Affordable quality in cosy and casual restaurant Jack Dish
10-7-2015
Restaurant Jack Dish opened at the Stadionplein in Amsterdam on 7 July.
Sometimes you stumble upon something and everything seems to fit in. After a spontaneous visit to the unfortunately fully booked BautZuid, a round at the major construction site of the Stadionplein in Amsterdam didn’t gave much hope for another proper cosy and casual dining place. Until we spotted Jack Dish. At first glance, a small cafe, but once inside it was visible that the restaurant consist of two rooms. Add a huge terrace to that, and you have a restaurant that can feed many mouths and steel as many hearts this summer.
Affordable quality
With a cosy interior, a lot of plants and a half open kitchen, the restaurant is decorated with a fine touch. The Facebook page gives an impression of the recent renovations of the restaurant. The high kitchen counter is the best spot in our opinion. There you are at eye level with the enthusiastic former chefs of Restaurant Braque who are already nicely attuned with each other and the equipment (including a Big Green Egg). Restaurant Braque got a 10- by late Johannes van Dam (famous Dutch food critic) in 2010 and restaurant Jack Dish continues the aim for affordable, high quality and tasty food.
Holy Günter
The menu offers various main courses such as chicken, salmon, eggplant (vega) and rib-eye. Although the rib-eye unfortunately was sold out, the pain was eased by a drink on the house. The crowd was relatively young and was merely from the neighbourhood, which made it a fine casual atmosphere with congratulations, greetings and smiling faces all around. With crispy fries and a variety of specialty beers, of which Holy Günter is my absolute favorite, this restaurant will provide a lasting boost to the Stadionplein. ^Armand Sol
Beer pong cleaner with The Slip Cup™
8-7-2015
The Slip Cup creates ‘clean’ beer pong without changing a single aspect to the game. Mighty popular in the USA: beer pong. And often played in bars, whereas the ball touches the ground, the beer doesn’t get any healthier!
The Slip Cup™, is a cup insert for beer pong that fits into 16 and 18 ounce disposable cups.
Catch the ball and it doesn’t land in your beer anymore. The patent-pending protective barriers fit right onto your typical party cups and even feature a ‘catch element’ that keeps the ball from bouncing out and falling on dirty floors. The brothers behind the invention have raised over $40.000 (at Tuesday 7 July) toward their $70,000 Kickstarter campaign goal. The backers will score a 20-pack of Slip Cups when they’re ready later this summer for all kinds of ‘clean’ beer pong gaming. They added numbers at the bottom of the Slip Cups and created 15 Brand-New Drinking Games with the Slip Cup!
The film about Great Coffee
3-7-2015
Watch this gorgeous short film (15 min) about Great Coffee. It is the story of passionate coffee connoisseur Søren Stiller Markussen, the owner and founder of Great Coffee in Aarhus, Denmark.
Great Coffee
He visits a coffee farm from Frederico Pacas (Café Tuxpal) a farm with six generations experience in the family that’s based in Finca Santra Petrona, El Salvador. He also visits New York for inspiration and notices that the baristas are all pursueing a unique style.
In the video Søren Stiller Markussen shows three different traditional methods of processing coffee beans.G
– Natural: drying the coffee with the skin
– Water processed: rinse the skin of with water
– Honey processed: Processed with honey Black (without water) and yellow honey (with water)
By measuring the sugar level during the fermentation process, the process can be stopped at the right moment to get a full, sweet body. The desired sugar content is 18-22% and takes about 4 hours to ferment, after that carbon dioxide and alcohol will start to form.
During the movie the coffee connoisseur gives a glimpse into his personal life as well. He explains his motivations in his life, in which Jiu Jitsu and swimming in the sea play a significant role.
Groups app The Happening popular among young people
3-7-2015
The Happening is an app for creating useful grids and sharing locations or photos all in one.
The Happening
After setting up a dating app, Frank van Viegen and Jelmer Feenstra came up with the idea to create an easier group communication tool than Whatsapp together with colleague Emiel Mols. They developed the Happening app which has been downloaded more than 100.000 times already. Group discussions in Whatsapp can become lengthy scroll sessions, the Happening is easier to use and navigate.
Photo Hunt and Game Ranking
The app provides practical solutions to problems, combining a pick-a-date app, shopping lists, a photo sharing app and a latitude app. Its popularity is partly due to a Photo Hunt feature where users get assignments, for example to create a selfie while you hug a tree. One of the other viral features is a Ranking Game to rank friends in a top three with questions like “Who is the funniest when he’s drunk?”, the feature is quite similar to the television program ‘Ranking The Stars’.
On all devices and web interface
The Happening is available for both Android devices and Apple’s and downloadable in the Apple Store and Play Store. The app is available for Windows computers and Mac computers as well.
Teisseire publishes the city guide ‘Joi de vivre in Utrecht’
1-7-2015
French flair in Utrecht. The French lemonade brand Teisseire – sponsor of the Tour de Fance – has collected the coolest hotspots in Utrecht in the city guide ‘Joie de vivre in Utrecht’.
Shop and enjoy Utrecht like a Parisian. With the city guide ‘Joie de vivre in Utrecht’ you can see Utrecht through the eyes of a Frenchman or Françoise. The guide also includes stories from French inhabitants of Utrecht, recipes of French delights and (non-alcoholic) cocktails. This guide is made in consultation with the blogger Liselotte of liefsuitutrecht.nl. ‘Joie de vivre in Utrecht’ can be downloaded from their website.
Who drink cordials?
The Dutch love lemonade: almost a 25% even drink one or more glasses of lemonade per day. Most of the lemonade drinkers (80%) mix the syrup in the traditional way: with water. Only 13 percent will add the syrup to sparkling mineral water. These results came out a representative survey of more than 540 Dutch people from 16 years and older, commissioned by Teisseire.
In terms of taste almost half of the Dutch always drink the same flavor. Especially ‘traditional’ flavors such as strawberry and selected berries. Men prefer orange more often than women, while a lemon flavor is more popular with the ladies. Another difference between the sexes: men drink more limonade than women. A whopping 26 percent of men have one or more lemonade drinks per day compared to 20 percent of women.
Teisseire: add a touch of French flair to your glass of water
As French brand, Teisseire emphasized on showing how something as simple as cordials can add a touch of French flair to everyday life. “Our dream is to turn any drink into a moment to enjoy,” says Michelle Blankenburgh, brand manager Teisseire Netherlands. “Transform your glass of water for example in a Virgin Mojito with Lime and Mint syrup or give your smoothie a boost with a touch of Currant & Elderflower syrup. This way you add a little joie de vivre to each day.”
Teisseire is present during the Avant Tour and the advertising caravan at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Teisseire has a French patio there where everyone is welcome to enjoy a glass of lemonade.
Mobile charging stations are becoming increasingly essential ….
29-6-2015
Implug also provides mobile charging points for smaller hospitality companies. A great ‘innovative’ hospitable gesture and certainly an added value for your venue with mobile payments in mind! And besides that, it’s another reason to have a drink at your venue!
I am glad that I will soon get a new phone, the current battery is low within no time! And I am not even a fanatic user of a lot of apps on my phone. The rapidly dying battery has become a well-known social problem that especially affects the younger users up to 35 years. Thankfully more and more mobile charging stations are placed at public places like the library, at airports and railway stations but also in the hospitality industry. And the welcoming gesture remains hospitable even if you let them pay, your guests are already happy that they can stay online!
Mobile charging stations are rapidly evolving
At the end of 2012 we’ve spotted the first charging station for cell phones in the Netherlands at Stravinsky eten & drinken in Hengelo (The Netherlands). Nowadays there are several parties that offer these charging stations like the pillars by Charge to go. These pillars are also equipped with a display to present advertisements to your guests. ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Handcrafted Caorunn Gin from Scotland
26-6-2015
Caorunn Gin from Scotland is a ‘wildly sophisticated Scottish Gin’ by Gin Master Simon Buley who prefers using wild, natural ingredients.
Coarunn Gin
Caorunn Gin (pronounced “ka-roon”) is from the Scottish Highlands and is made at Balmenach Distillery, which main activity is distilling whisky. The distillery was founded in 1824, it has a rich history and has been active for almost three centuries.
What is gin made of?
Caorunn Gin is handcrafted by Simon Buley, using traditional gin botanicals such as juniper, coriander, orange peel, lemon peel, angelica and (Chinese) cassia bark(yes, there are more types of cinnamon!). Caorunn is the Gaelic word for Rowan Berry, one of the five locally foraged botanicals. On top of the Rowans, the gin is infused with Coul Blush Apples, Bog Myrtle, Heather and Dandelion.
Wild foraging
The peculiarity of this gin is the combination of the five ingredients that are locally gathered by the Gin Master and the small batch, handcrafted process in the world’s only working copper berry chamber that was used to make perfume in the 1920’s. Because the people at Caorunn are great lovers of wild ingredients, they also encourage bartenders to go foraging and to collect delicacies in the wild that can be used for handmade cocktail ingredients.
Caorunn & Tonic
Caorunn Gin is perfectly served with Fever Tree tonic water and a slice of red apple to further invigorate Caorunn’ s dry and crisp taste. In Scotland they like it strong, one part Caorunn and one part premium tonic water.
Aspire healthy fat burner at the terrace
24-6-2015
The Aspire soda is a fat burner for everyone that wants a healthy alternative at the terrace.
In general the number of refreshing healthy drinks at a terrace can be counted on one hand. Most soft drinks are loaded with sugar and plain water will soon bore you after a few glasses.
Aspire is a healthy alternative
Recently, there are several terraces that serve a soft drink that is sugar free, contains no calories and even promises to burn body fat. It’s ‘Aspire’, a lightly carbonated canned refreshing drink. The drink contains caffeine and is available in the flavors ‘Cranberry’ and ‘Apple with Acai’. The ingredients increase the metabolism, suppress appetite and the drink claims to accelerate weight loss. For the desired effect the producer recommends drinking two cans per day for two weeks, and to combine the drink with a healthy lifestyle (of course).
Ingredients
With ingredients like guarana (energy), caffeine (energy), green tea extract (increase the immune system), L-carnitine (to stimulate body fat burning) and taurine you will buy yourself a booster and body fat burner that does not cause a sugar dip afterwards. It certainly complements the range of beverages at most of the terraces nowadays, not the least because it tastes nice! The drink is already sold at Hampshire Hotels, SportCity, Mövenpick, Healthcity and Corpus. Have you spotted it somewhere else?
Allergens Legislation: you can make it easier on yourself
19-6-2015
Look for vendors who sell allergen free products! It can make your life a lot easier.
Do you already have an allergy information menu? Is it part of your food safety plan? Late last year we were busy with the new legislation but it’s no news anymore. A lot of restaurants have an indication on the menu that an allergy information menu is available, but there are also restaurants without any information. And of course you also have restaurants who think they can get away with mentioning the possible allergies you could have.
VA Foods, allergen free products
Meanwhile, there are several producers entering the market who have taken the allergens as a guideline for their products. Like for example the Valuas croquette developed by Master Chef Eric Swaghoven from restaurant Valuas (*). Recently we came across the products of VA Foods (in the Netherlands) they sell a line of snacks for those with allergies. They use high-quality fresh and pure ingredients as much as possible and try to avoid flavor enhancers, preservatives and colorants.
The couldn’t make the law easier but you can make it easier on yourself
If you find it difficult to make meals without the allergens, start looking for producers who have already done a lot of work for you. For example, VA Foods sells products such as croquettes, hot dog, puff pastry, ragout and bread. Their products all meet the internationally recognized VITAL-2 standard. So the products are gluten free, lactose free, peanut free, nut free and free from other common allergens. By finding this kind of suppliers, you can make it easier on yourself …
Asian Baba Rafi format starts in Alkmaar
18-6-2015
The initial establishment of an innovative European kebab franchise will soon start in Alkmaar.
Baba Rafi adapted to European standards
Entrepreneurs Sinan Gul, Hans Verloop and Baris Kürkcü took the very popular Baba Rafi format from Asia to Europe and adjusted them fully to European standards and trends. With a strong focus on healthy and sustainable dishes, Baba Rafi also wants to reach out to women and children and that distinguishes the formula from all existing kebab, döner or shawarma formats.
Confidence in the format of Baba Rafi
In order to finance the initial establishment of Baba Rafi Europe, the entrepreneurs made a successful appeal to the public: 176 private investors invested € 250.000,= in the company via Collin CrowdFund.
Kebab for today’s conscious consumer
Baba Rafi is the largest franchise chain in the world in the field of kebab products. With more than 1.300 locations in Asia where the concept is immense popular. The Asian concept is fully adapted to the European market where respect for the food, the customers and the environment play an important role. One of the initiators, Baris Kürkcü: “Every niche in the food industry, from fries-, hamburger and chicken formats to sandwiches, has seen a trend towards more sustainable and responsible food, in the recent years. With Baba Rafi we introduce a kebab concept that is tailored entirely to the needs and desires of the modern conscious consumers. The dishes are freshly prepared with a minimum of E-numbers and maximum sustainable and organic ingredients. We have worked closely with a culinary consultant and nutritionist during the development of the dishes. The dishes are suitable to eat for lunch. For everyone, thus emphatically including women and children.”
The future: being the largest kebab chain in Europe
Along with financial expert Hans Verloop and former McDonald’s CEO, Herman de Haas, the team of Baba Rafi wants to realize the largest kebab chain in Europe. There is no comparable franchise concept in Europe but there is a 10 billion euros sales in kebab fastfood restaurants. The facility in Alkmaar will be the flagship store and serves as a model for the next Baba Rafi in comparably sized cities in the Netherlands and Europe.
