During the day a grocery, in the evening a bar. Super Mari, located in Vienna, is in the early hours of the day an Italian grocery and sells Italian products, ranging from coffee, pasta to canned specialties. In the late afternoon and evening the space transforms into a bar where guests can have an appetizer. Super Mari is designed by Lukas Galehr of architecture MadameMorh. The entire interior is made of white and black tiles. In the evening the panels can be rolled down so the shelves with products are hidden.
The ‘Ta ?i Ôtô’ is a seven-storey space on a tricycle and drives around the streets of Hanoi in Vietnam. The tricycle serves as a street-food restaurant with a kitchen at the bottom floor and above a bar and an area for guests to sit. The tricycle can also be used for other options such as a stage. The Vietnamese bar is made of old pipes and a PVC roof with a battery-powered fan and lightning. The tricycle is designed by the Swiss architecture firm ‘Bureau A’.
The ‘NAVITIME For Japan Travel app’ helps tourists by finding a free Wi-Fi spot through augmented reality. By using the function ‘Free Wi-Fi Spot Search’ tourists and locals can search offline for the nearest Wi-Fi Location. The feature comes with an augmented reality mode and users can see the nearest Wi-Fi spot with distance and directions on their screen. The app provides information on over 50.000 free Wi-Fi spots.
Novotel Maastricht introduced a new meeting concept. The hotel offered the traditional meeting arrangements, but changed it into a modular manner. There aren’t fixed packages any more, but the guests can compose their own package and everything can be combined. Each room has playful elements. And for more creative inspiration during a meeting, the guests can play table tennis or table football or get a short massage. Novotel Maastricht provides customization for each guest with a personal approach.
To measure the hospitality of restaurant in The Hague for people with disabilities ‘Voorall’ has launched a contest. For people with disabilities its often the question if they can enter the restaurant with wheelchair, if the guide dog is welcome and if the dishes fit into their diets. With the contest ‘meNU Ongehinderd’ people with or without disabilities can select a restaurant in The Hague and give their opinion. Information about the accessibility of these restaurants will be added to the app ‘Ongehinderd’, which ‘Voorall’ and The Hague has launched in March.
The first Marks & Spencer Food hall in the Netherlands opens its doors in The Hague today. The Food hall is approximately 750 m2, the warehouse is with 6.000m2 the largest international store of Marks & Spencer. The Food hall focuses on the Dutch market with limited proportion of pre-packed vegetables and meat specialties. Alternating with Dutch and English favorites like fresh bread, cheese and biscuits. There is a wide range of convenience food ‘for now’ and ‘food later’. Previously, Marks & Spencer opened a shop at a BP gas station in September 2013.
Philips demonstrated its new ‘indoor-GPS-system’ for retail during the EuroShop (Düsseldorf 16-20 February). A special app analyzes the light signals of the store and the system provides location-based information to the customer. The lighting communicates with the app and sends offers and additional information to the customer. The customer can easily find the way via his smartphone or tablet through the store. Retailers can equip points of sales with specific information. Philips is testing the system in a number of retail stores. Download the infographic.
J&B Rare whiskey goes back to its roots and has released 25 tattooed limited edition bottles. The bottles are coated with a latex skin, so they could be tattooed just like a human skin. Tattoo artist Sébastien Mathieu tattooed the bottles and it took him about 20 hours per bottle. The tattooed bottles are available in Paris at Publicis Drugstore and L’éclaireur rue Herold.
Airline Virgin America has launched a new social network app, the ‘Here On Biz’ app. The app connects people on the plane or at the airport through their LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Travelers can make contact with people on the same flight or another Virgin America flight, people at the airport or with people at their destination. The airline wants to reinvent the flying experience for their customers and the app is part of the campaign.
Consumers often do not know where their food comes from. Cisse Trading Co, a company that focuses on Fairtrade chocolate bakes and drinks, gives consumers the opportunity to send a message to the farmers. There is a QR-code at the packaging of the food that can be scanned by the customer. The consumer is linked to the Facebook page where they can leave a message to the farmers. So there is more transparency and it creates a connection between the farmer and the consumer who buys their products.
This Monday 24 February the ‘Koksgilde’ and Gastronomixs organize the Young Talents Festival at Koppert Cress in Monster. Syrco Bakker (Pure C resto bar – Lounge*), Bas van Kranen (Restaurant De Leuf**) and Maik Kuijpers (De Librije***) give live demonstrations and there are several other activities. The festival is targeted on the chefs that gratuated in 2013 on level 3/4, but there are also limited tickets available for members of the Koksgilde and Gastronomixs.
Jaap Urban started a project to provide a temporary practical solution for one empty building in Groningen at the end of April or the beginning of May 2014. With the launch of tijdelijkestad.nl he motivates citizens and entrepreneurs to think along about the optimal use of a building for one week. Potential buildings can be suggested via the website, when one is found, the contents of the program and pop-up stores can be filled in. This can vary from temporary shops and sport facilities to restaurants and office space for entrepreneurs. Next that events and workshops will complement the program for the period.
Within three weeks a suitable building will be picked.
The Canadian beer brand Molson Canadian has placed a striking red fridge full with Molson Canadian beers in Canada’s Olympic House. However, the fridge can only be opened with a legitimate Canadian passport. A passport is first inserted into a slot located to the left of the fridge door and the door will be unlocked. Once the door is open, anyone can grab a beer, also the people who are not from Canada. The fridge encourages people to look for a Canadian friend. The refrigerator was placed at multiple locations in Europe before the Winter Olympics.
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.
On May 22nd, chef Dominique Ansel will open a new bakery dedicated to Asian bread culture at 64 University Place (between 10th & 11th Streets) read more
We have been sharing inspiration on our website since 2007, inspiration that we find in the hospitality industry or by online spotting of what our read more
Juice bar Shakies introduced frozen yogurt in 4 different locations on train stations; on Amsterdam Central, Amsterdam Amstel, Leiden and Eindhoven train station. The frozen yogurt is made of organic yogurt and will be served with several fruit toppings. Next to the frozen yogurt, Shakies introduced breakfast shakes and salades as well. Untill the 11th of July you can try free samples of the new products.
In partnership with RCRD LBL, Morgans Hotel Group launched a new service for her guests. By scanning QR codes of the keycards, guests can download free music and playlists, which are compiled to suit the unique feeling of each Morgans hotel.
This iPhone app for Swedish sandwich spread Kalles Kaviar not only tells you how to boil the perfect egg, it will put together a playlist that, when finished, means your egg is ready. (It’s all so you can get your egg perfectly hardboiled to accompany the caviar). It’s clearly a hit with caviar/egg lovers – the app already has more than 50,000 downloads and is the third most downloaded in the free app section in the Swedish iTunes AppStore.
This is the way to get a lot of attention in social media! Club Med (in the Netherlands) is looking for a professional in enjoying life! Through their website they are gathering potential professionals and one of them gets the job to visit 2 new resorts this year, and write about it and show photo’s via social media. This idea can also be used as concept when opening a new hotel!
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Via Direct TV on Channel 111 you can compete in the Whopper Lust Challenge. The challenge is to watch as long as possible to a grilled burger. By pressing buttons on your remote, they measure how long you are watching. For every 10 minutes of watching, you earn a free Whopper. But when you switch to another channel, you lose all your earned Whoppers.
A good article at Triple Pundit about Panera Bread’s founder Ronald Shaich who started a Community Café last year where guest can-pay-what-you-can. Bottom line: Panera Bread created the Panera foundation and after 1 year Shaich estimates that about 20% of visitors to the cafes leave more than the suggested amount, 20% leave less and 60% leave the suggested donation. On average, each cafe serves 3,500 to 4,000 customers per week and generates about 75-80% of the retail value of the food.
WaterConcept Nederland delivers Thoreau water, an inventive dispending unit, designed for the hospitality. This system gives tap water the quality of pure and filtered water, which will be served in bottles of Swedish Design, available in still and sparking. Companies in the hospitality pay a fixed price per month for the system.
Illucensie is a Dutch contamination between illustratie (illustration) and recensie (review) created by Janneke Hoeben. She draws her restaurant reviews and creates a win-win situation: building up her portfolio and (free) publicity for her company.
The world’s first amphibious ice cream truck is a fact. The ‘HMS flake 99’ is commissioned by Fredericks ice cream company to celebrate the national ice cream week in England. Its marks the beginning of a UK tour, with plans to visit Venice in 2012.
A big mouth, but pain in the jaws after eating a hamburger? Two students from the MiamiAdd School in Berlin have developed an app that chooses the ideal hamburger for you by using a webcam. As a bonus, McDonalds randomly selects a burger that can be picked up by people with the ideal mouth size.
A few years ago we noted that the Bocuse restaurant group also wanted to create a modern version of a fastfood restaurant. The video expresses perfecly what they categorize as fastfood.
For those who want to visit New York this summer and don’t want to come back with some extra kilo’s there is Energy Kitchen. The restaurant serves low Calorie food and healthy hamburgers. Besides that they advocate a healthy lifestyle.
‘De Culinaire Werkplaats’ is an eating concepts restaurant that among other specialties is particularly known for its fruit and vegetable paper. Founded by textile designer Marjolein Wintjes and chef Eric Meuring, ‘ De Culinaire Werkplaats’ focuses on a blend of food, design and art.
A wide range of fruit and vegetable paper is homemade and used both in their dishes and for conceptual art work. Each meal at the restaurant highlights one of the flavored papers during its five courses.
Wintjes and Meuring have also used the paper in other projects, promoting the idea of sustainable fashion by creating clothing and accessories with the edible paper.
The Press Art lemon squeezer makes it easier to press the juice out of one lemon part. Apart from more juice it makes it easier to dose. The Press Art can be customized with a (company) logo.
A Japanese designer (Terada Naoki) has designed a coaster set that creates a story around your glass. There are three different coasters that express various environments, namely the city (red), a grassy plain (green) and water (blue). By clever folding, the coasters can be combined to create your own scenery.
A modern twist on the American drive-in movie theaters, is the bike-in movie theater, organized by marketing agency Manifold and food blog Forking Tasty. This free event, where hundreds of cyclists were attracted to, took place in Brooklyn, New York and was organized to celebrate summer and bike month. Due to the success more events like this one, will be organized.
The new Sofitel So Bangkok, yet to be opened, will be fully equipped with Apple equipment. All the 238 hotel rooms will feature an Apple Mac mini, an iPod, iPhone and iPad, which connects the guest directly to the hotel services. The hotel will open its doors in the first quarter of 2012.
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On the 11th of June, the first Dutch Smart City Chase took place in Amsterdam. During this existing sports event, teams of 2 have to fulfill several missions all over the city, by using the internet, public transportation, friends and strangers. The first Smart City Chase took place in 2003 in Canada and became a great success.
The Dutch location based marketing is thriving. After the introduction of Repudo it’s now Roamler that launches an app for location based messages. Members of this community can earn money and points with the assessment of products, filling in checklists or writing reviews. Heineken uses the app to check the presentation of their Coolcan in the supermarkets this summer. The City of Amsterdam asks members to send in nice graffiti and has included several other assignments around the theme ‘a green environment’. The app is now available for a select group of 500 people.
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Ever thought of the way we network in the real life and how this differs from the online way of connecting…? Watch the movie!
This lightweight sauna is designed by H3T Architects, homebased in Prague. The funny thing is that this sauna can easily assembled to a bike, to bring it everywhere you want. This device consists of plywooded benches, plastic and textile and can accommodate 6 persons.
Having a nice ‘old school’ evening with fellow artists; that is the idea behind Slideluck Potshows. This event has come over from the United States and refers to ‘slideshows’ and ‘potlucks’; watching photo’s while eating homemade dinners. In June, the first Slideluck Potshow took place in Amsterdam. Over 200 people showed interest. The next event will take place in October.
Sex sells, even in the recession. This so-called ‘breastaurants’ are very populair in the United States and it even seems to be one of the fastest-growing restaurant categories. These are restaurants that features scantily-clad women as waitresses.
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Funny beer commercial of Hahn Superdry beer. Brewed for real men.
The international hotel chain Marriott launched a game for Facebook. You become the General Manager of your own hotel. With this game, which is similar to games such as FarmVille and CityVille, you earn points when your guests are satisfied, but you lose points when your guests leave your hotel unhappy. With this game, Marriott tries to increase interest in careers with the group and in hospitality in general.
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