Eat fashion
17-2-2014
For the pastry chefs among our followers: the International Culinary Center literally takes a bite out of fashion! To promote the New York Fashion Week the International Culinary Center has made an exact copy of a Coco Chanel purse out of chocolate! In the video above, the model suddenly begins to eat her purse in the middle of a subway.
World’s highest hotel
17-2-2014
The ‘Shanghai Tower’ will open its doors in Shanghai in 2014. The building has a total height of 632 meters with 121 floors. Between the 84th and 110th floor of the building there will be a hotel with 320 rooms. This is the highest hotel in the world. The building has walls of glass so it gives a 360 degree view of the city. The ‘Shanghai Tower’ will also have a number of retail stores, offices, cultural facilities and an observation deck.
Hotel bar I-Dock
14-2-2014
Restaurant, Bar & Marina Terrace I-Dock, located on the ground floor of the new Room Mate Hotel Aitana Amsterdam, opened its doors at February 8. The hotel bar I-Dock is a place where hotel guests and passers-by can enjoy breakfast, lunch, dinner or drinks. The menu is Mediterranean oriented with the concept of small dinners. Guests can taste different dishes or share the small bites with each other. At night the hotel bar transforms into a night club with DJs and live bands. I-Dock is a initiative of business caterer Vitam.
Pay a KLM booking through social media
14-2-2014
Now KLM Royal Dutch Airlines makes it possible for customers to pay their booking through social media. Consumers are already able to book extra services through social media, such as a seat reservation or extra baggage addition, but they can now pay their booking via Facebook or Twitter as well. KLM will send the customer a link in a private message on Facebook or Twitter, consumers can choose the method of payment and complete the transaction. A KLM service agent receives a payment confirmation and sends a message to the customer. KLM is the first airline that makes it possible to pay through social media.
Child friendly restaurant Sjalot en Schanul
14-2-2014
Restaurant Sjalot & Schanul in Belgium is welcoming to all its guests, including the children. The restaurant charges a fee for children based on their age. A child of 4 years will receive a dinner for € 4,= and a 6-year old will pay € 6,= for a slightly larger portion.
Limoncello made of the Bergamot lemon
13-2-2014
Bello Bergamotcello is the new fresh version of Bello Limoncello. The Bello Bergamot is made of the Bergamot lemon, a citrus fruit that is normally used in tea or perfume, because of its aroma. The liquor-makers Natwerk used these lemons to make a Limoncello. Chef cook Jaimie van Heije was so excited by the special Limoncello, that he serves the drink in his restaurant and has put a cocktail variant on the menu.
Men Cafe during Home Exhibition
13-2-2014
The ‘Home Exhibition’ in Amsterdam RAI is really a female fair, but each year around 25,000 men visit the event. To do the men a favor, during the event from 15 to 23 Feburary, there will be a Men Café again. Men can drink a beer here, eat some croquettes and there are pool tables. Racing driver Tim Coronel will be present to accompany the men in the café. The visitors can sit in the Dakar buggy of Tim Coronel and take a picture.
Hampshire rubber duck
13-2-2014
“Kwik, kwak, kwek, please come back”. That is the motto of the Hampshire rubber duck. It’s a business gift for special visitors of the hotels and a cool way to give a friendly reminder of your visit. There are various photographers that shoot rubber duckies around the world. Perhaps you’ll see the #HampshireDuck pop-up on social media any time soon..
Deep Dish Pizza from Chicago
12-2-2014
Emmett’s introduces typical Chicago deep dish style pizza’s in New York. These pizza’s look more like a quiche rather than a traditional pizza. See the video for a review.
Update: in the meanwhile we’ve tried this pizza ourselves. Take a look at my report here ^Marjolein van Spronsen
Hotel The Thief and the Russian Kiss
12-2-2014
The hotel ‘The Thief’ in Tjuvholmen (Norway) welcomed its guests at the first day of the Olympic Games with French kissing hetero and gay couples from different races. The campaign is inspired by a video from Norwegian singer Annie and Norwegian visual artist Bjarne Melgaard and in collaboration with a national LGBT-organization. With the campaign the hotel supports the #principle6 campaign, based on the Olympic values. The video of kissing people is projected in room #410 and visible at street level for two weeks.
Zuidas Amsterdam pop-up store
12-2-2014
The municipality of Amsterdam appointed four locations for pop-up stores at the ‘Zuidas’, near Amsterdam Zuid train station. From 1 May onwards the locations are available to unique concepts that complement the existing offer for six months. All competitors, with both food as well as non-food concepts, can send in their plans before 5 March 2014. The four winners will be announced on 13 March. Perhaps the area will be enriched with a test sleep facility, a tasting area or a collaboration between local entrepreneurs like we’ve seen in the West of Amsterdam.
Inspiration from NYFW 2014
11-2-2014
We all know that Fashion Weeks are concentrated around fashion shows and after party’s but this year Marc Jacobs took the opportunity to do another type of stunt!
After all the talk of alternative payment methods like Bitcoin recently, he decided to open a pop-up tweetshop, a store where you pay with social media posts, a brilliant idea to promote his fragrance Daisy. In essence this store was more about the experience than the shopping, being located in beautiful bright loft in Soho, the brand organized a set of activities. One was a photo-booth style field of daisies, where you could take daisy #selfies. When uploaded with #MJDaisyChain to Instagram or Twitter you could win great prizes with the messages, such as bags, full bottles of daisy, sunglasses and other gadgets. Other than the daisy-field booth there was also a cart with a coffeemachine and baristas making fresh coffee, ladies who were giving free manicures with Marc Jacobs nail polishes and lot’s of daisy art and daisies. A dj made the atmosphere even a bit more exciting and the “fabulous” NYFW visitors were having a ball. One simple tweet with the hashtag #MJDaisyChain earned you a small daisy roller and for the larger prizes your post had to be chosen. All together, a rather briljant concept and you bet that the # was trending during the opening days! ^Leonie van Spronsen
1001 Nights meets New York
11-2-2014
The QBara restaurant in the Fort WAFI Leisure Complex (Dubai) opened late 2013. The restaurant serves dishes inspired by the flavors of the region with a modern twist. Guests choose multiple dishes from the menu, which are served ‘family style’. For example we ate a few small dishes like ‘scallops, sumac and sweet & sour shallots’ and ‘tomatoes, watermelon and homemade Shanklish & mint’. The dishes we tasted were delicious with mysterious ingredients (for us) like za’atar butter and grilled vegetables ‘mechouia’. The desserts were also delicious; we loved the tempura Medjoul dates. As the alcohol consumption is less in this region, many restaurants have an extensive mocktail menu with great combinations of ingredients. All of this combined with the unique environment, with elements as the ‘magic wall’ (see a YouTube video of the wall here) and the house-Arabian music, makes for an amazing experience. The restaurant has a modern design that is enriched with oriental style. ^Marjolein
Valentine’s Day is all about attention
11-2-2014
No red roses, bonbons or discount but attention! That’s what Droste’s attends its guests on with a nice little envelope for your telephone during the Valentine’s dinner.
Pop-up bowling alley in nightclub Trouw
10-2-2014
Since last weekend, you can go bowling in nightclub Trouw in Amsterdam. There are three professional bowling lanes in the basement of Trouw where you can play from February 7 to March 2. Club Lebowski places pop-up bowling alleys at various locations and it took three days to place the bowling alleys at Trouw. During restaurant and club hours guests can throw strikes, spares and gutter balls along with up to six friends. The bowling alleys are open from Tuesday to Saturday for €10,= per hour.
BarBacon New York
10-2-2014
A real bacon lover? Visit the bacon restaurant ‘BarBacon’ in New York City. The restaurant opened last month and is completely in the theme of artisan bacon. The menu includes a variety of bacon sandwiches, salads, bacon chocolate chip cookies and even a bacon whiskey variant. When serving ‘The Tasting’ the guest will receive a selection of four types of bacon and there is a bacon of turkey or vegetarian bacon. ‘BarBacon’ serves local craft beers and whiskeys in combination with various types of bacons. Maybe they can serve a shot bacon liqueur?
Pinterest for the hospitality industry
7-2-2014
‘Pin’ and ‘Interest’, also known as Pinterest. The social online bulletin board where users can share their images has become a lot more popular in the Netherlands the past year. Currently 1.1 million Dutch use Pinterest, compared with 530,000 users a year ago. Pinterest has extended the functions, so there are more opportunities for the users.
The first Dutch hot tub cinema in Amsterdam
7-2-2014
The first Dutch hot tub cinema is located in Amsterdam from 6 to 9 March. In the ‘Machinegebouw’ at the Westergasterrein are 21 hot tubs and two cinema screens. You could book a hot tub with five friends and you will get a waiter service, bottle of cava and a private bath robe but it is already sold out. After the movie there is a bathrobe after party with a DJ. The concept is inspired by the Hot Tub cinema in London.
Hospitality Crowd Funding Netherlands
7-2-2014
The first crowd funding platform especially for the Dutch hospitality industry is developed: Hospitality Crowd funding Netherlands. The platform helps hospitality businesses to raise capital. Hospitality Crowd funding Netherlands brings investors and hospitality business in touch with each other, so that the Dutch hospitality industry can continue to innovate.
Give me that bloody ice cream!
6-2-2014
Article by Julia Soldic.
This year the Copenhagen-based Nordic Food Lab revealed another shocking new ingredient that had awakened the lab’s curiosity. The team had examined the re-integration of animal blood into our food chain.
The Nordic Food Lab was founded in 2008 by the brain and hands behind restaurant Noma, Rene Redzepi. The lab has, ever since, shown the world that the uneatable can be eatable if only your stomach can take it.
The Burger Shed
6-2-2014
The famous Australian chef Justin North opened ‘The Burger Shed’ last year. He is the first of many chefs to develop a gourmet burger food concept. Because of the financial crisis in Australia, many customers choose for the opportunity of dining out inexpensively. ‘The Burger Shed’ is designed by Mima Design based on the concept; an inviting restaurant that expresses quality and affordability. The burger restaurant has brick walls, a concrete floor with elements of wooden pallets, raw materials and industrial lighting. Back-to-basics. The menu of ‘The Burger Shed’ focuses on the use of local and high-quality products. The menu offers four types of burgers (beef, lamb, chicken and Portobello), fish tacos and chicken tortillas.
Jaw-dropping hotel pools
6-2-2014
Tripadvisor gives an overview of 10 jaw-dropping hotel pools around the world. Like the Hanging Gardens Ubud in Bali with a beautiful view over the rainforest or the swimming pool located at the 24th floor of the Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao. The video above shows ‘The Library’ hotel in Ko Samui, Thailand. The name of the hotel pool ‘The Red Pool’ says it all. The pool is not made of the standard blue tiles, but of yellow, orange and deep red mosaic tiles. The pool looks like red blood, but the red mosaic tiles give a warming and special effect. The video is a bit long, but shows the inspiring design of the hotel. Look for the other pools at Tripadvisor.
Maison F high-end French fries in Paris
5-2-2014
Late 2013 Maison F opened in Paris, a high-end restaurant specialized in French Fries. They serve the fries with all their dishes. As guest you can choose the size (7 or 10 mm), with or without skin and the taste of the day fries. Clotilde Dusoulier, food blogger from the website Chocolate & Zucchini has eaten fries made of saffron risotto with her duck fillet. The fries are served with dishes that are prepared with products of the best craftsmen. They also have a bar with an extensive cocktail menu. Nice to visit when you’re in Paris!
Van Dobben goes to Sochi
5-2-2014
Master croquette maker Piet Brink from ‘Van Dobben’ travels to Sotsji to make croquettes and ‘bitterballs’. He expects to make an average thousand per day that are sold in the ‘Holland Heineken Huis’. It was hard to arrange the paperwork for the import of frozen croquettes, this way the producer bends a problem into an opportunity.
Bidroom alternative booking websites
5-2-2014
Bidroom is a commission free booking website where hotels can offer rooms via a reversed auction. The guest selects a city and a room (3 to 5 stars and choice between single, double of triple) and within 24 hours hotels can make an offer, while the prices of competitors are visible. In the future Mark Bradshaw (CEO), Michael Ros (COO) and Casper Knieriem (CFO) want to generate revenue from advertisements.
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