Trends we spotted | Week 33
At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu 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 the most spectacular off-menu dish at the rule-breaking Japanese restaurant Shuko in New York and to the ‘Cuisine Solaire’ by restaurant Le Présage in Marseille. It’s Europe’s first solar-powered restaurant.
In London you can enjoy cocktails and high tea’s at a disused train station, check out the great 1940s themed high tea video at Cahoots Underground in the article. Also opened in London: a new immersive cocktail experience, Mr. Tipsy’s Down The Hatch! With a lot of OTT-ness!
French food tech start-up Gourmey is working on lab-grown foie gras that could allow restaurants to continue to serve the highly-prized delicacy in an ethical way. Great news for foie gras lovers, it looks like it and the chef who tried it says it also tasted the same.
The new pizzeria Pazzi in Paris is staffed entirely by robots, from order-taking to prepping the dough to putting the pizzas in boxes. Check out the video, as guests you can follow your pizza being made!
We love the idea behind the ‘random acts of kindness’, as does Domino’s Pizza in the USA, they started their ‘Surprise Frees’ Promotion. Until November 21, 2021, they are surprising randomly selected fans with free menu items.
And a link to an article about the new ‘Taco Bell Defy’. The 3,000 square-foot restaurant concept located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, utilizes a two-story model for “the frictionless future of Taco Bell”.
Click on the title if you like to read the full article. Enjoy reading!
Why the tuna collar at rule-breaking Shuko is New York’s most spectacular off-menu dish
Another example of creating your own dishes and ambiance, it works! We read about this Japanese omakase restaurant in New York on the website of Robb Report, link in the title. Shuko is a New York City omakase wonderland that grooves to a different beat. While many high-end Japanese restaurants resemble temples, this downtown sushi bar feels more like a house party. Chefs Nick Kim and Jimmy Lau preside over a counter where the guys making you nigiri might be wearing New York Giants or Yankees caps while ’90s hip-hop plays on the speakers. You might see casually dressed guests devouring the supplemental $118 grilled milk bread with toro, uni and caviar that famous chef David Chang recently showed on Instagram. Check out why the tuna collar is the most spectacular off-menu dish in the article.
A 1940s themed afternoon tea in London
We spotted a great video at the Secret London, about this disused train station transformed into a 40s cocktail bar, including Cahoots Underground, Ticket Hall & Control Room. Link to this place in the title. Cahoots is a 1940s-themed bar located in the heart of London’s Soho. Set inside an abandoned train station, the scoundrels of this station-speakeasy serve up spiffing cocktails, jolly-good rations and live swinging entertainment seven days a week. Made up of three spaces: The Underground, Ticket Hall & Control Room, step back in time and enjoy each quirky space as you indulge in ‘High Spirits, Scoundrels & Swing!’ The Instagram post below was from by crazycatladyldn, she posted it initially on TikTok.
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Tasting lab-grown foie gras
French food tech start-up Gourmey is working on a lab-grown foie gras that could allow restaurants to continue to serve the highly-prized delicacy in an ethical way. The French food tech start-up Gourmey, which focuses on cell-cultured poultry, has raised $10 million to develop their technology. The company has been working on cultivated foie gras, or – as they call it – slaughter-free foie gras, made with duck stem-cells, a complex task, but one they feel is achievable. By all accounts, the product looks and tastes like the genuine article. With one unnamed Michelin-star chef allegedly claiming he couldn’t tell the difference. Check out chef Geraldine Amiel tasting the result in the Twitter Quicktake. More information at Fine Dining Lovers, link in the title.
An immersive cocktail experience in London | Mr. Tipsy’s Down The Hatch!
This new immersive cocktail experience, Mr. Tipsy’s Down The Hatch!, recently opened in London, located just in the neighbourhood of The Tower of London. It’s an immersive drinking experience that will bring you a lot of OTT-ness. We didn’t know this term, but it stands for Over-The-Top! Check out the article at the website of The Nudge for background details, link in the title. In short: an experience that combines detailed sets, larger-than-life characters, scripted scenes with live actors, video projections, song, dance… and cocktails. There are 7 themed rooms, each dressed up in a different theme, matched to a specific kind of booze, and hosted by different characters. Guest will spend 10 minutes in every rooms, so 70 minutes in total. 7 cocktails in 70 minutes? That would really make us beyond tipsy! But the pours at each stop are measured, meaning that while you’ll enjoy seven drinks throughout the experience, they’ll contain the equivalent of just over two cocktail’s worth of alcohol.
Paris welcomes first pizzeria staffed entirely by robot pizza chefs
The new pizzeria Pazzi is staffed entirely by robots, from order-taking to prepping the dough to putting the pizzas in boxes. “We are in a very fast process, with a perfect control of time, a control of quality since we have a constancy offered by robotics, and then an environment that is quite cool and relaxed,” said the co-inventor of the Pazzi robot, Sébastien Roverso.
“The idea is also to spend a few pleasant minutes watching the robot while you wait for your pizza to be made,” he said. More info in the article at Euronews, link in the title. Or check out the video below, the text continues below the video.
Random Acts of Kindness | Domino’s ‘Surprise Frees’ Promotion
From now until November 21, 2021, Domino’s in the USA is surprising randomly selected fans across the US with free menu items. For a chance to win, diners just have to order delivery online directly through Domino’s. ‘Surprise Frees menu items that can be won include Hand Tossed Pizzas, Boneless Chicken, Handmade Pan Pizzas, Stuffed Cheesy Bread, Crunchy Thin Crust Pizzas and Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes’. Delivery customers who order online will be notified through their order confirmation page and in their order confirmation email if they’ve won any free items. Check out their #Freesnotfees on Twitter and Instagram. We love the idea behind the ‘random acts of kindness’, check out this website about all kinds of acts for inspiration: ‘Random Acts of Kindness (RAK).
The ‘Taco Bell Defy’-concept is designed for digital consumers
Looking to stand out as a fast-food chain committed to progress and defying norms, Taco Bell has announced plans to break ground on its most innovative restaurant later this month. Dubbed “Taco Bell Defy,” the 3,000 square-foot restaurant concept located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, utilizes a two-story model for “the frictionless future of Taco Bell.” The concept designed for digital consumers combines technology and unique design elements, to disrupt conventions and maximize ease. Three of four drive-thru lanes will be dedicated to mobile or delivery order pick-ups, with skip-the-line service for Taco Bell app customers. Mobile orders can be redeemed with digital check-in screens via unique QR codes. Orders are simply delivered through a proprietary contactless lift system. While two-way audio and video technology allow customers to interact with staff above seamlessly in real-time. Check out the renderings in the article at Hypebeast, link in the title.
Le Présage in Marseille is Europe’s first solar-powered restaurant | Cuisine Solaire
In southern France, Le Présage is harvesting the sun’s energy for ‘cuisine solaire.’ The restaurant, which had a soft launch in August 2020 and reopened at a new location in April of this year, uses solar ovens and a Scheffler mirror — a large, parabolic dish that reflects and concentrates the sun’s rays to heat a stove to 400 °C. The kitchen’s water is heated by the sun, too. The restaurant is now located in a shipping container, but the owners are going to build their restaurant and add more sustainable ideas, like a biogas installation.
