products can be. These tea cocktails aren’t just tasteful and aromatic but also a ‘feast for the eyes’.

Tealeaves x Pantone approached over 30 different mixologists and world-class chefs from across North America to come up with cocktails that followed the aforementioned themes. For over 20 years Tealeaves has been recognized as the leading luxury tea blender of choice for luxurious hotels and restaurants worldwide. Tealeaves understands that ‘the first taste is with the eyes’.

Tealeaves x Pantone reached out to Nike and nail polish manufacturer OPI, to get inspired by their way of using colour. Both manufacturers understand what colour can do with a product.

The project Tealeaves x Pantone: #PaletteForYourPalate has an online exhibition where you can check out the cocktails.

Pantone hotel & café                                                        

In previous articles we wrote about experiments of Pantone. For example the Pantone Café in Monaco and Pantone Hotel in Brussels.

The Hamperling: luxurious airplane meals

26-1-2016

Fortnum & Mason sell luxurious airplane meals to go. Hamperlings are pre made packages that vary in price from £15,= till £50,=.

Luxurious airplane meals

Do you often travel Economy class and are you craving a meal with  Business class standards?  Heathrow Airport now has the solution! Fortnum & Mason recently started selling inflight meals,  regardless of which class you fly. No more rice with chicken or steamed vegetables as your inflight meal, but enjoying foie gras, caviar and other luxurious products. These hampers vary in price range from £15,= till £50,=.

Fortnum &Mason meals come in a turquoise coloured cooling bag, that include a fresh salad with herb mustard dressing, rye bread with butter, Napolitan squares as dessert and plastic cutlery including a caviar spoon.

There are five different variations divided in different price ranges. For example the £50,= option is for two people that includes a smoked fish selection, caviar, foie gras, a cheeseboard and  different kinds of chutney, alongside the standard products.

There also is a vegetarian option for £15,=. This hamper included, alongside the standard products, a roast butternut squash, red unions, a cheeseboard and a lemon dessert.

The developers

Fortnum & Mason assembled its first hamper way back in the late 1730s. The speed of travel has increased hugely, but one decidedly negative side-effect of that exponential quickening is the equal and opposite fall in the standard of travel food. F&M thinks this is unnecessary and decided to renew their airplane meal hampers.

Smart safe

25-1-2016

G4S introduced a new cash deposit service for entrepreneurs, CAS. A smart safe in which the sales from the cash register can be deposited. The deposit service counts automatically every banknote, checks its authenticity and puts the money into your bank account. When CAS is almost full, an automatic signal will be send to G4S who will pick up the content.

“It was about time for a modern alternative for depositing money into your bank account.” says Bas Rodenberg, commercial director G4S Cash Solutions. “If it’s up to us, CAS becomes the cash version of the pin device. An inseparable duo in every shop.” Entrepreneurs are able to manage the sales safely and efficiently with CAS, apart from the level of sales. “Cash payments stay” says Rodenberg. “Recent research shows that Dutch people still pay half of their payments in cash. The big amount of cash that is received daily by entrepreneurs in the hospitality and retail industry demands a system to have your sales relocated to the bank in a safe and secure manner.”

Smart safe fits in a future-oriented business

Rodenberg explains why CAS is launched at the Horecava: “G4S sees collaboration with their costumers and chain partners as the key to a safer world. That’s why industry associations helped visualizing the needs of entrepreneurs with cash money in their enterprise, because they know exactly what they’re dealing with.” So, no more walks to a bank at different times of the day with shopping bags filled with money!

Flourish makes a difference!

22-1-2016

The people of Flourish try to bring positive publicity to properties in order to interest guests and potential investors. So far they have mainly used the concept of pop-up restaurants to bring attention to the empty properties.

About Flourish

A potential client sees the property in an innovative way due to the events. So far Flourish has done this by creating pop-up restaurants for several days in the empty properties. By up-cycling, building the restaurant with recycled products and materials which have lost their value, the property has been placed in a whole new perspective. The collected materials, to create an attractive atmosphere, have a price tag and will soon be sold online.

Omroep Brabant, a local broadcasting legacy, has filmed during the pop-up events in the Sacramentskerk in Breda, in the video above Danielle van Houtum explains what she wants to achieve with Flourish.

The possibilities at Flourish

Together with concept entrepreneurs they discuss how to present the best in every property, to eventually sell it, rent or stimulate further developments of the property. Therefor the property can  be changed into a lunchroom, café, pop stage or for example a conference room in a short amount of time. For the owner of the property there are no direct costs. New footage will be made which can be used by the owner for marketing purposes.

Cold Brew Parlor in lobby Wyndham Grand

21-1-2016

The Wyndham Grand brings a new buzz to the traditional coffeehouse experience with the launch of Brew Parlor. A fresh take during afternoon happy hour where people can meet, recharge, or simply take a breather over cold-brewed coffee-based drinks and cocktails.

As from the beginning of 14 January, coffee lovers will be able to experience cold-brewed pick-me-ups and hand-crafted caffeinated cocktails from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. every Monday through Friday at Wyndham Grand’s Brew Parlor pilot hotels in Chicago (U.S.), Doha (Qatar), Shenzhen (China) and Istanbul (Turkey). According to a study by Euromonitor International bottles filled with cold brew coffee are growing in sales worldwide, faster than any other bottled non-alcoholic beverage.

Cold Brew Parlor

Although it takes a while to brew cold coffee, the installation is a beautiful artisanal installation in your lobby! In the Netherlands we do have the company Batavia Dutch Coffee of Jits Krol and Robert Nijhof. They are penetrating the hospitality industry with the cold brewing method from the Dutch East India Company era. They bottle their cold brew…

Wouldn’t it be a great idea to have an installation at the hotel lobbies of the big hotel chains in Amsterdam and Rotterdam? As part of their coffee corners, like the hotels of the Wyndham Grand chain are doing.

But even museums, like our ‘Scheepvaartmuseum’ with topics regarding the Dutch East India Company should serve cold brewed coffee.  ^Marjolein van Spronsen

Sushi-wrap, sushi-sandwich or better the sushiwich

20-1-2016

The sushiwich is actually a simple Sushi Maki roll (4,5 cm diameter and 20 cm long) which is cut in two parts, to be eaten as a sandwich or wrap. The sushiwich is introduced at the Horecava by Bocon Sushi Concepts.

Sushiwich and the sushi robot; Rolling Mate TSM900RSR

Because of doubting whether to call it a sandwich or a wrap, they came up with the name ‘sushiwich’. The innovation comes from Australia, according to the sushi machinemakers, Bocon Sushi Concepts. Over there the snack was such a big success (more than 3000 outlets) that the idea has been re-imported to Japan. Every chef can make sushiwiches, especially if you use sushi robots, like the Rolling Mate TSM900RSR.  You need the Rolling Mate to make the sushiwich if you’re not a trained Sushi chef. Bocon Sushi Concepts also sells readymade sushi rice. This is a scoop in the Netherlands and causes that the seller doesn’t have to worry about the ‘basics’ and the making of  the sushiwich becomes even less time-consuming.

Creative with sushi

A sushiwich sounds a bit like the Temakeria in London to us. By being ‘creative with sushi’ a large number of concepts have been created. It does strike us that the concepts that stick to the original sushi, are the most successful.

The Frushi, a sushi made of rice and fruit that we spotted in 2011, are no longer sold. Neither the Goshi and Wichy really made it, they’re German variants on sushi with European tastes. But hey, it remains nice to make your own sushi variant as a chef, maybe a sushi variant with local products as Catering Hanenburg at kookstudio Lokaal 55 does. They combine Frisian ingredients like smoked eel from the Sneekermeer with sushirolls made of beetroot and a crème of potato to an Frisian Sushi.