Pinkyrose: cool lemonade as non-alcoholic alternative
7-5-2015
Pinkyrose, the flamingo brand, is a fresh handmade syrup. No artificial substitutes like conservatives and preservatives are added. The juice, the spices, the herbs and the secret are all-natural and squeezed by hand. Great non-alcoholic alternative on your summer menu.
Cool lemonade in industrial oil tins
With more than 20 years of gastronomic experience, the Pinkyrose-chef was able to create four distinctive flavours: Straight Lemon, Spiced Lemon & Rose, Dark Caramel Sea Salt and Floral Ginger & Orange. Pinkyrose is the perfect basis for a sparkling soda, lemonade or cocktail. The syrups are delivered in nice industrial oil tins with great labels, recognisable by the famous flamingo and the handwritten flavour-signature.
The flavors of the fresh handmade lemonade
Straight Lemon tastes like taking a dip in fresh, flowing water on a hot summer day. A sweet and tart syrup with lemon and lemon grass.
Spiced Lemon & Rose tastes like taking a stroll in a Thai rose garden. A fresh and spicy syrup with rose-petals, red pepper and oriental spices.
Dark Caramel Sea Salt tastes like an exotic snack. A sweet salty syrup with caramel, sea salt and original spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.
Floral Ginger & Orange tastes like your favourite summer festival. A wonderful sweet and floral syrup with orange, various types of ginger and lavender.
Pinkyrose, fresh & serious syrups
Pinkyrose was born in 2013. The chef and the designer were looking for a non-alcoholic alternative. They decided to combine their gastronomic and creative forces to offer a titillating alternative.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ by KFC
7-5-2015
KFC in the UK has unveiled the first edible coffee cup. It’s called the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’. The cups are currently under development but most probably available from this summer onwards.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ is made from biscuit, wrapped in sugar paper and lined with a layer of white chocolate. The chocolate keeps the coffee hot and the cup crispy. The biscuit slowly softens as the chocolate melts which it does in the mouth and not in the hand. The ‘Scoff-ee Cups’ will mark the launch of KFC’s Seattle’s Best Coffee (made from fairtrade Arabica beans) across England. We did spot edible coffee cups before, like the milk & cookie shots by Dominique Ansel.
Food scientist created the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’
Food scientists The Robin Collective created the edible cup in partnership with KFC. The cups are also infused with different scents (Coconut sun cream, freshly cut grass and wild flowers), that are known to improve your mood. And that together with a great coffee, there’s no better way to start your day!
GPS-Bottles leads finders to the Heineken experience
6-5-2015
Amsterdam’s Heineken Experience has littered GPS-enabled beer bottles through the city which can lead curious residents and tourists to the beer museum.
Anyone picking up one of the bottles around Amsterdam will feel the bottle vibrate and see the cap light up as it activates. The in-built compass and rotating cap will then guide the finder through the city directly to the Heineken Experience.
GPS-bottles instead of flyers
The idea is to boost the visitors to the branded museum, which saw 730,000 visitors last year. Heineken teamed up with JWT Amsterdam to attract more visitors to their brewery. The custom-made Heineken bottles had an integrated GPS system designed to lead people who picked them up back to the Heineken Experience brewery.
Dirk Lubbers, manager of the Heineken Experience, said: “Handing out flyers is not very Heineken, so we wanted to play on the brand’s famous inventiveness, wit and pioneering spirit and create something that stands out for potential visitors. Our key differentiator is that we invite each visitor on a cultural and historical journey, enabling them to interact with the brand. This initiative is a great representation of our approach: innovative, dynamic, surprising, and always leave you with unforgettable memories.”
Ideal white shirt for restaurants
1-5-2015
A white shirt that can’t be harmed by dirty stains! Really? Elizabeth & Clarke, the producers of ‘The Unstainable™ White Shirt, ensure coffee or red wine stains are history with the shirt. Besides that, it also perfectly fits every (women) body shape.
Every now and then there are some projects on Kickstarter that gain the money needed fast and exceed it by far. The Unstainable™ White Shirt’ is one of those projects. It looks like the ideal shirt to wear when working. Especially when you are clumsy and regularly get stains on your shirt 😉
Made with nanotechnology
Because of the nanotechnology, all kinds of water and oil based products are kept off. Transpiration will even vaporize before it reaches the fibers. Water based products, oil based products and transpiration are easy to wash off.
Elizabeth & Clarke think they have invented an affordable and easily washable shirt, ideal for women. We are very interested in the cleanliness of the shirt in a real restaurant environment.
Newspaper menu comes alive
24-4-2015
Guests of Center Parcs restaurants can scan a newspaper menu with their phone for a virtual reality experience. With the use of an app guests can help foodservice Albron with further improvements, see extra information, receive advice about food or drinks that are connected to the current weather or vote on their favourite employee. The newspaper menu increases the level of experience in the Center Parcs restaurants where Albron takes care of the hospitality and food retail.
Newspaper menu
The newspaper menu offers access to the digital world. The technique that’s used, augmented reality, makes the print come to life. The stories of new hospitality concepts are filmed to excite the guests. The guests aren’t spectators of the decor where they eat and drink but they are a part of the story. This makes the experience of the restaurants complete.
Corine Holtmaat, manager of Albron says about the concept: ”People are flooded with information and read less in general. Footage is a good carrier to tell a story, to reach out to the viewer and take him away with you, that’s why this choice was made. Another benefit of the video is that you can excite multiple senses and can gain more impact in the communication. That’s how we touch people in the heart and create valuable moments and memories.”
Pre-order and self-checkout at Dell canteen
23-4-2015
Dell employees in Amsterdam don’t have to wait in line anymore at the cashier in the company canteen. Since a short while they order and pay their own lunch with a special “Dell Cafe” app, the package can be picked up a little later.
Order Mobile
eMove.me was commissioned by caterer ‘Van Laar Catering’ to develop the Dell Café concept. The app is designed and developed by YES.TAP.
eWallet
The app has an integrated payment service so that the employee can recharge by phone. This “e-Wallet” saves the employee time, leaving more time to enjoy his lunch. The app works ‘cashless’: customers pay a prepaid credit. The transaction capabilities are an interesting alternative to the recently disappeared chipknip. Additionally, less cahiers are needed and transaction costs are lower.
No more waiting in line
According to Martijn Lukaart CEO eMove.me there is no need to stand in a row anymore in the retail and catering industry. eMove.me is an independent and exclusive distributor of several m-commerce solutions. Earlier, we wrote about the order application at foodcourt The World in Rotterdam where recently Open Tabs is implemented.
Smart hospitality: BarDoggy unlocks ‘the Internet of Things’ for the hospitality industry
21-4-2015
BarDoggy creates an infrastructure for smart internet in catering establishments. The company places bluetooth sensors that are linked to the Internet (also called iBeacons) in restaurants and bars.
Bardoggy started with connecting the first five catering establishments with iBeacons on 1 March 2015 linking the catering business and the app. Meanwhile, more than 20 establishments have an active link with the Bluetooth sensors. Creator Tim de Kraker focuses on making smart hospitality concepts. After a conversation with an entrepreneur of a local bar Tim de Kraker thought that it would be enormously expensive to create an app for just one pub. Why not create one app for all the pubs which will add value to the user as well?
The app is launched for Android and iOS this year , and there already are a total of more than 50.000 downloads and 20.000 profile pages of entrepreneurs. With their business plan they were able to pick up € 350.000 for the development of their platform and the support of a community to use the services. The app is aimed at young people and now has 100.000 users.
Smart hospitality
BarDoggy makes hospitality smart and automates a part of the hospitality. There is a connection between all hospitality locations using one central platform to connect to the host. Users have one personal profile and only have to register once to be able to enjoy benefits at all internationally connected SmartBars. (A SmartBar is a hospitality venue with one or more sensors).
Once a user of the platform comes within 50 meters of a sensor, he is recognized and greeted by the hospitality venue with the possibility to offer nice advantages. The possibilities and interaction are numerous. The longer the guest uses the platform the more insight in his profiles is built. Insight on the number of times and duration of the visits and the type of hospitality venues frequented. There are connections established with other social media for acquaintances from other networks can easily find each other. It’s one of the most comprehensive entertainment platforms of Europe. With the app, young people in the target group of 18 to 30 of ages weekly find fun parties, score cheap drinks and will easily see where friends are within the connected SmartBars after the next update.
On 16 April, BarDoggy won a prestigious pitch contest organized by McKenzie Pitch Partners in New York, as best concept and pitch. The jury consisted of four global business leaders including the President Americas Global Corporate Payments of American Express and the Canadian CEO of FedEx. At present, there are ongoing discussions with investors for a new capital injection of 3 to 5 million to roll out BarDoggy. Spain, Portugal and America seem to get more concrete for international expansion.
A Food Boat instead of a Food Truck
14-4-2015
Pizza Pi, a pizza delivery boat, is sailing the Caribean Sea and delivers pizzas at the Christmas Cove on the Great St. James Island.
Pizza Pi – the first pizza delivery boat
The Pizza delivery boat of Pizza Pi is an initiative by Sasha and Tara Bouis. They bring the trend of food trucks, which are becoming pretty common nowadays, to a new level. They converted their house boat into a fully operational pizza bakery boat in two years. Sascha and Tara have visited the Pizza School of New York and now they make their own pizzas, including gluten-free pizzas aboard their ship.
A food boat in the Netherlands?
Although we lack the Caribean sun, we can have great summers and we have a lot of water and water enthusiasts as well! It’s a great idea for Italian restaurants to start delivering pizzas by boat! Maybe one of the restaurants located at the lakes in the West and North of The Netherlands already does this…. We’d love to hear it!
A tip for wellness hotels: The Swimsuit Dryer
8-4-2015
Just put your swimsuit or swim shorts in the dryer after swimming and in 10 seconds your swimsuit will be 95% dry.
We’ve been to the Grand Hotel in Stockholm in December where we found a small hospitable gesture in the wellness center: a dryer for your swimsuit. Very handy for hotels where the wellness is often split into a swimming pool where the swimsuit is obligated and a sauna where it’s optional. Watch the video for an instruction.
The swimsuit dryer
The swimsuit dryer doesn’t use any heat to dry : in terms of energy consumption, it is 350 W instead of 3000 W for a simple dryer. If you multiply the energy saved with the number of user in a pool, you can buy more than one unit in a year…. Moreover, No heat = swimsuit textile fiber preserved!
The Swimsuit Dryer is easy and quick to clean and is available in the colours granite, white marble, sandstone and silver. There is also a version that is futuristically illuminated. Cleaning brush and disinfectant cleaner are provided with the dryer.
At this time our colleagues of Van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy are working on a publication about the wellness branch. This will be presented later this month.
If you’re interested in our publication, you can let us know through vraag@spronsen.com.
DreamCheaper
8-4-2015
This is another website that helps their customers to secure the best deal possible. Book a hotel in the ‘flexible option’, forward the confirmation to DreamCheaper and let them find you the best deal possible. They will rebook and cancel the old confirmation, and you will still get the same room!
DreamCheaper promises cheaper hotel rooms
DreamCheaper, a German start-up, has automated the process to make a deal with fluctuating room prices by canceling and rebooking the room anytime it signals the same room at a better price. Customers have to create an account on DreamCheaper and forward their confirmation email. DreamCheaper starts a process of price-comparison that continues until the day before check-in. The startup’s automated system monitors the changing room prices on hundreds of travel websites (they do vary on supply and demand).
According to DreamCheaper, customers have no risk, the website first books the new room and cancels the old one later. They take a 20 percent cut of the money saved, so it is always incentivized to get the best price. They promise to optimize 2 out of 3 reservations.
A positive development for consumers but for hoteliers it’s another player on the market looking for the cheapest deals possible. Of course at the expense of the revenue of the hotel room.
