Burger Kitchen by New York Pizza
30-12-2015
Since yesterday (29 December, 2015), The Burger Kitchen, the hamburger by New York Pizza can be ordered in the Netherlands. During 2015 New York Pizza has researched and tested the way to deliver a perfect, warm hamburger. Having started as a pioneer in the pizza market (1993) New York Pizza is now going to create a market for delivering luxurious burgers. As the first chain in the Netherlands, New York Pizza has created a deluxe burger, made of pure beef with no artificial ingredients, to deliver.
Burger Kitchen
According to the CEO of New York Pizza, Philippe Vorst, is their hamburger, which they called ‘Burger Kitchen by New York Pizza’, made of 100% top quality beef, pepper, salt and love for the profession. At New York Pizza the delivery process is one of the core activities and this process is well managed. This allows them to ensure that they deliver a hot hamburger.
For the Dutch hamburger market Philippe Vorst foresees a big growth. According to the latest Foodshopper Monitor by FSIN (FoodService Institute Netherlands) the Dutch eat on average 25 hamburgers a year. The average American in contrary eats 150 hamburgers a year. In addition, the Monitor reports a sharp increase and continued demand for honest and fresh fast casual food, which include hamburgers.
Honey Spoon
29-12-2015
The Honey Spoon is a small cup within a spoon, filled with 100% flower honey. An unique way to serve honey without any mess. Convenient, hygienic and unique.
Honey Spoon
Within the out-of-home shops and thus also in the hospitality, alternatives for sugar are increasing in popularity. Honey in the tea is getting more popular. In order to keep it simple and clean and don’t mess with a cup of honey they created a new invention, the Honey Spoon. A small plastic spoon, filled with flower honey. The only thing you have to do is, just like with a normal cup of honey, remove the plastic top. Then you just put your spoon in the tea, stir well and you have got a nice cup of tea with honey, without the mess.
Availability
The Honey Spoon is available in a luxurious dispenser with 125 spoons or in a silo with 20 spoons. It is possible to order a sample via this link. The Honey Spoon is available in The Netherlands at several wholesalers like, Sligro, Deli XL and VHC.
Valentine’s Day at ‘De Nieuwe Poort’
28-12-2015
On the 13th of February ‘De Nieuwe Poort’ in Amsterdam will host a Valentine’s Day meeting for young and old people. The moto for this event is; before you know it, you have got a date!
Valentine’s Day 2016
According to the organizers, young hard working adults do need some quality time to break the workflow. The young adults often don’t know how to do this. Experiences and memories from elderly people can help to have a relaxed afternoon. Elderly people on the other hand are sometimes fighting loneliness; regularly these men and women live without any family or friends. As the organizers already mentioned, elderly people do have a lot to talk about, especially the ones from Amsterdam take no mince matters. These different types of ‘problems’ can be combined perfectly in order to satisfy both parties. This is exactly what the organizers of the Valentine’s celebration do. Previous years both ‘seniors’ and ‘young professionals’ celebrated Valentine’s day, and experienced it as inspiring and fun to do!
Costs
The ‘seniors’ have free entrance, the organisation assumes ‘young professionals’ will pay for them.
About ‘De Nieuwe Poort’
De Nieuwe Poort is a house to meet and be inspired. They want to counterbalance the forces of the economy and politics, because they often prevail in society. De Nieuwe Poort helps the mild forces, in order to make us more human and richer. Whoever eats the dishes of Chef Marcel Johannes, or is just there to drink, they will always be surrounded by poetry and music. In short, De Nieuwe Poort wants to fulfil the role of a community centre and gather different types of people for different types of activities.
Wrong Christmas Sweater party
23-12-2015
On the Korte Heuvel in the Dutch town Tilburg, they celebrated the last Friday Afternoon Party before Christmas with a ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ theme.
Wrong Christmas Sweater party
Last year, the largest Friday afternoon party from Tilburg has been a huge success as well and they had the same theme; Foute Kersttrui (Wrong Christmas Sweater). Hundreds of people gathered at the party area of the Korte Heuvel to kick of the holiday season with colleagues and friends. Santa and his Christmas wives were present and there were torches everywhere. One could eat our famous Dutch pea soup (snert) and there was plenty of glühwein (mulled wine) and beer. This year the ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ party was held on Friday 18th December as from 17:00 everyone was welcome. With a wrong Christmas sweater you received free mulled wine at Polly Maggoo. Initiators are the owners of Polly Maggoo and it is now adopted by a number of cafes in the area.
Inspiration
Come up with a nice theme and prolong the festivities surrounding Christmas. Since 18 December, the Christmas Season started and there is no one available for work-related Christmas parties so this initiative in Tilburg is a lovely way to throw a party and to generate additional revenue. Win / win for participants and entrepreneurs. Just as the ‘Kerstmiddag’ (Christmas Afternoon) on 24 December in Hengelo.
Sommelierwijnen; a new Dutch initiative for sommeliers with guts
22-12-2015
Sommelierwijnen (Sommelier Wine) is making exceptional wines from small, but very good winemakers available for the Dutch gastronomy. Sommelierwijnen is an initiative of eight wine importers who have joined forces to sell all their wines through one contact. Various sommeliers from Dutch Michelin starred restaurants already work with them.
Collaboration to make wine from small but major wineries accessible
The founders of Sommelierwijnen are all importers with great skill and passion for wines that are being delivered to restaurants. By combining their offerings they make it possible for sommeliers to work with several wineries that would otherwise be inaccessible or impractical. In plain language: you’re not waiting for yet another wine supplier where you might only buy 60 bottles a year or even less. Even though the wine is very special! Thanks to this initiative, sommeliers are now able to order wines at 8 different importers with the benefit of just one contact and one invoice.
One-stop-shopping at Sommelierwijnen
These importers offer many unique wines from the Jura, Corsica, India and even Thailand. Even from within Europe, they sell classic wines made from unknown grapes like Tibouren, Elbling, Frühroter and Roter Veltliner and unknown wines from for example Madeira, Serbia and Bosnia. The 8 different wine suppliers do introduce themselves at the website, each with two of their so-called ‘signature wines’; wines that are an example for their vision and quality.
SnowPage symbolises the festive spirit at the Peninsula Hotels
21-12-2015
The Peninsula Hotels are ready for the Christmas season. The SnowPage, their mascot and limited edition cuddly toy is for sale for the Make-A-Wish Foundation®.
SnowPage, the ultimate holiday ambassador
SnowPage is dressed to impress for the holiday fundraising campaign by the Peninsula Hotels. The SnowPage is fashionably restyled by the luxury toy art collective Papinee. They created a limited edition of just 300 toys for each hotel, and all profits will be donated to the Make- A-Wish Foundation®. If guests buy one of the SnowPages they will have a chance on winning an ultimate Peninsula experience with the “Golden Tickets”, offering prizes for all the family. The Golden Tickets are hidden inside some SnowPage boxes.
Papinee created the SnowPages
Papinee has hand-crafted 10 limited edition SnowPage toys, with the lovable snowman dressed in exquisitely embroidered costumes inspired by the arts, culture and architecture of each Peninsula destination. Hallmarked by Papinee’s detailed craftsmanship and vibrant design style, the exclusive SnowPage toys are designed with care using the finest luxury fabrics.
The Peninsula Hong Kong SnowPage will be dressed in a dark navy jacket, embroidered with vintage neon motifs, The Peninsula Beijing SnowPage will wear a signature Page cap with his red patterned coat with a traditional Chinese dragon design. A New York SnowPage is stylish in red, white and blue with hints of New York’s Art Deco movement, while the Tokyo SnowPage will be dressed in a classic cherry blossoms-embellished kimono.
Curiosity Kitchen gives the ancient ‘oliebol’ new flavours
18-12-2015
Curiosity Kitchen has created three unique ‘oliebol’ flavours. An oliebol is a traditional Dutch treat at New Year’s Eve and tastes like a donut. The flavours: hazelnut paste, lemon curd and raisins soaked in whiskey and crispy fried bacon.
The oliebollen
They will make three types of the ancient recipe from oliebollen on the 31st of December. Oliebollen with hazelnut spread, with lemon curd and in whiskey soaked raisins and crispy fried bacon. They searched for bold flavours which also guarantee a good texture so the oliebollen still have the right creaminess, hot and cold.
Curiosity kitchen oliebollen pick-up party
The three friends, Dennis Favier, Joeri Hollink and Jeroen Advokaat will be baking the oliebollen themselves and will organise a party while selling them. The friends will start baking early in the morning and hope to sell more than 2,000 oliebollen! You can pre-order your oliebollen but they also make sure that people who are spontaneously visiting the pick-up party in Pavlov cafe in Gorinchem (The Netherlands) will be able to buy some oliebollen. Don’t be disappointed if all the oliebollen have been sold already During the pick-up party the café will serve glühwein (mulled wine) and there will be music!
Plans for 2016
Officially Curiosity Kitchen will start in 2016 and within the concept they will design new food concepts and products. Meaning that with this initiative they will start 2016 appropriately! Dennis and Joery both are educated food designers and they have many plans, including a series of Kitchen Takeovers. As Dennis Favier told on the phone; they are going to bring their hobby into practice and hope that this will grow beyond their wildest dreams. We wish them lots of success! ^ Marjolein
#RFWinterTale storytelling around the Christmas Season
18-12-2015
The winter tales about Rudy the elk’s journey celebrating Europe’s Festive experiences. His journey is made even more special by the Rocco Forte hotels. Creating storytelling with the #RFWinterTale.
At the website of the Rocco Forte Hotel chain, you can find different stories about Rudy the elk, who is experiencing different elements of all the cities where the Rocco Forte chain has a residential hotel. In short all the stories are about Rudolph, the elk’s adventures while he travels through Europe. Every winter, he suffered the humiliation of being mistaken for a reindeer. So Rudy packed his bags for a grand tour through Europe, in order to educate the world about the mighty elk, which is definitely not the same as the reindeer. Even though his parents called him Rudolph….
Create your own story aroundRudolph, #RFWinterTale
As we write Rudy has already visited the Rocco Forte Astoria hotel in St. Petersburg, the hotel Savoy in Florence, the Villa Kenedy in Frankfurt and hotel Amigo in Brussels. Nice short bedtime stories to tell your kids, especially if they love to travel! At the website of the Rocco Forte chain you can create your own Winter’s Tale about Rudy. After sharing your tale at your social media channels, you can enter to win a 6-night stay at three of their luxurious properties, for two nights each.
About the Rocco Forte Hotel Chain
Established by Sir Rocco Forte and sister, Olga Polizzi in 1996, Rocco Forte Hotels is a family of 10 individual hotels and resorts in Europe. Located in Edinburgh, London, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Florence, Rome, Sicily and St. Peterburg. Each hotel is a landmark and they’re all individual hotels with exclusive design and distinctive dining and service. The hotels are member of The Leading Hotels of the World.
Roast Chicken Bar, a hip chicken concept
17-12-2015
On Sunday, 13 December a new restaurant, the Roast Chicken Bar has opened in Haarlem (The Netherlands) on the Turfmarkt. A hip chicken concept with rotisserie chicken!
The initiators and owners of Roast Chicken Bar, Bas Lammersen and Michael Kras want to create a place where you can eat the best chicken of Haarlem and surroundings. The hen and her eggs are the highlights on the menu. The eggs are served in many ways, for example as ‘Egg Store Sliders’ (in a brioche bowl) with names like ‘The Hangover’ (egg with bacon and gorgonzola). And ‘The Eggsperience’ including an Avo & Egg combination which is really appealing! In addition there are some classics on the menu such as Egg Benedict and Florentine and snacks, salads and sides such as bio chips with homemade mayo. We think that the menu sounds good. When we are in Haarlem, we most certainly will visit the Roast Chicken Bar!
Hip chicken concept
In March 2015 our colleague Guido Verschoor wrote in his blog (unfortunately only in Dutch) that he expected a revival of chicken concepts in the coming months. Partly based on rotisserie chicken concepts in New York, such as Papa Poule, but also closer to home, Poule Poulette in Antwerp. This is what happening now, in a fairly rapid pace! Even in Haarlem they have a second chicken concept: De Kippenhal.
We wish Michael and Bas lots of fun in their new business and success of course! ^Marjolein
CityHub, a capsule hotel in Amsterdam
15-12-2015
Last month CityHub opened its doors on Bellamystraat in Amsterdam’s Oud West district. Fifty state-of-the-art sleeping units, a ‘digital first’ lobby and an app that familiarises travellers with the city.
We spotted CityHub in 2012 when they got the idea and were exploring the possibilities. CityHub is an initiative of college friends Sem Schuurkes (32) and Pieter van Tilburg (29). The young entrepreneurs set themselves the goal of improving the traditional hotel experience in line with the current zeitgeist and technological capabilities. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, they opened a small pilot branch, ‘CityHub Beta’ in Amsterdam’s Oud West neighbourhood in July 2012. With an average occupancy rate of 95% and enthusiastic reviews on Booking.com, Airbnb and TripAdvisor, the pilot was hailed as a great success. Their popularity and success also resulted in a private investor (angel investor) and ABN AMRO coming on board to help Schuurkes and Van Tilburg set up the location with 50 Hubs on Bellamystraat.
So last month the CityHub opened its doors enabling their guests, mostly the travel-savvy Generation Y, to explore Amsterdam, socialise with friends and share experiences online. According to the owners a new kind of traveller has emerged: 20- to 35-year-old digital natives. For them, ‘discovery’ is the key: five-star hotels and stereotypical tourists spots don’t make them tick; they want to hear about the city’s hotspots from people in the know and enjoy a personalised travel experience instead. They are connected 24/7 and expect information on the go: a principle that is not optimally utilised by many traditional hotels. CityHub builds the entire travel experience around these new developments in the travel industry, through a city app, an online chat platform with a personal host, and unique Hubs in which to sleep.
