Popup Melksalon
13-3-2015
A milk bar (de MelkSalon) will pop up in Amsterdam. The MelkSalon is a temporary pilot and design room where the value of milk will be rediscovered. From 1 to 30 April at the Oude Spiegelstraat 6.
The Melksalon brings consumers, dairy farmers, dairy processors, designers and scientists together, to rediscover the value(s) of milk. Amongst other things they will organize lectures, design sessions, movie nights and walking tours. The full program is available here (unfortunately only in Dutch). With as highlights some Milk Talks and design sessions under the guidance of experts, an Old Amsterdam Milk Tour and some dinners with catchy titles such as Milk Unchained! And Milk Multi Culti! The dinners are in cooperation with Gilbert Kolff. The pop-up Melksalon is both a shop and a milk bar where you can walk in to taste special kinds of milk.
Why a Milk bar?
Around 1900, the streets of Amsterdam knew many milk parlors, where inhabitants could buy a glass of milk of local farmers. Today we buy milk in the supermarket, but milk still holds an important role in the Dutch history, (food)culture, economy, innovative spirit and in the countryside. Yet, many know little of this rich influence of milk. Milk in the supermarket has become an anonymous bulk product. At the same time there is a strong public debate about the consumption of milk, the impact on the environment and landscape, and the price one pays for it. With the pop-up MelkSalon they want to remove milk from the anonymity, and start a dialogue about the meaning of the product for our culture and society.
The pop-up Melksalon is an initiative of Sietske Klooster and Food Cabinet and is supported by the Dutch Dairy Association, The Milk Story, Triodos Foundation and the Committee Agricultural Innovation North Brabant.
Papa Poule, the new rotisserie chicken hot spot in New York
12-3-2015
Rotisserie chicken served from the counter by Michelin starred chef Arman Arnal and team in New York.
The team behind the bakery Maman, with Michelin starred chef Arman Arnal (former chef at the Michelin starred restaurant ‘La Chassagnette’ in the south of France), Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall opened their new project Papa Poule in the beginning of February 2015. Papa Poule focuses on French rotisserie chicken that is only available for takeout and delivery.
Inspiration
Papa Poule had a lot of attention in the American press with their culinary (grill)chickens and Resto Poule & Poulette in Antwerp is also very popular. We wonder if we get a culinary revival of the chicken in the Netherlands as well?
The menu at Papa Poule
The menu includes a variety of flavoured rotisserie chickens, all massaged, marinated, and stuffed. The chicken will be finished with different sauces, including BBQ, honey mustard, béarnaise, chimichurri, and aioli. If a whole chicken is too much, you can also choose for a quarter or half a chicken to take away. There will also be a daily changing selection of sides, specials and desserts, like chicken potpie, potato gratin, sage-and-onion stuffing, Israeli couscous and profiteroles.
Location
Papa Poule is located at Lafayette street in New York. It is a small room with no seating. The restaurant is inspired by a typical French farmhouse. The kitchen is enclosed with chicken wire and the lamps are made from this material as well. Check their Facebook page for pictures.
Serve Cuipo Water and help to make a difference
10-3-2015
Drinking Cuipo Water is a way to make a difference. With every bottle sold, 1 square meter rainforest is protected and preserved. As from May Cuipo Water is also available in The Netherlands.
An innovative online concept
Due to the concept of Cuipo Water everyone can do something to preserve this planet for the upcoming generations. With every bottle sold, 1 square meter of rainforest is protected and preserved. This is how it works, at every bottle of Cuipo a code is printed, customers have to enter this code at the website of Cuipo and after registration with their email address, they can check ‘their’ square meter on Google Maps and share it through Social Media. With each bottle sold a donation is given to the foundation ‘One Meter at a Time’. This foundation already owns around 105 million square meters. The sustainable PET bottle is made of recycled PET and has a 65% lower carbon footprint. Cuipo water is available in 500 ml. and 330 ml.
Cuipo Water available in the Netherlands as from May
Hoo Koen Tan and Han Kamminga of ‘Water Concepts Benelux’ were introduced to the originally American brand, and decided to contribute on saving the rainforest by introducing Cuipo in The Netherlands. Hoo Koen: “With Cuipo we want to increase the awareness: we need to protect the rainforest. The Cuipo approach is fun and sustainable at the same time, which makes it accessible, effective and it actual contributes to the world. We all drink water, so for everyone this is the way to make a difference.”
Give your guests a great feeling
Selling Cuipo bottles to your guests is a great opportunity to do something good to the world in an easy way. According to the people behind Cuipo this is possible without losing on retail value and margins. An additional advantage is that guests sign up with their email address. ‘Water Concepts Benelux’ is the exclusive seller of Cuipo in West-Europe.
The next generation Starbucks
6-3-2015
‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ of Starbucks in Seattle is the new next generation Starbucks. In this concept store their Coffee brand Reserve (their premium coffee line) is being roasted. Starbucks hopes to attract coffee connoisseurs and amateurs alike with this new concept.
We already read articles about ‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ with all the great pictures of this new Starbucks location. But recently we saw the video above and thought that our reader had to see this one as well. For pictures you can have a look at the article by PSFK.
The next generation Starbucks
‘The Roastery and Tasting Room’ opened December 2014 and is located in Starbucks hometown Seattle, just a couple of blocks of their first location. The Starbucks ‘Roastery and Tasting Room’ is thoughtfully designed as an immersive, all-sensory experience where coffee takes center stage. They like to describe it as if guests experience a Willy Wonka feeling! A detail in the interior you notice right away, coffee beans traveling in clear and copper tubes from the roaster to the bar where they will be brewed.
Starbucks has plans to open more ‘Roastery and Tasting Rooms’ in cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Poptails
5-3-2015
Poptails, the summer funs at Sky Bar, Bangkok’s highest rooftop bar at the Lebua State Tower hotel. Poptails are premium classic cocktails paired with brain-freezing popsicles. ‘Poptails’ derived from the two words – popsicle and cocktails.
Poptails are made of…
The master mixologist at ‘The Dome’ at the Lebua State Tower hotel created the poptails to create fun and excitement around his cocktails! Premium is referring to the base spirits – the Havana 3 Years Rum, Absolut 100 Vodka, Olmeca Tequila and Plymouth Gin – that are used to create these cocktails. They serve a Rocky Road Martini: (Chocolate martini) – 1.5 oz Absolute 100 Vodka – 0.1 oz white chocolate liqueur – 0.5 oz hazelnut liqueur, rimmed with dark, Dutch chocolate and garnished with a Rocky Road Popsicle made of chocolate, marshmallow, peanuts, water, simple syrup and milk.
The other cocktails which are served with a popsicle: Berrymania (with a creamy berry / lemon popsicle), The Clover Pop (with a pineapple popsicle) and The Pop Star (with a melon and raspberry popsicle).
The Sky Bar
Due to the Sky Bar’s innovative cocktails, striking atmosphere and spectacular views, it earned the distinction of being named “the most stunning rooftop bar you’ll ever see” by The New York Times and is one of the highlights of Bangkok’s nightlife scene. So, if you’re planning to go to Bangkok, this is the place to drink a cocktail. They also serve a Hangovertinis, a cocktail created for the cast of ‘The Hangover Part II’ while they were filming at Lebua. This cocktail has gone on to become Thailand’s signature drink.
As said the view is amazing and the cocktails at the Sky Bar are delicious! I know, it’s one of those places I can say of: ‘Been there, done that’. But unfortunately they didn’t serve the popsicles then, so I don’t mind going back! ^Marjolein
Annie the Owl Bar – pops up in London
4-3-2015
In London ‘Annie the Owl Bar’, a pop-up bar will open for a week in March. In this pop-up bar you can stroke owls while drinking cocktails. Like all animal themed bars, where you can stroke cats or for example bunnies, the owl themed pop-up bar also originates from Japan.
Annie the Owl Bar
‘Annie the Owl Bar’ is inspired by a bar in Tokyo (the video above is from that bar) and is already very popular. Tickets are only available by lottery. Entrance is 20 pounds and includes two cocktails. The entrance money is going to the charity ‘The Barn Owl Centre’. The bar will pop-up from 19 till 25 March from 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. The opening hours are adjusted to the sleeping habits of the owls. The exact location will be revealed to the winners of the lottery on 16 March.
A visit to ‘Annie the Owl Bar’ must be a dream come true for the diehard Harry Potter fan! 😉
About soup – Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat
3-3-2015
Soup and broth are popular especially in those cities and regions where it is very cold. Urban Soup by Marc Veyrat in Montpellier (France) is one of those new soup places.
Earlier we wrote an article about Urban Fruit, a concept of Marc Veyrat. In the summer months you can go to the centre of Montpellier to compose your own smoothie, milkshake or frozen yoghurt with fruit at Urban Fruit. Very yummy frozen yoghurt and Montpellier is great as well and worth a detour if you’re in the vicinity! Now you can also go there in the winter months for a warm soup-to-go. Urban Soup is also a concept by Marc Veyrat.
Urban Soup – create your own soup
The concept is the same as in Urban Fruit, you grab a bag and start to fill it with vegetables that you like. You can choose between 20 different vegetables. Within minutes they make a healthy and delicious soup-to-go, to warm you during the cold winter days.
Speaking of soup
Broth is very popular, especially in the eastern part of America where they are currently (2014/2015) experiencing a very cold winter. Several Dutch journalists wrote articles about the trend broth-to-go instead of coffee-to-go. Unfortunately only available in Dutch. Although we also hear enthusiastic stories about soup-to-go instead of coffee-to-go especially from the Boston and New York City areas, we think that the key factor for success is a cold winter. And unfortunately we didn’t have one in the Netherlands.
Tosti van Josti
26-2-2015
Tosti van Josti, a new breakfast & lunch restaurant, will open her doors at the centre of The Hague at the end of February. A concept that is different from all the other lunchrooms. The ‘Tosti’s’ (sandwiches) will be served and made by people with a mental or psychological work limitation.
Tosti van Josti
‘Tosti van Josti’ works with organic and healthy products as much as possible. The assortment will exist out of sandwiches, yoghurts, soups, salads, juices, homemade lemonades and organic soft drinks.
In the Netherlands we have a band with boys and girls who suffer from down’s syndrome they are called: ‘The Josti band’. To give the word ‘Josti’ a positive vibe and to show that people with a work limitation can function well in a lunchroom, the founders came up with the name ‘Tosti van Josti’. Check out their website, there is a countdown until the big opening at 28 February. We wish all the staff a lot of fun with working at Tosti van Josti.
About the ‘Bakkerswinkel’
24-2-2015
This is an interview with a Dutch entrepreneur and is only published in Dutch. You can read more articles about his lunchroom/bakery store on our website. The first article is about the second store of the ‘Bakkerswinkel’ in Rotterdam and the second article about the ‘Bakkerswinkel’ in Amsterdam who started serving dinner as well.
The AntiCafé – more comfortable & cheaper than holding office in the Starbucks
20-2-2015
Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and visited the AntiCafé. At this place you pay for the time you spend there!
In big cities most people have small homes and big dreams. To make these dreams come true you need to make long hours of studying/working/meeting and with those small living situations and high rents, finding a place to work can be challenging.
This fact has made it completely acceptable to work in your local Starbucks/McDonald’s/Coffee shop but obviously this is not ideal, the manager does not appreciate you being there all day, the F&B is expensive and the furniture was not set up for comfort on the long haul.
This is where the AntiCafé comes in, a concept where you are at a hospitality outlet and pay for time instead of per item. For a couple of euro’s you receive;
• coffee and tea
• snacks and fruits
• fast Wi-Fi
• access to a projector, printer, scanner and board games
• in addition, you are welcome to bring in your own food/soft drinks
You come in, receive a keycard that you need to hold onto until you leave, then when you are ready to leave you ‘check-out’ and pay per hour (€4 for the first hour, €3 per hour for the following hours and a maximum of €16 per day), that’s how easy it is.
Weekend days all Parisian locations fill up completely, you really have to be early to get a good spot!
The idea is to create a shared space where people can work, inspire each other or just have an extension of their living rooms. Maybe the mission statement is somewhat idealistic, dare I say hippie, but the practicality of the concept is very convenient. You are working between people from all over the world, hearing a plethora of languages, have access to unlimited drinks & snacks and you are comfortable in a beautiful, light space. I hope the AntiCafé will take the world by storm!
Editor’s Note: In the Netherlands we have a meeting concept, Seat2meet. You can work here and get free Wi-Fi, coffee, tea and lunch. Their business model is renting meeting rooms: premium spots for flexible workers who want a little more quiet, and meeting rooms for groups. The only conditions if you want to work here; you need to show your ‘social capital’ meaning, everyone present is aware of your expertise and if possible you help each other. Meanwhile Seats2meet has quite a few branches. Perhaps an idea for Paris?
And while we’re at it: look at DrawAttention. You can buy whiteboard stickers here to stick on your laptop cover, on which you can advertise your expertise or say you don’t want to be disturbed!
