Fragile recovery in beverage sector
This article is only available in Dutch.
This article is only available in Dutch.
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.

The Belgian concept agency C03 has made a new design for the traditional ‘frietzak’ called Frietzak 3.0. The bag has a separate box for sauces and a sausage, frikandel or skewer can be balanced easily on top of the notches.

The founders of Dutch beer websites Bier-Blog.nl and Bier-TV start an adventure with their mobile application for iPhone and Android smartphones. From the 13th of May it’s possible to navigate to places were you can buy your favorite (special)beer. The developers want to build an extensive database by using crowdsourcing techniques.

The QTVan is a new type of mini caravan which can be pulled by a mobility scooter. The retro style design of the caravan houses all the goodies, a full size 1.90 meter bed, a 19 inch LCD flatscreen TV, and a coffee and tea facility. Pulled by a mobility scooter it can reach a top speed of 8 km/h.

L’O Des Salines is a new way of packaging salt. The origin of the salt are the saltlakes around the Balearen, a group of Spanisch islands. Just before crystallizing they retrieve the seawater and put it, without any additives, in bottles with a spray-head.

The ashtray tile is a new pattented ashtray design. It can be embedded between the usual street tiles and it’s purpose is to catch cigarettes en chewing gum. It can be placed in strategic places like pubs, restaurants, but as well in trainstations, smoking areas and in front of stores.

Plans are made for the world’s first floating golf course on the Maldives. Threatened with the rising sea level caused by climate change, the island nation may be doomed to a watery grave unless it transitions to floating developments. Designed through a collaboration between Waterstudio.NL, Dutch Docklands, and golf course developer Troon Golf, the zero-footprint solar-powered golf course will be one of the first floating developments and is expected to bring in a wave of new tourists.


FohBoh is a social network, especially for restaurant owners. Through the website you can connect to collegues, suppliers, investors, employers and employees. But by using several tools you can even monitoring and increase your brand awareness and quality.

Hard to ignore this fascinating multipurpose MolenKitchen. It’s a barbecue, firebasket with spit and smoker in one. The unit has wheels, so you can cook anywhere on the go. The latest version was presented last week at the design fair in Milan.

This elegant 1limit faucet encourages water conservation by giving you less water to use. Even better, the faucet forces you to do it! The design relies on the simple principle of ‘what you see is what you get’. The faucet fills the attached glass tube with exactly one liter of water for washing hands, it needs to be turned off again before it refills. The brainchild of designers Yonggu Do, Dohyung Kim and Sewon Oh is a clever bit of stingy design.

The now infamous Chilean mines are located in the country’s northern Atacama Desert, one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The demand for energy and minerals keeps on growing, so AATA Architects was challenged to design a low-cost but effective shelter for miners to inhabit one of the driest and sunniest places on earth. Their solution was to create a large apartment complex out of shipping containers and drape the entire campus with canvas to protect it from the region’s relentless sunshine.

Giftee is an online service that lets users send small “thank you” gifts via Twitter. Gift-givers begin by registering on the Giftee site and indicate the Twitter ID of the recipient they have in mind. They then choose a gift from Giftee’s, type a message and pay by credit card. A gift tweet is then sent via Twitter to the recipient, who need to log in to receive it. The gifts are currently limited to online shops in Japan. Donations can also be made via Giftee to the Red Cross Japan.

Sensz has developed an educational game “Nose For Food Safety” for hospitality, catering and care staff. The students go through all the essential aspects in the field of food safety via a playful game in about 1.5 hours. This way they are instantly aware of the practical challenges in the field of food safety. (Tip: click on the rat).

Magnum has created a new interactive ad game, where the user controls a woman traveling through the Internet. On this trip, the aim is to collect as much chocolates as possible. As a player you can control the woman to get the chocolates. During the journey you visit YouTube and websites from Dove, Saab, Spotify and Tiger of Sweden. Even if you’re quite used to modern interactive advertising, this advertising game has the absolute wow-factor.

Renting a vacation home has became easier. Second Porch makes renting vacation homes a reliable process by offering several social tools to get in touch with the homeowner and get noticed of the expierences of others. A nice example of transparancy and how social media is used.

Creative Gourmet Smoothie Cubes are frozen fruit jam-packed cubes for delicious smoothies, only in a few minutes. All you do is pop 2 or 3 frozen cubes in your blender, add some milk and you have a delicious nutritious drink.

Do you need some inspiration for designing a restaurant? Check out The CoolHunter website for more inspirational pictures.

BeerTAG is the first company that brings a solution as an advertising medium to the common problem of “Which beer is mine?” The BeerTAG is a sleeve that fits the bottleneck to help consumers identify their beer in a busy social setting.

Flavoured Coffee Cubes. The quality of fresh ground coffee with the convenience of instant preparation. The special individually foil sealed packaging preserves the aroma, flavour and consistency of the product, giving the result of fresh coffee every time. Flavours: Amaretto, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Sambuca, Brandy, Lemon and Natural.

Perfectly-portioned, tiny pies … and on lollipop sticks. More often we see (small) dishes presented on sticks. Original, creative and a nice way of presenting.

Affordable luxury, donuts are changing, more flavours, design etc… but underneath is still the humble donut. Some bakery’s are even adding mashed potatoes to the dough, en Louis Vuitton en Burberry made a designer donut keyring.

Researchers do convert lobster shells into biodegradable golf balls, specially designed for playing golf at cruiseships. The University of Maine, in conjunction with The Lobster Institute, UMaine Biological and Chemical Engineering Professor David Neivandt and undergraduate student Alex Caddell of Winterport, Maine, have developed this golf ball.

Nowadays we see serveral technical tools for in the kitchen, like the voice controlled culinary app. In 2009 we saw this computer which explains the consumer step by step how to prepare the dish, including the shoppinglist, how to preheat the oven, how to cut correctly and how to handle several diets.

“Share a table” is an initiative taken for business guests who travel a lot, resulting in a lonely dinner. “Share a table” enables the guest to join a table for a simple conversation and sharing a meal, which is indicated by cards shown on the table. A wide range of hotels in Spain, Andorra, Portugal and the Netherlands joined this concept.

Cookieboy is originally a fashion-designer but switched to baking and desiging cookies. His cookies are used for several projects like the LaForet Harajuku shopping complex en the musuem of Tokyo. Next to these exhibitions he works with brands like Issey Miyake. Also nice as ‘follow-me-on-Twitter’-cookie with the coffee.