Experience retail
25-11-2015
Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is getting more and more into the ‘experience retail’ with the acquisition of Philadelphia-based Vetri Family restaurant group.
Experience retail
As the writer of the article at Eater.com states: “Experience retail” swaps dinner-and-a-show for dinner-and-some-shopping. As a mother of a daughter who loves to shop at Urban Outfitters, I have to admit that it would be great to be able to say; “take your time while you’re shopping, I will be at the restaurant or at the nail studio”. Imagine all that within one shop.
As a response on their stock decline of 6,94% over the past three months they started as a clothing and home goods retailer. It expanded into a more general lifestyle arena, with concept stores including in-house nail bars and performance stages as well as restaurants from great American chefs, like Marc Vetri, Michael Symon and Ilan hall since spring 2014. In April 2014 Space Ninety 8 opened, the Williamsburg Urban Outfitters concept store that includes an auxiliary branche of The Gorbals, the restaurant of Ilan Hall’s.
Urban Outfitters has been experimenting with the ‘experience retail’ since 2008, at that moment their store in Los Angeles, Space 15 Twenty, including a nail art studio, a skateboard shop, a performance stage and an Umami Burger outpost.
Read the full article on Eater if you want to know more.
Inspiration
Is co-creating an experience with local restaurants, a benefit your shoppers can’t buy with a click on their mouse? Is it perhaps one of the answers to the growing e-retail business? In the Netherlands we currently have multiple chefs who fit the current retail concepts. However if we change it around and imagine that restaurant chains start selling clothing or other goods via shop-in-shop formulas is prohibited according to the Dutch government. With all the current developments in today’s world it is necessary to review the legislation as a response to the competition of the retail with respect to the hospitality industry. ^Marjolein
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.
Brew your own beer with Brewie
23-11-2015
With the Brewie machine you can brew different types of beer at home or in your own bar.
Brewie the brewing machine
Brewie started as a crowdfunding project. In January 2015 the company raised more than twice their target amount, goal accomplished! The Brewie machine will now be taken into production. The machine is standardly delivered with the ingredients necessary. It’s also possible to make your own mix of ingredients, or use different proportions. In this way you can personalize your beer even more.
Brew your own beer
Brewie works together with your smartphone using an app specifically developed to make brewing your own beer with Brewie even easier. The app can be used to save your own recipes and discover new ones. Brewie also made a video in which you can see how beer is made by using the machine. Beginners should be able to easily do it on their own. The machine cleans itself with one push on a button and can be connected to your own water system.
Serving your home made beer
It’s already a trend to serve your own beer in your bar. It creates an unique selling point as a company and makes a good impression on your guests. Maybe it’s an idea to develop a new beer together with your guests!
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.
BuzzBar developed alcoholic ice creams for adults
19-11-2015
BuzzBar has designed various ice cream bars specifically for adults. The ice contains liquor and only natural ingredients. They also produce ice cream bars that are suitable for vegetarians.
BuzzBar as an alternative for the cocktail
The average ice cream bar contains about 2 percent alcohol, so you won’t get really drunk, but it could be a great alternative for a cocktail in the summer. The ice cream bars and popsicles come in a lot of different flavours, some examples are: Mojito, raspberry and lemon sorbet with lemon vodka, whiskey and chocolate, strawberries with rum and vanilla combined with cognac.
Inspiration
The ice cream bars could be a fun idea for a cocktail bar, this way guests can taste their favourite cocktails ice cold. Maybe people will even toast with BuzzBars in the future?
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.
Launch Primedinners “Business, Friends, Romance… it’s all on the table”
17-11-2015
Horecatrends was present at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam to attend Primedinners’ official launch. The evening, which was entirely devoted to the global top of gastronomy, started with a walking-dinner. You can watch a video about the event here.
Eleven international Michelin star chefs, ranging from one to three Michelin stars, with a total sum of 18, each prepared their own signature dish. The sous-chefs of famous Dutch restaurants, appraised with a Michelin star, were also present to support the international chefs. The eleven chefs and their dishes:
- Peter Armellino * – Smoked salmon mousse-cannelloni with caviar
- Fabio Bragagnolo ** – Slowly cooked John Dory, quinoa, clip fish and horseradish
- Cornelius Speinle * – Langoustine tartare, cream of fruit and sour vegetables and caviar
- Peter Rudolph * – Poached rabbit loin, celeriac, truffle, chanterelle and burnt bread
- Yusuke Takada ** – Smoked eel with Japanese spices
- Viki Geunes ** – Foie gras, North sea crab, miso, celeriac and buckthorn
- Matteo Ferrantino ** – Black Cod “Caldeirada” -style
- Jarad Gallagher * – Foie gras, roses, apricot, brioche and chocolate bottom.
- Mitsuru Konishi ** – Beef & carrot
- Phillip Foss * – French fries and a Frosty
- Jacob Jan Boerma *** – Happy Berry, citrus, mango, yuzu, blueberries and goji berries
About Primedinners
Primedinners will be the new connection between Michelin star restaurants, suppliers and guests. The international network founded by Chanine Steffers and John Rietdijk offers the Michelin star chefs the platform that is so desperately needed, says Jacob Jan Boerma. On the website, that launched yesterday, you can book at the affiliated (Michelin star) restaurants and buy products from renowned suppliers.
The evening came to an end with the official Dutch premiere of the movie Burnt. The movie is about chef Adam Jones and his struggle to achieve three Michelin stars. It contains a lot of action, humour and love. Whether it actually reflects the truth is debatable. Despite that it’s a fun movie for people that love the culinary world, as well as people who don’t!
We really enjoyed it and wish Primedinners all the best! ^Bram Kosterink
#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
The Tea Ceré or matcha brewing device
16-11-2015
Matcha is very healthy and popular, they even made a Tea Ceré – a matcha or tea home-brewing device. With this tea ‘brewing’ machine tea lovers can enjoy matcha drinks at home.
Matcha increasingly popular
Leonie van Spronsen already wrote about the ‘matcha latte’ she drank at Maison Kitsuné in Paris last February. In this article, more about the health effects of matcha. This Japanese tea has become a popular ingredient, even for cocktails. Partly because of the beautiful green colour of the tea.
The Tea Ceré will grind your tea to powder
This tea brewing device is produced by Sharp (Canada) and it kind of looks like a coffee machine. It’s designed to make a perfect cup of tea, of course only if you use high-quality tea leaves. The machine grinds the leaves into a fine powder. The water in the machine will be boiled to the right temperature and even whisks in the tea. You can even make matcha (or another tea) lemonade with the machine.
