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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Dry January Survival Kits by Hairless Dog Brewing Company

3-1-2022

Enjoyed the December celebrations a bit too much? No worries, now it’s time for that, seemingly endless, Dry January Month. Hairless Dog Brewing Company created ‘Dry January Survival Kits’! Do you have a 0.0% alcohol twist in your restaurant, bar of café?

Dry January® continues to gain popularity among the ‘sober curious’ looking to experiment with the alcohol-free lifestyle. To assist those who want to give it a try, Hairless Dog Brewing Company has revealed its Dry January Survival Kits. Prices include your choice of the three Hairless Dog 0% ABV craft NA beer varieties and merchandise.

Reading time: 1 minute, creating your own Dry January 0.0% twist might take some time!

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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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Bacardi launches alcohol-free spirit PALETTE

13-1-2022

Bacardi is launching a new brand of alcohol-free spirit: PALETTE. Developed in collaboration with Amsterdam bartenders, PALETTE makes no concessions in taste, quality or mixability. The two variants, PALETTE Roots and PALETTE Bold, are made with all-natural ingredients and the versatility delivers the perfect NoLo solution for the growing demand for alcohol-free cocktails.

At the beginning of this week, we coincidentally published a list of non-alcoholic drinks that might get you through Dry January. Major brands such as Bacardi are now also presenting alcohol-free alternatives.

Reading time: 3 minutes

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How are your New Year’s resolutions going? Can restaurants help you to keep them?

15-1-2021

Marjolein van Spronsen blogs about our New Year’s resolutions, which we are already releasing based on experience figures. Yet as a restaurant or catering you can respond to this fact and help your guests and potential guests to keep their resolutions. With examples of Saladworks “Our New Year’s ResoYOUtion”, the limited edition BitesWeLove x The Duchess box, resolution inspired LTOs, Dry January and Veganuary!

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The BrewDog AF Bar, the alcohol free beer bar & BrewDog’ ‘Drink All You Can Jan’

9-1-2020

‘The BrewDog AF Bar’ is the brewery’s first fully alcohol-free bar. Independent Scottish craft brewer BrewDog have opened their first bar dedicated to alcohol-free. The BrewDog AF Bar is the world’s first alcohol free beer bar and will offer 15 taps of draft alcohol-free craft beer. The bar has opened in central London and will be the first of the company’s global bars to feature a line-up solely devoted to drinks without alcohol. In addition to this, BrewDog will be running ‘Drink All You Can Jan’ across all bars. The initiative offers drinkers unlimited refills of BrewDog alcohol-free beers in all bars for the entire month. And with 24% of beer drinkers choosing more low or no-alcohol options (according to the Mintel, UK Beer Market Report 2018), the brewery are piloting a new concept for their bar division, with a view to rolling it out across the UK and into Europe.

It’s the time for alcohol free drinks: in the Netherlands we spotted amongst others the first pop-up Bar 0.020 in Amsterdam and the new menu for alcohol free drinks at NRC café in Rotterdam. With Dry January it’s wise to serve your guests at least the possibility to drink alcohol free. Our colleagues Robin, Nick and Leonie tried some drinks last week and they were kind of surprised on the sweetness of most mocktails! So if you’re buying or creating alcohol free drinks, not everybody has a sweet tooth!  

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Kever Genever launches Kever 0.0% | What do you drink if you do not want to drink?

14-5-2019

In 2016 we posted an article about Kever genever, the Amsterdam jenever (Dutch gin) brand. The brand wants to become the most innovative ‘jenever’ brand in the Netherlands. A first step in that direction is the introduction of the Kever 0.0% , ‘jenever’ without alcohol and therefore in line with the trend of conscious alcohol consumption. On May 10 2019, Kever started a crowdfunding campaign on the CrowdAboutNow platform. With this campaign they want to raise a minimum of € 100,000 up to a maximum of € 200,000 in order to be able to realize Kever 0.0%, but also to launch other high-profile Kever Genevers within 3 years. Meanwhile, 120% of their goal has been achieved and the crowdfunding still has 35 days to go!

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HIRO izakaya | Grungy Japanese izakaya opened in Antwerp

22-3-2024

Opening – Antwerp is getting a new addition with the opening of Hiro izakaya. This brand new izakaya restaurant from chefs Bart Huybrechts and Thomas Van de Weyer opened its doors on the Napoleonkaai with a view at the MAS museum and brings Japanese izakaya, with an extensive sake menu.

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Trends we spotted | Week 30

31-7-2023

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 among others the fact that cultivated meat and seafood can soon be taste tested under limited conditions in The Netherlands! The Dutch government, in collaboration with cultivated meat producers Meatable and Mosa Meat and sector representative HollandBIO, successfully created a ‘code of practice’ that would make tastings possible in controlled environments.

 Books for Cooks, a very special cook book store! And on Instagram we came across a ‘Mystery Picnic Tour’, we think every city should have a tour like that! Now available in the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA.

Notorious for its creative culinary ventures, Domino’s Japan is back with its latest unconventional pizza: the Pickle Pizza, equipped with 1.32 pounds of sliced dill pickles. And Bar Vegan in Atlanta is introducing a Bubble Brunch – a new bottle service experience with dry ice, rubber duckies and literal ‘bubble baths’ to pair with the celebrated vegan brunch cuisine.

The Berkeley hotel will open its rooftop – usually reserved for hotel guests – for everyone for the rest of the Summer, with a brand new bar and great views of the sunset over Hyde Park. And in Amsterdam the Conscious Hotels Group is taking a 100% stake in Hotel V & The Lobby, stronger together through shared ambitions hospitality & sustainability.  

Illustrator Hedof designs designer glass 2023 for Duvel and the famous cookies from Amsterdam, the Eberhardjes, named after the deceased mayor Eberhard van der Laan, are now available throughout the Netherlands.

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Sustainable snacking | Sustainability in the fast food industry

3-1-2023

A list of examples of sustainable initiatives in the fast food industry. From details like sustainable ketchup from The Ketchup Project to fast-food chains that have built their identity around sustainability like HoneyBee Burger and the German chain ‘Hans im Gluck’. Here in the Netherlands we have small sustainable concepts like Pomms’ Rotterdam and the chain Vegan Junk Food Bar. These sustainable initiatives range from putting new sustainable tech in place to climate-neutral burgers and fast-food brands that solely serve vegetarian & vegan food.

With #VeganJanuary, #TryJanuary and the importance of sustainability for our future, a list of concepts worth to try! And as you will read, many of these initiatives have been reported on our website for years. We don’t really get why large companies like The Crown, The Clown and The Colonel have not played a larger part in this development.  

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