Scary cakes that nobody wants to eat
Looking for an original cake for your birthday? Katherine Dey can help you with that! This nurse from New York has a very special hobby. She makes scary cakes based on her experiences as a nurse. read more
Looking for an original cake for your birthday? Katherine Dey can help you with that! This nurse from New York has a very special hobby. She makes scary cakes based on her experiences as a nurse. read more
Drinking an alcohol-free beer at the dentist, again an excellent example of ‘Blurring’. There is a new dentist located at an old party centrum in Amsterdam, with an old bar which turned into a waiting room. Nervous? You can drink away the nerves with an alcohol-free beer, if possible ;-). read more
Hilton Rotterdam will open a new restaurant soon and this restaurant needs a name. Help is needed! As creator of the new name you will be rewarded big. Until the 10th of May, entries can be send in.
Lennert Rietveld senior counsellor at van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy gave an inspiration session last month about co-creation. In this blog an insight into this session; which shows that the focus during events is shifting to influencing the guest journey!
The inspiration session for 80 event organizers showed powerful examples of co-creation. The presentation focused on compelling examples from entrepreneurs working together to improve the visitor experience. Everything is evolving around the guest journey. A good example is the initiative of the Dutch amusement park the Efteling to develop an app in co-creation with a Belgian company. They offer their visitors a lot more experience around their visit of the Efteling through ‘mixed reality’ and smartphones. Brilliant for kids, for example at the route app a witch voice gives directions.
A couple of other examples from the inspiration session around co-creation:
Research has used brain wave technology to measure the reactions guests have to different colours in the hospitality industry. The brain wave results of the colour green indicate a relaxed lunch with friends. The colour red stands for love and going for a drink with a date. Tork examined which colours work well in the hospitality industry. With a link to the study of Tork where they made moodboards in different colours and looked at the effect of that. Tork wants hospitality businesses to be clever with their colour choices.
In the line of extra ordinary pop-up restaurants: TOAST in Toronto, Canada. As from the 7th of May this pop-up restaurant will be open for four weekends in a row. The only thing you can order here is toast with a spread. The bread is from different bakeries from the region and all the spreads are homemade.
Back to the future? More like forward to the past. Coop Italy, Italy’s biggest grocery cooperative introduced their idea, the supermarket of the future at the Expo Milan in 2015. At the beginning of April 2016 they showcased it at Microsoft’s Envision Conference. They are using futuristic technology to help shoppers return to the sociable days of open-air markets, when there were shopkeepers at every stall, ready to answer any question a customer might have about their wares. read more
At the redaction of Horecatrends we spot a lot of national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write articles about, the smaller trends we use in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others, an article about a gin bar in London where the owners claim having the largest collection of gins, and HIHAHUT started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to build more sustainable cabins. read more
Les Mills Live is a collaboration between Reebok and Les Mills, who organize fitness festivals all over the world. They started organizing the festivals a couple of years ago, and today the festivals are extremely popular by thousands of fitness lovers. read more
Yesterday The Localpolitan launched as the newest, customized hospitality service available online. Instead of visiting a travel website looking for content that fits your needs, The Localpolitan aims to turn the process around, and puts the traveler in control of the content they receive. read more
How much fat is in this dressing? How much sugar contains this sugar beet and which melon is better at the moment? SCiO gives you answers to all these kind of questions, SCiO is a small gadget which scans the products you’re about to buy and shows you what these products are made of.
Katy Seibel created a unique way of presenting her cocktail recipes. The 30 drink recipes are presented on classic tarot cards. The tarot cards are hand drawn by Katy herself, each card has key elements of the cocktail recipe in it.
There is a crowdfunding campaign for wireless chargers for the hospitality industry with the possibility of posting your menu or advertisements in it.
“Is it possible to charge my phone behind the bar?”, a question that almost all employees that work in the hospitality industry know. With the numerous apps that are available now a days, batteries die faster than we would like to. This wireless charger for the hospitality industry could be the answer for this problem! read more
This upcoming 21st of May, Justin Brown’s restaurant The Chippy opens in Amsterdam. He will serve Fish & Chips here! Justin Brown is a famous British chef who worked for plenty of famous people, such as Jamie Oliver and Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, besides that he also cooked for stars like David Beckham and Madonna. read more
From today on the Netherlands has a new Ice cream parlor. Today ‘The ice parlor of Breda – Bon Appetit’ opens its doors. The parlor is developed by the entrepreneurs Edwin and Kim van Es, they’re known from the cafeteria Bon Appetit in Rijsbergen.

Valentine’s day 2013 is approaching, so Marjolein van Spronsen has highlighted a few potential actions. Check the article for inspiration for your café, restaurant or hotel (use Google Translate) What are you going to organize for your guests?

The FabCafe in Shibuya, Japan is an innovative workshop/cafe hybrid that offers its clients laser cutting services and cups of coffee. The ‘Fab’ in its name stands for fabrication. Clients are invited to bring Adobe Illustrator files into the cafe, then the laser cutter will cut out of paper, felt, acrylic, wood and other materials. FabCafe, which is operated by digital media production company Loftwork, was designed by Naruse-Inokuma Architects. Read more about it at The Pop-Up City website.

An unique eyecatchers for every terrace or doorstep. A LED writing board for every message. The texts are easy to adjust or to renew. Look for more information at the website www.ledreclamebords.nl

At the AirBnB in Potts Naturpark Brauerei in Germany you can spend the night in a beer barrel bed! The ultimate hotel room for a beerlover invites guests to snooze in a giant 19th Century beer barrel that has been converted into cozy sleeping quarters. another barrel has been converted into a barrel sauna.

After a alcohol black-out Dhairya Dand from the MIT Media Lab has developed ice cubes that react to the music and drinking speed. The LED ice cubes changes color from green, orange to red if the drinking speed is to high. The chip inside the cubes is even able to send text messages to friends if the drinking continues.

At Whichaway Eco Camp explorers get the chance to experience the Antarctic comfortably, and sustainable. Guests can stay the overnight in one of six tents. The tents look like oversized golf balls. The frameless structures are made of aerospace composite panels that slot together to have the strength of a normal building and the mobility of a tent. Each tent has an en-suite bathroom and a desk. The camp consists of two more tents where you’ll find the dining area, library, kitchen and communications area. See more pictures in the Daily Mail article and a video about a trip to Whichaway Eco Camp.

Montblanc stationary is partnering with the St. Regis Washington DC Hotel and Thornwillow Press on a pop-up hotel lobby store for Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration. Fans of the Montblanc brand assembling in Washington DC for the upcoming inauguration will be able to purchase leather goods, cuff links, timepieces and signature writing instruments in a new pop-up location. Obama fans can also purchase the official medallion set for $7,500. Those on a tighter budget can get an official inauguration souvenir pen for $30. In an added interactive element, visitors to the pop-up store will be encouraged to use Montblanc stationery and pens to write letters to the president that will then be hand-delivered to the White House by the St. Regis Hotel’s team of butlers. We never heard from a pop-up store in a hotel lobby, inspiration for other hotels and shops.

Based in New York, Chefday hosts step-by-step videos of top chefs from the city – like Jehangir Mehta from Iron Chef America and Michelin-starred Chris Leahy – which are free to watch. If you decide to cook the meal yourself, you can order all the necessary ingredients to be delivered. Through a subscription option, customers will receive a recommended recipe via email every two weeks, which they can view before opting to order the ingredients, choose another recipe or skip until the following fortnight. In addition, Chefday donates one meal for every dish ordered to the Food Bank for NYC. They combine healthy recipes from well known award winning chefs with the possibility of directly buying all the ingredients. And all foodies know that can be an issue!

In eighteenth-century Oslo, criminals were brought to justice on a tiny islet, “Thief Island”. Today, Tjuvholmen – now a peninsula – is home to one of Scandinavia’s most exciting urban renewal projects. Business, art and nightlife, are all combined, it also became a dazzling showcase of contemporary European architecture. In the center of it all is The Thief, an upscale waterfront hotel. The first Design Hotel in Norway. Check out the pictures at the website of Design Hotels.

February 2011 we’ve spotted cats in a coffee bar in Japan. Recently Bright came across this crowdfunding project for a cats Café in Londen. When will the first Cat Café open in Amsterdam? Guests can relax with a drink and a cat to cuddle. And for childern who aren’t allowed to have pets this café will be paradise.

Hema steps into the coffee branch with coffee and cake for €1,=. Lunchroom Cappuccino from Rotterdam will launch a counter offensive on 11 and 12 January with the act #tijdvoorkoffie (Timeforcoffee). By every cup of coffee customers get a free Unox sausage.

In 2007 we spotted pay by text message and the app MyOrder. This year the app developed more options for the consumer and the entrepreneur. The app becomes a digital wallet for consumers and a new sales channel for the entrepreneur. Through your mobile you can open the menu card, order and pay directly. Rabobank works together with MyOrder. The app introduced lots of new features, for more information take a look at the website MyOrder.nl or the campaign movie from Rabobank look here.

Faktum in Göteborg (Sweden) launched a new initiative for homeless people. There are ten places where homeless people have slept that everyone can book like a hotel. One night costs $10 and the money will be spend on help for homeless people. It’s a way to collect money, you don’t sleep in one off the places yourself.

Instead of a dartboard a large scrabble game at the wall of your pub. Considering the popularity of wordfeud it might be a way to attract enthusiastic players. Even big chess board for at the wall are for sale.

At the shop / restaurant ‘Meneer Paprika’ in Haarlem, The Netherlands, everyone is welcome for breakfast, lunch, coffee and cake and 3D printing. Recently, the store 3DSVP opened in the same space. Gadgets, jewelry etc. all roles from the first 3D printer in a shop in the Netherlands. 2x inspiration: Catering + indoor another store and 3D printing. Have you ever thought about molds for dessert etc. with logo, using 3D printing? On the internet there are companies where you can place this taskl.

Recently a friend told me her experience with the new glutenfree pizza from Domino’s Pizza. She came across the pizza during her holiday. And with 2 daughters with celiac disease she loved to try it. Fortunately one daughter could try it and the other was warned by Domino’s Pizza about the level of ‘gluten free’. Great example of transparency and so important in cases of gluten free products! ^Marjolein

The Gogol Mogol (named after a Russian egg dish) is a single-use cardboard egg box (but recyclable). A tag pulled from the container sets off a chemical reaction which makes the small package warm up and cook the egg in just two seconds. Created by brand agency KIAN, designed by Evgeny Morgalev and has just won an award from The European Packaging Design Association. In the article from the Daily Mail online more information. For us it looks like the process behind the Hot Booster soup. Unfortunately it has not been taken in production but it would fit perfect on all breakfastbuffets.

On the Waterloolaan (36-37) in Brussels a new Martini bar has opened her doors on the 13th of December. A nice combination of a bar and restaurant in the authentic Martini style. For more information and inspiration (pictures) take a look at their facebookpage: http://www.facebook.com/MartiniBarBrussels

The iPhone-app Dish.fm collects reviews from restaurants and cafes. The app gets its information from large websites like Yelp, Foursquare and Tripadvisor. It makes rankings of best ranked dishes, drinks and desserts. For now the app is only available in New York and San Francisco but in the next few months other cities in America and a part of Europe will be added to the database.

Heineken is celebrating its 140th birthday by asking the fans to create a new bottle, by using the archive of previous bottles and labels. The challenge is open to people around the world until March 1st. The winning design will become a limited edition bottle.

Chef Alain Ducasse combined his knowledge in a new iPad-app called My Culinary Encyclopedia. The app is a collection from lot’s of tips and tricks, knowledge and techniques. The dishes are divided in 5 categories: Gastronomy, Around the world, Mediterranean, Bistros and Dessert. The app is available in the App store en will cost you €33,99.

Beach club restaurant Ajuma is set up temporarily in the Lichtfabriek at Haarlem. The next weeks they have invited other beach restaurants to cook a dinner preview for 2013. On Monday 14 January Vooges will kick-off the series, followed by Rapa Nui on 21 January, Tijn on 28 January, Club Nautique on 4 February and the ‘Haven van Zandvoort’ closes on 11 February. For everyone who can’t wait for the summer to start reservations can be made through zuidstrand@ajuma.nl

Restaurant owners and managers can receive realtime feedback from customers on their mobile without giving away their private number. Guests can text to a number on a table card to inform the staff about a dirty toilet for instance. Goal of the tool is to solve problems before they will result in negative online reviews. This is an American initiative, we’ve spotted the comparable MeView (Dutch) before.

This luxurious platter, handcrafted from chestnut, is the perfect item to serve tequila on. The creators even thought of a small cutting board for the limes, salt bowls, paring knife and notches for the glasses and a bottle. This adds an extra experience to serving a tequila in a restaurant or club.

Beer brand Bavaria is launching in association with home delivery food website Thuisbezorgd.nl, the first pop-up restaurant without a kitchen. Between the 13th and 16th of February it is possible to compose your favorite home delivery meal of the best valued restaurants of this website. The restaurant will be equipped with a scooter lane to deliver the meals to the guests. The restaurant will be situated on the ‘Kop van Java’ in Amsterdam.