A pop-up space next to Osteria Vicini
24-11-2015
Osteria Vinchi has always been open for innovation, the space next to the restaurant will be the place to carry out new ideas from now on. They will start with Bar Vicini, a new pop-up cocktail bar.
Pop-up cocktail bar in Osteria Vicini
There appeared to be demand for a bar in Kralingen (Rotterdam) where you can drink good whisky’s, gin & tonics and cocktails in a stylish atmosphere. This atmosphere is created with a carefully selected interior with lots of velvet, shining elements, mirrors and a few special eye-catchers. For example, they use bar stools from an old Belgian casino and one can’t miss the giant bronze tusks from Spain. In a big box there are records from the sixties to the eighties, which will be played upon request. Another important aspect to the atmosphere is the barman, a professional who makes the finest cocktails without seemingly much effort. The bartender will occasionally make a round with olives, bruschetta’s, aged pecorino, prosciutto or oysters. Bar Vicini is accessible via the Osteria through heavy, red velvet curtains and has its own entrance.
Bar Vicini is part of the Dudok Group which is a leading company since 1991 in the hospitality, event and hospitality industry in the Netherlands.
Inspiration
Do you have a vacant building next to your restaurant and is it possible to make a good price and agreement with the landlord? The example of the Dudok Group to experiment with new ideas in a pop-up formula, is a pretty good idea.
Zen Tea, Chinese High Tea
20-11-2015
Lotus restaurant in Vlijmen offers a Chinese High Tea with six different kinds of tea. A Chinese tea ceremony with sweet and savoury snacks and a refreshing dessert. A real Zen Tea.
High Tea has been popular in The Netherlands for a while now, in several restaurants it’s even on the standard menu. Besides the ‘standard’ High Tea, we’ve never heard of a High Tea at a real Chinese restaurant in The Netherlands. Our colleague Lennert Rietveld from Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy met Willem Man while he was giving a presentation about culinary trends for Chinese entrepreneurs at Koninklijke Horeca Nederland. He enthusiastically told him about his High Tea service at his restaurant Lotus, the Lotus Zen Tea.
Lotus Zen Tea
Zen Tea was created during an inspiration session with the staff and it’s definitely a good way to fill up the less busy moments. Lotus Zen Tea starts with a refreshing towel, followed by a Chinese tea ceremony. According to the ritual, all the teacups will be placed on the table and the first cups of tea will be poured. Next to tea, guests will also get a glass of rosé. Then the sweet snacks will be served which were made in cooperation with de Vermeulen & Den Otter bakery. Think of macarons with flavours like lychee, ginger and green tea, diced coconut cake, lemongrass cookies and lightly salted cashew cookies. After a zen moment more savoury snacks will be served. Steamy baskets containing dainty dishes such as Sieuw Mai and Ha Kaauw, prepared by chef Tak Kee Yeung will be stacked on the table. The Zen Tea ends with ice cream made of red pepper and star anise with fresh fruit. The ice is specially designed for restaurant Lotus by ’t Heusden Ijshuys. The Zen Tea is also available in an completely vegetarian kind, it lasts about two hours and costs € 25,= per person. Restaurant Lotus also has designed special gift vouchers. Sounds great right? The magazine Pâtisserie & Dessert has also written an extensive article about the Lotus Zen Tea.
Pop-up Eat Your Drink opened in London
19-11-2015
At the downstairs of Benefit’s flagship store on Carnaby Street, Eat Your Drink, has opened. They’re deconstructing cocktails in weird and wonderful creations for shoppers to taste, touch and smell. This adult pop-up is free to enter from November 17th to December 24th.
Eat Your Drink
Smith & Sinclair founders, Melanie Goldsmith and Emile Bernard, wanted to create something that will shock and awe. Well they did! Whilst running a series of dating nights, focused on the concept of ‘adult play’, they created a lux, sensual sweet, with a high alcohol content, to get people talking and cause a stir. The sweets were so popular that they became the focal point of every evening. The excitement for the Pastilles was impossible to ignore and a year on they’re retailing in Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and many more shops! Smith & Sinclair have now created signature edible cocktails for over 32 alcohol brands including Langley’s Gin & Beluga Vodka. And now they’re opening the pop-up store Eat Your Drink. In which they sell cocktail-flavoured candy floss, dip dabs and boozy fruit pastilles.
The pop-up store must look like a ‘magical, glittery labyrinth’, it has been created by the founders with the help of a theatre designer. At the labyrinth customers can experience alcohol by consuming it in unusual ways.
Inspiration
The shop will stock products that are not available at their online store, including candy floss jars to pour vodka into. Like we already wrote in an article, the vodka will melt the candy floss, this way creating a delicious cocktail. In the Netherlands, the real WINE gums from Vinoos by AMS are sold: no sweets for children but adult luxury food. We wrote about the real Wine gums in april 2014 and at this moment the gums are sold all over the Netherlands. Luxury hotels even use them as night sweets on the pillows of their guests.
Pop-up winter chalet by York & Albany
18-11-2015
In the cosy courtyard of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant York & Albany, an alpine-style winter chalet is installed. If you’re in London this is a great place to share cocktails and a snack platter.
Pop-up winter chalet
This summer York & Albany brought the beach to downtown London. We wrote about their beach shack where seaweed Martini’s and Bacardi Rum slush in mini buckets and alcoholic popsicles with for example Pimm’s liqueur were served. This winter the beach shack is replaced by a pop-up winter chalet, complete with fairy lights, pine cones, lanterns, blankets to wrap yourself in and an open fire on the terrace. They will be serving a snack platter by chef Will Stanyer, raclette, venison Kromeski and rainbow trout with horseradish mousse, sweet treats like coconut and lychee snowballs and baked Alaska. All accompanied by hot or cold cocktails, including York & Albany’s own Winter Spiced Old Fashioned with home-infused vodka. The chalet is open from 30th October until the 28th of February 2016.
Inspiration
We read about the pop-up winter chalet in an article from The Telegraph about Christmas pop-up restaurants. We don’t have that many pop-up concepts in the Netherlands so we hope this pop-up will be an inspiration. If you check the website of York & Albany you can even find some great cocktail recipes.
#tousaubistrot Parisian hospitality industry reacts to the attacks
17-11-2015
#tousaubistrot by ‘Le Fooding’ is an initiative calling all people in Paris to return to the bistros, brasseries and restaurants tonight (November 17). In order to join in a minute’s silence in memory of the victims. The occasion will be held in their establishments and on their terraces at nine o’clock.
Le Fooding initiates #tousaubistrot
The gourmet magazine ‘le Fooding‘ invites, through social media, all his friends, partners, followers, visitors of Paris and all the french who can afford it to go out for dinner tonight. Besides the minute of silence in memory of the victims of the attacks of last Friday #tousaubistrot also aims to provide help to those working in the hospitality industry. In addition, the founders of ‘Le Fooding’ also want to show that Paris is Paris and it won’t be changed by fear. As one of the cartoonists from Charlie Hebdo so clearly implied in his view of the events of November 13: “Friends from the whole world, thank you for #prayforParis but we do not need more religion. Our faith goes to music! Kisses! Life! Champagne and joy! #Parisisaboutlife. ”
What should a restaurant owner do if there is shooting in the neighbourhood?
Since my daughter lives and works in Paris, I hardly slept the night of 13 November. Luckily she was at home and we soon had contact. However it took a while to locate friends and colleagues. This process was accelerated through WhatsApp and social media. The safety check of Facebook was a great initiative and provided incredible support. Yet the whereabouts of one female colleague remained unclear until three o’clock in the morning. She was visiting a bar that night and the bar owner closed the doors and barricaded them, as soon as they heard that shootings took place in other bistro’s. He tried to protect his guests this way and because her mobile phone was not charged, it was impossible to have contact. I am certain that there are many more stories in which owners of French restaurants have undertaken action or were just unable to do so. What would you do?
The French have a saying that will certainly describe the atmosphere tonight at nine o’clock, ‘Chantons sous les armes’ roughly translated as ‘Lets sing, despite the tears’. We wish all the restaurants, many guests and we will be with them in our thoughts at nine o’clock tonight. ^Marjolein
Dorset’s culinary food plaza along the highway
13-11-2015
A collaboration between AVIA and Willem Dankers’ restaurant Dorset creates a gastronomic experience in their food plaza along the highway, A1 (Lonnekermeer).
The term full service gas station takes on a whole new dimension. Thanks to a unique partnership between AVIA and restaurant Dorset in Borne, a visit to the renewed gas station along the A1 will become a gastronomic experience. Homemade pasta, stewed veal cheeks or fresh baked sourdough bread instead of a simple meatball. Gastronomy along the highway!
Dorset’s culinary food plaza – service, convenience and quality
The renewed AVIA gas station will be reopened by the end of this year. Willem Dankers of restaurant Dorset in Borne was asked to create a new concept regarding the food-related activities. AVIA’s Niek Weghorst: ‘A full service gas station is all about service, convenience and quality. Our customers, no matter how diverse, should experience a moment of rest like at home. In our vision this includes tasty and healthy food.’
Truckers eating stewed veal cheeks?
The concept, a food plaza with a spacious kitchen and a counter with a variety of fresh products, meals, fruits, delicacies and snacks. Both to take with you or eat in, says Willem Dankers: “The concept is based on fresh, healthy products and meals with a lot of variation, taste and of course quality. For example customers can order a fresh, homemade pasta, lasagne, hot chicken, stewed veal cheeks or an organic cappuccino with a warm muffin. Fresh fruit and delicacies. In other words, a complete assortment of food with with plenty of choice with an international look and feel. Of course, everything is top quality, delicious and tasteful.”
All products get a Dorset quality label, the restaurant has recently been awarded a Bib Gourmand, and is listed in the top hundred best restaurants of The Netherlands and a member of the Alliance Gastronomique.
Culinary take-a-way or the classic meatball
Dorset’s food plaza is not only for visitors. Next to the standard assortment, there are also ‘take-a-way’ dishes on the menu. The menu will be updated regularly. “We want to offer as many variation and surprises as possible, in fact the same way we work in our restaurant.” Says Willem Dankers.
Inspiration
An unique collaboration between a gas station and a local restaurant. In 2011 we spotted collaborations between supermarkets and local restaurants in England. Look around in your surroundings with whom you can collaborate and both profit from it!
Traditional French table service at Restaurant Hemingway
11-11-2015
‘Back to the Classics’, restaurant Hemingway from Grand Hotel ‘De Draak’ (the Dragon) is going to implement traditional tableside food preparation for two days this month.
Restaurant Hemingway is part of the oldest hotel and company in the Netherlands, Grand Hotel De Draak in Bergen op Zoom. The team of the restaurant is going to implement traditional French tableside food preparations. Examples of this are flambéing, filleting etcetera at every course of their menu on Thursday the 26th and Friday, the 27th of November.
‘Back to the Classics’ with the traditional French table service style
A French serving style is not very common, but is seen at some exclusive upscale clubs and restaurants. The waiter typically has a fancy cart that carries different types of food for the guests to look over before they decide what they would like. Sometimes this is only done for appetizers or deserts, and sometimes it is done throughout the entire meal.
At restaurant Hemingway one can chose a four course meal with a classic dish at each course. During the evening they will cut smoked salmon, fillet sole at the table, serve chopped sirloin steak with flambéed lardons and they finish with ‘cerises flambées’. There’s a lot of craftsmanship to witness on these evenings in restaurant Hemingway.
The craftsmanship of preparing classic dishes at the table is disappearing
In recent years, more and more restaurants stopped preparing the classic dishes at the table. This is mainly due to the labour intensity but it also isn’t taught anymore at the institutions. The classic tableside preparations are no longer regularly practiced and they seem to disappear due to these causes. Fortunately they are still used with some regularity at high-end restaurants. Often in a fancy way, such as preparing ice cream at the table through nitrogen, or preparing a cocktail at the table or the bar this way.
One will find variations of the classic dishes such as Crêpe Suzette regularly in the top restaurants. Like at Maison Lameloise (***) of chef Éric Pras where they still prepare a delicious Crêpe Suzette at your table.
In the end the traditional French table serving styles guarantee a show and your guest will experience a night out instead of just having dinner! We love to experience it in restaurants and we do wish the guests of restaurant Hemingway lot of fun and the team the best of luck on 26 and 27 November!
Dim Sum Now
11-11-2015
On 4 November Dim Sum Now opened an eatery in Amsterdam, ‘De Pijp’, for eat–in and take-out. Dim sum is part of an international revival, will dim sum also become more popular again in The Netherlands?
Healthy and tasty
After selling dumplings and gyoza at various festivals became a success, the owners of Dim Sum Now felt it was time to take the next step. These entrepreneurs, Guido van der Meijen and Ting Yiu Cheung have found a natural flavour enhancer to use in their dishes. Because of the fact that the food is being steamed, no flavour and nutrients are lost. That’s what makes dim sum so healthy and delicious, and that’s also the reason why it has become increasingly popular. The founders Guido and Tin Yiu see the eatery as an opportunity to make dim sum accessible to everyone. Dim Sum Now is dim sum from now – it’s all in the name.
Dim Sum Now
The counter is filled with steaming steam baskets full of dumplings and gyoza. Each of them served in five different variations with pork-, chicken-, duck-, fish- or a vegetarian filling. Next to that there are specials such as the BBQ Bun, the Lotus Leaf Wrap and sides like edamame and seaweed salad. On the façade of the eatery is displayed in mint green neon letters that they are selling ‘baskets of steamy goodness’. The eatery can be found at the Ferdinand Bolstraat 36 in Amsterdam. In addition, it’s also possible to pick up the dim sum or have it delivered to your home.
Inspiration
Dim sum is currently very popular in cities like London and New York. Top chefs who are inspired by the Asian cuisine are also using the small steamed Chinese snacks in their kitchen regularly. For example, I recently ate delightful dim sum ‘Peking Duck’ at Tim Raue (**) in Berlin. And since you can make almost unlimited variants by using different ingredients and flavours, we expect that dim sum will also become more popular in The Netherlands. ^Marjolein
Ski slope at the Christmas fair
10-11-2015
At Potsdamer Platz in Berlin a ‘Winter’ fair has already opened with a ski slope! Something different than the ‘standard’ skating rink!
Every year more cities are hosting an authentic ‘Christmas or Holiday’ fair at the end of the year. The most beautiful locations for Christmas fairs in the Netherlands are in the South of Limburg (Valkenburg), but also in Leiden where the Christmas fair is located on water… Both with skating rinks, an addition to the winter fun at Christmas fairs.
Dry Ski slope at the Christmas market instead of an ice rink
Last week I spent a couple of days in Berlin were we visited the ‘Winter’ fair at the Potsdamer Platz. They don’t have a skating rink (yet), but one can glide down a ski slope on tires. It is a dry ski slope with some fake snow from which one can glide on snow tires.
In my perception a dry ski slope is much more sustainable than an ice rink! Furthermore, winters are rare therefore children can’t learn how to skate on natural ice, so the group that knows how to skate is getting smaller. ‘Rutschen’ from a slope on a snow tire is a lot easier! ^ Marjolein
If you are looking for more inspiration, check out other Christmas markets all over the world. Fodors collected 10 holiday markets in this article.
Rotterdam ranked 4th place in the top 10 cities by Lonely Planet next year?
9-11-2015
With a lot of new initiatives in town, it wouldn’t surprise us! Like for example RiF010 will open in 2016. The ‘Steigersgracht’ (part of the river De Rotte) in Rotterdam will be separated from the rest of Rotte. The water will be purified and a wave installation will be placed in this part of the river. Several kinds of water sports will be put into practice in RiF010.
RiF010
At the beginning of the new, closed ‘Steigersgracht’ a ‘wave installation’ will be placed. Every 8 to 9 seconds, this installation will push a 1,5 meter high wave through the canal. The waves will make the RiF010, the ideal place for surfers in Rotterdam. Besides being the ideal place for surfers, the clear water makes RiF010 suitable for diving lessons, kayaking, stand up paddle surfing or bodyboarding as well.
The beach house
At the edge of the canal a wooden beach house will be placed. The beach house will offer a beautiful view on the surfers, paddle surfers and divers. Besides the view, it will also provide changing rooms and showers. The beach house will be located between the RiF010 and the actual river De Rotte. The location makes canoe trips on the Rotte through the centre of Rotterdam possible.
Construction and opening
The city initiative got most of the votes from the Rotterdam population last year. At this moment, the promoters of RiF010 are busy planning the entire project. It’s expected to open in 2016 and will be accessible to the public.
Ranking in the top 10 cities by Lonely Planet
We believe that initiatives such as RiF010 will certainly contribute to an even higher ranking in the recently published top 10 cities by Lonely Planet.
