Trends we spotted | Week 34
At hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the smaller trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.
This week, among other links to articles about the Taco Bell hotel in Palm Springs and about a gnocchi sandwich at Luzzo’s Pizzeria in New York, comfort food to the max!
In addition, the delivery service Deliveroo has recently withdrawn from the German market. Optimus Ride has started an extensive test with self-driving vehicles in New York, with which they consciously try to increase confidence in these systems. And we have spotted a new ‘Instagrammable’ ice cream parlour in London, Taiyakiya.
Click on the title if you like to read the full article. Enjoy reading!
Taco Bell’s hotel in Palm Springs
In July we wrote about their plans to open a Taco Bell hotel. Taco Bell opened its very own hotel this summer complete with poolside tacos and hot sauce packet pillows. Only open for a limited time in August, reservations for the hot spot sold out in a mere 2 minutes back in June. Check out the video linked in the title and watch their ‘Fire Pool’, hair and nail salon, ‘Freeze Lounche’, their Taco Bell inspired 70 luxury rooms, the exclusive menu with dishes like a ‘toasted cheddar club’ and avocado Toast-ada and the ‘Baja Bar’.
Taiyakiya in Chinatown London gives ice cream a fabulous new makeover
Gramtastic ice cream and cones, served at Taiyakiya in London (20 Newport Court, WC2H 7PR. Nearest station is Covent Garden). Waffle cones are filled with ice cream flavours including lychee rose, matcha, dark chocolate, vanilla, and ramune, which is a kind of Japanese lemonade. With details like mermaid tails, unicorn horns, and angel wings – all striving to make one’s ice cream as picture perfect as possible.
Next to the waffle cones you can also have a soft serve ladled into traditional taiyaki, the fish-shaped waffles from which Taiyakiya (literally ‘waffle house’) derives its name. We wrote about these traditional fish-shaped waffles back in the summer of 2016 when TAIYAKI, a Japanese ice cream shop opened in New York City at Baxter Street.
Deliveroo is pulling out of Germany
Online food-delivery company Deliveroo did exit Germany last week (as from August 16), the company told customers and employees by email. They didn’t provide a specific reason for the exit. Deliveroo has about 1,100 self-employed delivery workers or “riders” in Germany and delivers from over 2,000 restaurants. The company said it isn’t ruling out a return to Germany in the future. Deliveroo operates in more than 200 cities across 12 countries.
Optimus Ride | First commercial self-driving vehicle system in New York State
Optimus Ride, a leading self-driving vehicle technology company, announced in the first week of August the launch of New York state’s first self-driving vehicle program, located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (Yard), a 300-acre industrial park with more than 400 manufacturing businesses and 10,000 employees onsite. Six autonomous vehicles will transport passengers between the NYC Ferry stop at Dock 72 and the Yards’ Cumberland Gate at Flushing Avenue, a vital connection point in a truly multi-modal commute for thousands of passengers and a first-of-its-kind commercial autonomous driving system. The vehicles will move at 15 miles per hour (24km) and two human safety drivers will be present on all vehicles. Source of this article is the ‘innovation of the day’ newsletter by Trendwatching and as they say: “This new service at the Brooklyn Navy Yard allows Optimus Ride to demonstrate the ability of their AVs to provide a safe, useful service in a simple traffic environment.” Which will help people to trust these kind of self-driving systems.
Luzzo’s Pizzeria | gnocchi sandwich
We wrote about the Gnoccheria by Luzzo’s back in 2017, it’s the first restaurant in NYC that is specialized in fresh homemade Gnocchi. It opened in 2016 and is created by Executive Chef Michele Iuliano, the man behind Luzzo’s La Pizza Napoletana, Ovest Pizzoteca & Da Mikele. We recently came across a “Gnocchi sandwich” on the Facebook page of Luzzo’s Pizzeria, ‘comfort food to the max’!
