Italian restaurant ‘modern style’ in Leiden
9-2-2015
From the walls The Godfather and Berlusconi (in graffiti form) look down on the tables with bright red chairs. Zucca is an Italian restaurant in Leiden (The Netherlands) but slightly different than a more traditional Italian restaurant. But they serve artisanal pizzas and dishes created with real Italian ingredients and love for their origin.
Graffiti as art
The staff wears shirts with ‘I’m Italian, what’s your super power?’ And a classic work of art as the Mona Lisa now wears an eye patch and the Venus by Botticelli wears sunglasses. In short, no classic design for this Italian restaurant but graffiti and a contemporary decor. An artists collective created the artwork on the walls that can best be described as a mix of classic and now, with a big wink. The Madonna by Rafael carries a baby in soccer outfit and Botticelli’s Venus is surrounded by graffiti figures and angels on a Vespa scooter.
Italian restaurant ‘modern style’
The interior may be anything but traditional Italian, their dishes taste like they are served in a trattoria in Italy. The pizza crusts (thin!) are made in a glowing stone oven and their pasta’s, anti pasti and secondi are made from fresh ingredients.
New offshoot
Zucca is part of Witteman Hospitality Management, led by Ruud and son Singha Witteman. They now have six restaurants, five of which are located in Leiden. They are known for their accessible hospitality concepts, aimed at a large audience.
Spin to win
These entrepreneurs continue to innovate. Often by thinking and acting ‘out of the box’. Like everyone who will be eating on a Tuesday or Wednesday at Zucca’s; can give a twist to the ‘O Fortuna Rad’ after checking out. There can earn prizes for their return visit, like a complimentary bottle of wine or even up to 50% off on the next dinner.
Wheelys, a full service café on wheels
5-2-2015
Wheelys is a full service café on wheels. The bike serves coffee, tea, cold drinks, juices, pastries, fruits, salads and sandwiches. Everyone can buy the bike and ride through the city, the only thing that you have to do is to pay a small monthly fee. We wonder how how it is regulated in these countries with the licenses.
Wheelys
There are several advantages of the café on wheels. You will have minimal startup costs, minimal running costs, it is ECO-friendly, healthy and very profitable. With one single Wheelys you can earn up to $700,= in one day. In the first four months that Wheelys has been around they sold more than 30 cafés to more than 10 countries.
The café was founded by Thomas Mazetti, former head of a successful advertising agency. He brought other thought leaders from Scandinavian superbrands like IKEA and H&M in to his team. Together they created Wheelys.
A social dining app: Chattable
4-2-2015
Chattable is a social dining app which brings people together in a whole new way.
Social dining app
With the Chattable-app on your phone you can see which restaurants are affiliated with Chattable anywhere in the world. You can see the affiliated restaurants in the overview screen with the opening hours, type of kitchen and the distance from your current location. You can also see if someone already made a reservation or if there are people waiting in the restaurant. Your table guests will not know your name, your gender and your appearance until they sit down with you at the table.
Chattable restaurants have a special ‘Chat-Table’ reserved for people who are coming alone, and like to eat with company. According to Martin Opdam, cofounder of the app, a lot of the people who eat alone grab their phone, tablet or eat in their hotel room. Millions of people all over the world are eating alone. The app is developed to bring these people together.
Increasing sales for hospitality businesses
The amount of business stays and single person households increases, this makes that more and more people are having dinner alone. Next to this there is an increasing need or face-to-face contact instead of digital contact. Research of The University of Hotel Management Maastricht, commissioned by KHN (Royal Dutch Hospitality Association), shows that the expenditures are higher when people eat together. The restaurant owner has more tables for other guests if he brings the people who are eating alone together, which creates a win-win situation.
The restaurant owner pays a low pay-per-use rate for everyone who sits down and checked in through the app. The margin of the owner remains guaranteed.
The app went live on 12 January 2015.
Hart & Ziel competition
2-2-2015
The Mariënhof in Amersfoort (The Netherlands) challenges start-ups, entrepreneurs, everyone to come up with the ultimate hospitality concept for the conservatory and adjoining terrace. The Hart & Ziel (translated as Heart & Soul) competition is the chance to start your own company at the Mariënhof. A wine tasting concept, a tapas bar, a combination of a book store and coffee company, anything is possible. In the first two year you don’t have to pay the rent and with a starters budget it’s the chance to chase your dreams.
Competition
The competition exists out of three phases. In the first phase of the challenge the participants make a creative concept. The concept has to be a proper description of the idea and must include a moodboard to give the jury a first impression.
At the second phase the best 8 till 10 participants will be chosen. These participants will develop their concept into a complete business plan. The participants are offered two training sessions to support writing a good business plan.
A top three will be chosen from the submitted business plans. These are the three finalists who have the chance to win. At the final day on 15 May 2015, the finalists will pitch their plans for the judges and the audience. The winner will be announced on the same day. The winner will be selected by three parties: the jury, the audience and the opinions of the people of Amersfoort.
Review
For the review of the concept there will be looked at the creativity, the promotional benefits for the Mariënhof, the connection with the core value of the Mariënhof, the addition for the City Amersfoort and the feasibility of the concept.
Location
The conservatory and the terrace of The Mariënhof are at the side entrance near ‘Kleine Haag’. The conservatory is offering approximately 35 seats and the terrace offers around 45 seats, both depending on the concept. The winner can use the wine cellar as well if it fits the concept. The wine cellar could have another 30 seats.
Participation
Anyone can participate from the age of 18. A starter who just came out of school, someone with years (hospitality) experience and a dream, The Mariënhof is open to anyone with a good concept.
By participating in the contest it is important to bring the necessary permits/documents into which are needed to start a business. The winner is expected to provide this by his / herself.
The concept can be submitted until 17:00 on February 6, 2015.
Watt a Hub!
29-1-2015
We Watt is a professional and original charging place for your restaurant. Give your guests the ability to charge their mobile or laptop while cycling and let them do what is good for their health!
In more and more articles we are kindly notified that sitting is the new smoking. We’ll explain what that means later on but in short it means that we have to get moving! As the owner of a restaurant or grand café you can motivate your guests to do so by placing a We Watt table in your company. Your guests can charge their mobile phone or laptop and charge themselves as well while enjoying your coffee or lunch.
Watt a hub in practice
We Watt offers the opportunity to combine to multitask; chat with friends or work while you recharge your device and move! The installations from We Watt are currently mainly found in businesses, public spaces (for example in France at various stations) and in a couple of restaurants. For example in one of the Amsterdam locations of Bagel & Beans, at Schiphol and in the Utrecht Medical Centre (UMC). With the latest version of the ‘Watt a hub’ – table you have a 500W generator, LiFePO4 battery 12.8V 10AH, 4 USB ports (5V) + Qi charging (19V) and your guests are able to set their own resistance. Watch the video of the launch of We Bike at the Belgian company Telenet.
Sitting is the new smoking.
We are already banning smoking from our environment. The new mantra for the next few years will be starting to move. Various studies show that if you as an adult sit more than four hours a day behind a computer screen, you’re 50 percent more likely to get sick. You burn less calories and the blood flow through your body diminishes while sitting behind your desk, which increases the risk of heart disease, vascular disease and diabetes. But apparently, the fact that we get more and more jobs where we sit behind our desks also affects our evolution! It’s recommended to walk when you can, regularly stand up from your chair and now you can also go to a restaurant where you can charge your mobile or laptop while you treat your body to some movement and a lunch!
Dutch food truck special – Fritèz
28-1-2015
The Summer of 2014 was one of thriving food festivals. With several events focused on mobile kitchens and a lot of food trucks on smaller festivals throughout the country, the open air food offer grew tremendously. This was partly due to the efforts of The Food Line-Up, ‘Vleesch Noch Visch’ and ‘Rollende Keukens’.
Dutch food truck in Amsterdam
Recently an article on Dutch news website Nu.nl announced that the municipality of Amsterdam starts with giving out permits for food trucks on the streets of the Dutch capital. A great trigger to start a food truck special at Horecatrends.com and highlight some of the food trucks mentioned in the (Dutch) book ‘Reizende Sterren’ (Travelling Stars).
The food truck you see on this page is called Fritèz – Haute Friture and is owned by Ruben Kruit. This truck offers organic ‘French Fries’. The book ‘Reizende Sterren’ is only available in Dutch. If you want to show your (favorite) food truck at the website please write to tip@spronsen.com. If you’re interested in the Dutch food truck scene we can definitely recommend the annual ‘Rollende Keukens’ event in Amsterdam in May with over a hundred trucks on one location.
Build your own pop-up restaurant
27-1-2015
Soullmate pop up furniture offers every catering entrepreneur or enthusiastic home cook the opportunity to open their own pop-up restaurant for one day or longer. Without having to invest in a kitchen or furniture.
Build your own pop-up restaurant with the Soullmate Event Truck
The trailer of the truck is filled with a complete restaurant for at least 60 people. This consists of seating and a professional outdoor kitchen. The idea behind the seating is based on old fruit boxes, with Sit & Heat, an energy efficient outdoor heater in the form of a cushion providing warmth and comfort. The trailer optionally provides the ability to be used as a stage.
Do you like to show your cooking skills or culinary art to people in other parts of your country? This truck will be easy to use as handy pop-up location! You can quickly calculate how many guests you have to welcome to earn enough: the truck has 60 seats and the rent will be € 1.750,= a day. Great to use at festivals or company parties as well!
Creative dreams in the hotel rooms of The Hospital Club
26-1-2015
The Hospital Club launched fifteen unique new hotel rooms in their creative hub in the heart of London.
Sleeping in The Hospital Club means…
The luxury boutique bedroom extension to The Hospital Club provides members, guests and clients with a welcoming home-from-home where they can work, rest and play. Guests can fuel their creativity at the restaurant. The hotel rooms have a unique twist, like in their amenities which include inspiring turndown cards (brain power tool kits by the School of Life) and an erotic mini bar by Holloway Smith Noir available for those wishing to explore their creativity in other ways! There is a cocktail trolley at 7pm each evening and suite guests can enjoy a bespoke bartending experience in their rooms, with their own personal bartender. Rooms are available in four sizes: small, medium, large and suite.
Association with the contemporary art world
Continuing the strong heritage and association the Club has established with the contemporary art world, each room features the works of individual artists, including Alyson Mowat, James Alec Hardy, Dominic Beattie, Noah da Costa, Rick Guest, Jacob Love, Harriet Clare, Kristof Jeney, Christian Thompson and David Degreef.
Being part of the creative hub as guest
All bedroom guests have full access to the facilities of the Club including the production and screening facilities and the enviable schedule of member events which include comedy nights, mixology classes, industry networking drinks as well as premium ticketed events such as chef master classes.
About The Hospital Club
The Hospital Club is a unique hub in the heart of London, offering the members of the creative industries the environment and facilities they need to create, connect and collaborate. As part of London’s creative community, the role of the hub is to discover and host the best creative talent and produce, publish and celebrate their work. In addition is The Hospital Club Studio London’s most central and luxuriously appointed TV production facility (which regularly hosts WATCHDOG (BBC), THE AGENDA (ITV) as well as clients including Disney, MTV and BBC Comedy.
New York meets Brabant in café ‘De Vooruitgang’
23-1-2015
City café ‘De Vooruitgang’ (re)opened the doors in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) on 8 January 2015. A fire in the kitchen in April 2013 almost completely burned down the monumental building. Now the monumental façade is restored and the interior and layout are completely renewed.
City café ‘De Vooruitgang’
The new layout creates a lot of light in the building. This makes the café suitable for every moment of the day. The interior is based on urban influences from New York combined with the domesticity of Brabant (The Netherlands). This is created through the stairs behind the bar and the Dutch design prints at the kitchen wall. Other interior design elements: Persian carpets at the wall and there is a wall of plants with over 2.000 plants.
Eat, drink, read, meet, talk and listen
In city Café De Vooruitgang everybody should feel at home. In the middle of the big open kitchen there is a specially designed BBQ grill where the chef prepares his dishes. On the new menu of the café there will be dishes from the grill like burgers with bacon, steak and their specialty: chicken. Besides that, you can go to the café for a pasta or fish. The bar offers a range of specialty beers and wine.
During the lunch at café ‘De Vooruitgang’ there will be wraps, croques and sandwiches with salmon, cheese or a home-made meatball.
Dancing in the café
Every Friday and Saturday the café is opened till late. There will be DJ’s to create an ambiance to dance after dinner. Every Thursday night the DJ-wannabe’s can show their talent during the ‘Spin-inn’.
Second store for De Bakkerswinkel in Rotterdam
13-1-2015
De Bakkerswinkel opened the doors of their second store in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) on 9 January.
Everybody can go to the bakery for breakfast, freshly made sandwiches, a high tea, cake, coffee or a drink with snacks. Besides a big restaurant there is a takeaway shop where you can get a quick coffee and different sandwiches but also buy a cake or marmalade.
Interior
The bakery is located in a former bank office. Designer Piet Hein Eek designed the bakery. De Bakkerswinkel creates new products with respect for the traditional ingredients, Piet Hein Eek designed the restaurant/store in the same way, with respect and understanding of the materials.
De Bakkerswinkel
De Bakkerswinkel is a growing company with eight locations in Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Zoetermeer and Rotterdam (all in The Netherlands). ‘De Bakkerswinkel’ is not a chain, each location is unique and has its own atmosphere and identity tailored to the environment. Each branch contains a store, a restaurant, a traditional bakery and kitchen that can be seen by guests.
Piet Hekker is the founder and owner of De Bakkerswinkel. He wanted to create a place where people feel at home. The funding is realized through crowdfunding. With crowdfunding a lot of guests are participating in ‘De Bakkerswinkel’! We earlier wrote about De Bakkerswinkel in Amsterdam West who recently also opened in the evenings.
Credits: Jim Ellam
Credits: Jim Ellam
Credits: Jim Ellam
Credits: Jim Ellam
Credits: Jim Ellam
Credits: Jim Ellam
