Trends we spotted | Week 44

2-11-2020

At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

With this week, links to articles about the hotel arrangement by Hotels.com offering a place to literally ‘hide under a rock’ during the 2020 presidential election. Although we hope that everybody allowed to vote will support their candidate!

The Former chief design officer at Apple will design ‘the next generation of Airbnb products’ and a link to an article about The ‘Don’t Call Me Chicken’ pizza by California Pizza Kitchen.

In New York the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop will open, it will be the first ZHI restaurant and they will be offering a special crossover. Also serving a crossover is Papa John’s: Double Cheeseburger Pizza!

Sensory Inc., an artificial intelligence provider in Silicon Valley, is debuting the alpha release of its artificial intelligence enabled virtual assistant. No more touchscreens at kiosks! And as flying taxis inch closer to reality, companies are scrambling to develop infrastructure.

‘Gordon Ramsey Burger’ will soon be available at Harrods, it’s the second location of his gourmet burger restaurant, the first one is in Las Vegas. And Japanese robots serve soft ice cream!

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Trends we spotted | Week 29

16-7-2020

Here in the Netherlands it looks like we control the #Covid-19 outbreak and we’re trying to get used to the new normal. We wish all those living in areas where all the measurements against the pandemic are still in place to stay healthy and take care of each other.

At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

This week, among other links to articles about the opening of the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, an automated dumpling shop which is offering the first ‘Zero Human Interaction (Z.H.I.)’ restaurant experience ! And Phoenix Arizona will open the first Atari hotel with a video game theme.

Design and innovation firm Teague has developed a way to create an “air curtain” around each passenger for in plains. And at the Seaside Finolhu hotel you can book a ‘Beach Bubble’ on a small island at the Maldives! Sounds like the perfect getaway during the Covid-19 pandemic, although you might need the ‘air curtain’ during the flight to the Maldives!

The Chinese hotel chain Leyeju is perfect place for staying, taking into account the coronavirus. The hotel employs just two members of staff, it operates with an entirely automated experience. Both hotel chains Virgin Hotels and CitizenM also offer ‘contactless stays’ through their apps.

At Cakeland Gallery in Los Angeles, the exhibit called The Beauty War, will open this Friday, July 17,  reservations by appointment only and the exhibit will be on view until December 31, 2020.

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Trends we spotted | Week 26

30-6-2020

Here in the Netherlands it looks like we control the #Covid-19 outbreak and we’re trying to get used to the new normal. We wish all those living in areas where all the measurements against the pandemic are still in place to stay healthy and take care of each other.

At horecatrends.com or hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the other trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

This week, among other links to articles about Prosecco Rosé that will hit the market in 2021 and about a Ramen Pizza, created by Pizza Hut and Japanese ramen chain Menya Musashi.

In Reykjavík ICE & FRIES opened their doors, a selfservice concept with a bionic bar. Two cocktail-shaking and dancing robots create more than 150 drinks per hour.

And in New York the city government is considering extensive road closures as part of its plans to slowly reopen its economy, The architecture and design company The Rockwell Group have created a modular kit to create safe terraces on the pavements.

Airbnb is going to measure discrimination at their platform, they’re creating a system in cooperation with Color Of Change and with guidance from civil rights and privacy rights organizations. The project is called Project Lighthouse. And Starbucks introduces an Impossible Breakfast Sandwich in selected locations in the U.S.  read more

What does the hospitality industry do in the context of the COVID-19 virus? | Inspiration June 9

9-6-2020

Since the first of June the Dutch restaurants and bars reopened. We already enjoyed the first terraces again and we also went out for dinner. Wonderful to be able to enjoy a restaurant visit again! But we’ve experienced first-hand that there is no rush to enjoy dinner or lunch, not even on the terraces. Let’s hope that everyone regains a little bit more confidence after the first effects of the relaxation of the corona measures become known. For the time being, it looks like the Dutch intelligent lockdown has worked so now we need more sun and better temperatures to enjoy our great terraces! We hope that you will be able to reopen or enjoy dinner or lunch in your country as well. We have come across some great articles as inspiration on what’s going on in the hospitality industry.

With this week links to articles about DIY ‘Social distancing crowns’ by Burger King in Germany and the trendiest suntan trend 2020 we spotted on the Instagram account of hotel Dexamenes in Greece! Both funny!

Another funny article is about a Covid-19 masks for dining out with a remote control mouth! And inspiration for other hotels; a nice gesture ‘Together again’ by Oaks Hotels, Resorts and Suites in Australia.

In the south of the Netherlands, in the city Maastricht, Dadawan restaurant reopened with robots as extra staff and check out the Smink mobile with which restaurant Smink delivers their @home menu. And created in Japan: the Norimaki Synthesizer, which allows us to taste video games!

Stay healthy and take care of each other! ^Team Horecatrends

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What does the catering industry do in the context of the COVID-19 virus? | Inspiration April 29

29-4-2020

As noted last week, we here in the Netherlands are still in an ‘Intelligent Lockdown’ which means, we’re all working from home if possible, restaurants, cafés, hair salons, schools etcetera are closed. But we can take a walk outside and shop for food and even at shops, hardware stores and garden centers. Which means that our gardens are beautiful and everything is fixed at our homes ?.

As from May 11 our primary schools will re-open and also our daycare facilities, which means a big relief for parents working from home and teaching their children…. At this moment we’re working towards lowering the casualties of Covid-19 at the intensive care units. The next moment will be May 20 at which we hope our government will slowly restart our economy. In the meantime some hotels start to reopen in the Netherlands (they weren’t closed this period but most just didn’t have guests and closed voluntarily). They serve dinner and breakfast in their restaurants and hotel rooms, for hotel guests only! In the meantime we keep spotting all kind of inspiration worldwide around the hospitality industry.

With links this week to articles about DIY pizza kits by Blaze Pizza and a virus killing countertop robot, created by UVRoboclean. They try to fund through Kickstarter.

A great idea by Chick-fil-A, they sell their sauces separately! What sauce could your restaurant sell? It might even be a good idea to sell it through a local supermarket!

Ramadan has become a less social event for all Muslims, no prayers in the Mosque and no big family dinners after sundown. Fatafeat is inviting families to help create their very own ‘home of Arabic cooking’ this Ramadan. And a collaboration between Instagram & ChowNow, they created an order food sticker or button at Instagram.

A great wine label for Quarantine Wine, created by winery Nocking Point, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. IKEA UK shares their meatball recipe and Red Robin offers a ‘Build-Your-Own’ wing bar for home delivery!

the OG Cannabis Cafe in West Hollywood in California has re-opened as the world’s first cannabis and food drive-thru.

Stay healthy and take care of each other! ^Team Horecatrends read more

Fresh food robot ‘Sally 2.0 by Chowbotics’ will be rolled out worldwide

2-12-2019

The world’s first fresh food robot, Sally 2.0 by Chowbotics enters a new phase with a new user interface, hardware enhancements, and an expanded menu with meal options for any time of day. Sally 2.0, the newest iteration of its widely-popular fresh food robot, which first came to market in 2018 and is currently in action at more than 70 locations including offices, college campuses, hospitals, and more. The enhanced model features a larger tablet display, a stunning new user interface, wheels for increased mobility, and improved servicing features that reduce operator refill and cleaning time. In addition to Sally’s flagship salad and grain bowl offerings, Sally 2.0 now offers breakfast and snack options such as Açai bowls, fruit, yogurt bowls, and more.  Thousands of people can now experience these enhancements at several new deployments across the country and around the world.

We wrote about the Robot Sally back in 2017 and wondered when we will see the first fresh food robots like Sally in Europe. Stated at the website of Chowbotics is that they work with the Compass Group, Sodexo and in the press release it says that Bonduelle, the French international plant-based food company, recently ordered a first set of 50 robots for France. Earlier this year, the two companies joined forces to create the Cabaletta brand and set an exclusive partnership for deployments at foodservice outlets throughout mainland Europe. “We believe offering salads and other plant-based food through easy to access kiosks will be a key trend for the future,”  says Elodie Levrier, Project Director, Bonduelle. So anything for your food outlet or kiosk?

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Domino’s® Pizza and Rad Power® Bikes | E-Bike program for delivery in the US

23-8-2019

Domino’s Pizza, the largest pizza company in the world based on global retail sales, knows a thing or two about pizza delivery, including the fact that cars aren’t always the most efficient way to get hot, delicious pizzas to hungry customers. A bike is often a better solution to traffic congestion and parking challenges. Domino’s stores across the nation will soon have the option to use custom e-bikes for pizza delivery through a partnership with Rad Power® Bikes – North America’s largest e-bike brand.

Domino’s Pizza has also tested Robots for delivery but don’t you think that e-bikes are more likely to be used in the short term? In the Netherlands we spotted a couple of delivery services that use e-bikes as well.

Rad Power® Bikes is also located in the Netherlands (Utrecht) from where their team is working to build similar partnerships with European companies as well. For example, a fleet of their e-bikes are used in three European cities in a program called ELVITEN that demonstrates how electric light vehicles can improve mobility in urban areas. Below the article a video about this project that already started in cities like Bari, Genoa (both Italy) and Málaga in Spain.

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Trends we spotted | Week 12

22-3-2019

At hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the smaller trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

This week, among other links to an article about cheese tea, it’s getting more and more popular, but we haven’t spotted it yet in the Netherlands! In New York, the long anticipated Mercado Little Spain has opened in the shopping area Hudson Yards. Great images of this food hall by José Andrés in an article at Eater.com.

We also spotted the Taiwanese Boba Tea shop ‘Happy Lemon’ that uses robots to mix Boba Tea and in Switzerland they’re seriously testing the effect of music on cheese! Really!

In London PizzaExpress ZA opened at Fenchurch Street, we love their packaging for the new pizza slices. And have you ever heard of ‘Blue Java Bananas’? We didn’t, but they sound delicious! read more

Trends we spotted | Week 10

8-3-2019

At hospitalitytrends.eu we spot many national and international trends on a daily basis. We pick the most interesting ones to write about, the smaller trends we use in our weekly column ‘Trends we spotted this week’.

This week, among other links to articles about the ‘Bar of Yes’ in London en IHOP (International House of Pancakes) created some fakenews with their IHOb rebranding! And KLM (our Royal Dutch Airline) is offering ‘Take-off tips’ through holographic travel kiosks.

We know that there are stunning hotel suites all over the world, but this suite in Las Vegas beats a lot! This suite at the Palms Casino resorts is decorated by the artist Damien Hirst.  And a list of 10 great Escape Rooms from around the world with the rooms of ‘Sherlocked’ in Amsterdam on it!

We also spotted a Japanese Café that has robots as staff that are controlled by disabled people. And in the USA joins Pizza Hut forces with FedEx to explore the FedEx SameDay Bot for delivery.

Also: IKEA created an air purifying curtain, the GUNRID and KFC is crowdfunding its next marketing gimmick!    read more

Horecatrends | Tips for Culinary videos worth watching – week 9

25-2-2019

YouTube has been a source of inspiration for spotting trends past few years. Every day, thousands of movies are uploaded with new and interesting content. We too sometimes use videos as a source of inspiration to write about. With this week again a selection of videos which Demi Poppe thinks are worth it to watch. Among other things, a video about the FlyZoo hotel that is totally taken over by robots and face scanning computers.

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