The self-service restaurant of the Efteling, named ‘Het Witte Paard’ (the white horse) has been renovated and reopened on 1 March. The new restaurant looks like a tea house of the early 1900’s, with six different rooms each unique and nostalgic. The video above shows the making of the restaurant. A nice way to show the ambience and progress of the rebuilding of the restaurant.
International gourmet food retailer ‘Delice Delikatessen’ has opened a flagshipstore in shopping mall New Babylon The Hague. Delice Delikatessen has a range of over 700 selected products from Europe with their own story, such as a 100-year old in different wood barrels aged balsamic or a truffle paste. Besides the wide range of products the flagshipstore has also a petit café and organizes various tastings. The flagshipstore has an authentic kitchen design. Last year Delice Delikatessen was nominated for the Global RLI Awards in London in the category: Rising Star.
Monika Nguyen
Monika NguyenIn Vienna you have Street Lofts. The Urbanauts project turned abandoned stores in design hotel rooms for adventurers. You can sleep in a spacious and comfortable Street Loft where the history of the former shop is still visible. Explore Vienna from your loft. Check in via a key-safe and for breakfast, spa or dinner they have made arrangements with the neighbors of the loft (nearest breakfast cafe etc …) The brainchild of a group of local architects.
Rooftop bars, restaurants and swimming pools have been popular for a quite some years. The website Trendhunter.com recently published a related luxury at the rooftop; a luxury hotel in a ski resort with a hot tub at their rooftop. The hot tub at the L’Apogée Courchevel Luxury Ski Chalet is impressive, especially the view.
A new version of ‘Envyted by Michael Wolf’ will take place on April 7th and 8th. Chef cook Michael Wolf of restaurant Envy in Amsterdam invited two star Michelin chef Edwin Vinke of restaurant ‘De Kromme Watergang’ to prepare an exclusive five-course lunch and eight-course dinner. Edwin Vinke is one of the most talented chefs at this moment and for his restaurant he grows his own vegetables and herbs on a piece of land in Zeeland. During ‘Envyted’ the salty and earthy flavors of restaurant ‘De Kromme Watergang’ will be combined with a number of Michael Wolf’s favorite dishes.
How will we order our pizza in the future? Perhaps by creating your own pizza through a touchscreen table. The Pizza Hut collaborated with Chaotic Moon Studios and they launched a movie about an interactive concept table that could be the future of the Pizza Hut ordering and dining process.
Food Film Festival (FFF) organizes a lunch + movie, themed ‘Proefwerk’ on Friday May 9th. Proefwerk was the heading of the famous culinary critic Johannes van Dam for the newspaper Het Parool. FFF brought three of his favorite chefs from Amsterdam together, all assed with a 9,5 or higher, to prepare a lunch. Chefs Iwan Driessen of Rijsel, Richard van Oostenbrugge of Bord’Eau and Michiel van Eerde of Bault will prepare a unique lunch together. The lunch is served in the pop-up restaurant of FFF at the Westergasfabriek (Amsterdam). By buying a golden ticket you support the FFF pop-up restaurant. The golden tickets cost € 80,= per person and are available via the site. The first golden tickets were sold last week for a lunch + movie by the Pourcel brothers (and still available!).
Scott Wiener, a NYC-based pizza aficionado, has judged the VENTiT, a different pizza box as the world’s best. He is the Guinness World Record holder in collecting pizza boxes, so he should know. With VENTiT, Vinay Mehta created a revolutionary new box, that puts a stop to steam getting trapped within the pizza box, creating a soggy mess. The video explains it all. Vinay Mehta has a patent on the box an is planning to produce and distribute the VENTiY boxes with international partners.
#Throwback Thursday. We started in August 2007 with horecatrends.com / hospitalitytrends.eu, one of the first trends we did post was about running tours in New York, Washington DC and Chicago, where you could run through the city with a guide along historic and tourist attractions. The guide supports the runnin and gives historical and tourist information. Meanwhile, the organization City Running Tours is located in 13 U.S. cities among them Boston, San Francisco, Denver and San Diego. #isstillagoodidea
BrusselKale is a brand new vegetable that’s a cross between two ‘super foods’, Brussels sprouts and kale. BrusselKale has a flavor that’s milder than either Brussels sprouts or kale and contains double the amount of vitamin B6 and vitamin C of Brussels sprouts. ‘BrusselKale’ is a registered trademark of Rock Garden, USA. For an extensive taste report, read the article at The Kitchn. I wonder when we can taste it here in Europe?
At VanChefs it is possible to book a private cook, but next week they organize a special chef’s tour in Amsterdam. The day starts with a morning coffee at Jos Timmer (@ Frankendael, restaurant Merkelbach), then continues at brunch place ‘staring at Jacob’ Noah Tucker Anthony & Joseph, and Joris Bijdendijk (restaurant Bridges *) to turn him inside out with questions. The final element in the tour is a dessert demo by Edwin Sander Food Creativ (Talent of the Year) in the Rockstart Ballroom. The tour is designed for talented chefs and ultimate foodies. It lasts Friday 14 March from 9:30 to 14:00 o’clock.
After a cat café in Japan and London it seems that San Francisco is ready for a cat café as well. There the crowdfunding campaign started for ‘KitTea’. Watch the video.
Green Bowl in The Hague is a new “healthy fast food express” concept: an affordable and healthy takeaway with 18 seats. The founders are Soontat Yeung and his wife Liting Leow. Escpecially the ‘create-your-own salad small’ (€ 4.50) is a big hit. Visitors can choose from spinach, mixed lettuce or romaine lettuce and as filling red and white quinoa, puy lentils, potatoes and whole grain spelled pasta are available (hot steamed on request). These are accompanied with unlimited toppings from the salad bar (vegetables, fruit, cheese and nuts) and different gluten, dairy and nut free dressing. Premium toppings like smoked chicken are optional. Next to the salads different Froojiez, healthy fruit juices, are served which are prepared on the spot and wraps are served as well.
Rappeling from the 23-story Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, this is possible at the 27th and 28th of March! On the 28st various VIP’s will be rappelling and labelled as ‘City Rappel Day’. With this promotion Outward Bound California and the Hyatt Regency will raise money for OTE (Over The Edge). This is an organization in America that offers outdoor learning opportunities for people with low incomes, and teach those people that they can achieve more than they ever thought possible. One can register as an individual, but it’s also possible to ‘Toss Your Boss’ as a company. Make your reservation at cityskylinechallenge.org. Learn more about the Hyatt Regency via their YouTube video.
Every Tuesday Lotte Maas (35) cuts at café bar Baarsch, Amsterdam. As ‘Amsterdam pop-up hairdresser’ they cut some eight clients a night in the pub. Previously she cut include at Club VLLA, festivals and soon at OT301. Easy for anyone with too little time for a haircut during office hours and weekends. In addition, waiting is a lot more fun with a beer and for the bar owner it’s a win as well because there is extra traffic on a Tuesday night.
We’re already in the third week of October, and more and more festive inspiration is popping up online. Pinterest remains a wonderful source of ideas, read more
We’ve been enjoying glorious summer weather for a few weeks now, and the popular seasonal drinks are already known. Mocktails, cocktails, spritz variations, rosé, and read more
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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The Argentinian beer Norte came with ‘the Best Excuse Ever’. For every ordered beer, Norte donated 1 minute to a good deed, such as restore monuments and schools or cleaning up the park. For men an excuse to drink a beer, and for women to be proud of their husbands. Watch the movie!
Instead of tea in your teacup, wear these as a bracelet. The idea is pretty old, but it still looks nice. These juwelry are designed by Abigail MaryRose Clark and are available at the webshop Etsy. But be careful, these are some fragile bracelets.
The hotel chain W Hotels launched a free iPhone app for the guests. Through this app guests can search for hotel information such as photos, maps and weather information. But through this app guests can also listen to music, requesting the room service menu and contact the concierge.
Everything you want to know about Istanbul, you find out with Wizard Istanbul. This is a 24/7 crowdsourced online travel guide, where you can drop all your questions about Istanbul. Volunteers, like residents of the city or fellow travelers, can respond on your message and will give you nice and usefull tips.
The Amsterdam Okura Hotel developed an app for her guests. Through this app, the guests can contact the concierge, read the blog of Onno Kokmeijer (the chef of the restaurant), can collect suggestions for city trips en can even compose a jetlag program. This app is free of charge and available in the Apple iTunes store. A nice example of increasing the hotel service!
Easy to use at a gathering or reception; plate, glass and cutlery in one hand. So the other hand can shake hands or something else… The Mantara plate is designed by the Spanisch designer Gabriel Contino.
Repudo starts a digital treasure hunt for backstage passes and tracks at Pinkpop festival (the Netherlands). Together with Sony they place digital messages across the festival terrain that are only readable on the spot. The app for iPhone and Android combines GPS with a game element. Next to a variety of (sponsored) campaigns it’s also possible for users to leave messages for each other at any location. The platform is not mainstream yet but has potential for restaurants, hotels and other companies that want to introduce promotions with a game element.
McDonalds gives away free snacks with the pick ‘N play game. Smartphone owners in the neighbourhood of the interactive billboard could play the game directly online, so it’s not necessary to download an application. After choosing their favorite snack, they could play for a download with code that was refundable at the nearest restaurant.
At Hotel de Nymph in Brielle (the Netherlands), one could reserve a table for their “heavenly” 3-cours dinner between the first and fith of June (the days around Ascension day), and win a real “Ascension” in an hot air balloon for 2 persons.
Designed by Anagrama from Mexico, the interior from Theurel & Thomas Pâtisserie. A Macaron shop. At the websites from Anagrama and nsmbl some more inspirational pictures.
The Implanted Nature project was implemented in May 2011 by Luzinterruptus, a Spanish artistic group. The group created 50 tiny ecosystems, complete with plants, plastic animals, lovely lights and miniature greenhouses, and left them in the darkest and least plant-friendly parts of Madrid.
If home cooking fails, the pizza restaurant at the corner starts to get boring and you rather have fresh healthy food delivered, then it’s time for Gobble. This website shows all local restaurants and provides a healthy collection of neighbourhood cooks. A meal always costs ten dollars.
Sleeping in a cabin or caravan in a hotel in Berlin. The playground is only smaller than at the camping! For the die-hard camper? Or the one who can’t live without the luxury of a hotel?
Austrian chocolate maker Zotter offers products that are organic, fair trade, and very creative. Choco Shots are available on their website; syringes full of chocolatey liquid that comes in packaging designed to look like it’s real medicine. These strange but inventive chocolates come in seven different varieties including Raspberry Brandy, Mandarin, Whisky and Almond.
Honest Tea checked the honesty in America’s big city’s – watch the movie to see how they did it and the effect of the guerilla campaign.
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