Trends we spotted | Week 25

23-6-2017

At 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 amongst others a FG Food Labs bike tour and after the success of the Top 50 Best Restaurants there will be a Top 50 Pizza in July.

If you like to read the whole article, click the title. Enjoy reading! read more

Zume Pizza | Pizzas of the future

8-3-2017

Zume Pizza is a start-up in America where robots and humans work together to deliver the most delicious pizzas to customers. The collaboration between robots and humans leads to a decrease in labor costs and a faster delivery time. This start-up was ranked no.1 in the list of most promising young start-ups from the CNBC. read more

Café X | The first robotic café in the United States

10-2-2017

Located in downtown San Francisco’s Metreon shopping center, Café X Technologies has launched its first robotic café in January. Working closely with local coffee roaster partners, Cafe X can consistently serve its customers in seconds with a focus on delivering beverages that taste exactly how the coffee roaster intended. The first location is a highly trafficked dense area which will be the blueprint for future Cafe X locations. read more

Bionic Bar – Robot Bartenders at your service

24-5-2016

The Harmony of the Seas, the largest cruise ship of the world, has a Bionic Bar for their guests. Instead of a bartender throwing around bottles, glasses and ice you will find a robot arm preparing the cocktails for the guests. MS Harmony of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship from Royal Caribbean International. The ship and its guests visited Rotterdam today, May 24th.  read more

Connie – Hilton’s new robot

6-4-2016

A new robot in the hospitality industry. Hilton Worldwide and IBM announced a collaboration to pilot ‘Connie’ – the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry. Hilton’s new robot draws on domain knowledge from Watson and WayBlazer to inform guests on local tourist attractions, dining recommendations and hotel features and amenities.

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Trends we spotted this week – week 12

28-3-2016

  • Trends in het kort

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 us in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others ‘Tiny Irish pub on wheels’, ‘Gigantic edible Easter bunny’ and ‘Robots to serve fast food restaurants’. read more

Trends we spotted this week – week 10

11-3-2016

  • Trends in het kort

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 and as from today we use the smaller trends in our column ‘Trends we spotted this week’. This week among others ‘The Peanut Butter Store’, ‘The First Drone Café’ and ‘Dining in the rooms of the Red Light District’. If you like to read the whole article, click the title. Enjoy reading! read more

Quake pop-up breakfast vending machine

28-1-2016

At the beginning of December Quaker Oats placed a pop-up vending machine at the train station of  Antwerp, where travellers could order a free breakfast. This breakfast was prepared by two ‘robots’. We consider this a great example on how to pop-up and present your company in a positive way. Why don’t restaurants or deli’s use a pop-up location to present their food to the public?

About the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine

Most people are very busy nowadays and skip breakfast regularly. Quaker Oats wants to do something about this and chose the train station of Antwerp to place the Quaker pop-up breakfast vending machine, Just as a metaphor of our busy lifestyle. The goal of this campaign? Have people acknowledge how important it is to start your day with a breakfast. And with Quaker this can be done very easy, quick and healthy!

Different recipes

By-passers were able to choose from two different recipes. These recipes changed every day and were created by well-known Belgium breakfast eaters. If the choice was made, you pushed the button and the two people dressed as robots prepared your breakfast, for free!

Inspiration

As we mentioned before, this is a nice way to present your product. Offering it for free always works of course, but for most hospitality companies this won’t always be easy to finance. But such a great pop-up location on a prominent spot might be worth considering, it will bring positive attention to your restaurant or lunchroom somewhere else in the city.

Sushi-wrap, sushi-sandwich or better the sushiwich

20-1-2016

The sushiwich is actually a simple Sushi Maki roll (4,5 cm diameter and 20 cm long) which is cut in two parts, to be eaten as a sandwich or wrap. The sushiwich is introduced at the Horecava by Bocon Sushi Concepts.

Sushiwich and the sushi robot; Rolling Mate TSM900RSR

Because of doubting whether to call it a sandwich or a wrap, they came up with the name ‘sushiwich’. The innovation comes from Australia, according to the sushi machinemakers, Bocon Sushi Concepts. Over there the snack was such a big success (more than 3000 outlets) that the idea has been re-imported to Japan. Every chef can make sushiwiches, especially if you use sushi robots, like the Rolling Mate TSM900RSR.  You need the Rolling Mate to make the sushiwich if you’re not a trained Sushi chef. Bocon Sushi Concepts also sells readymade sushi rice. This is a scoop in the Netherlands and causes that the seller doesn’t have to worry about the ‘basics’ and the making of  the sushiwich becomes even less time-consuming.

Creative with sushi

A sushiwich sounds a bit like the Temakeria in London to us. By being ‘creative with sushi’ a large number of concepts have been created. It does strike us that the concepts that stick to the original sushi, are the most successful.

The Frushi, a sushi made of rice and fruit that we spotted in 2011, are no longer sold. Neither the Goshi and Wichy really made it, they’re German variants on sushi with European tastes. But hey, it remains nice to make your own sushi variant as a chef, maybe a sushi variant with local products as Catering Hanenburg at kookstudio Lokaal 55 does. They combine Frisian ingredients like smoked eel from the Sneekermeer with sushirolls made of beetroot and a crème of potato to an Frisian Sushi.

Robotic arm to slice kebab.

16-10-2015

Super Kebab in Stoke Newington, North London has introduced a new robotic arm to slice their döner meat. We noticed some technical improvements excluding a lot of manual labour.

At Super Kebab they’re working with a robotic arm

The user controls the robot with a remote control enabling him to adjust the speed and the thickness of the slices. If you watch the video, you will notice that the slices are very thin making your döner kebab more yummy!

The robotic arm is made by Atalay döner in Istanbul, Turkey. They installed the first Robotic arm in the United Kingdom at Super Kebab in London. The robotic arm glides up and down the tower of meat guided by sensors. The owner Hakan Gorenli is very happy with his investment (around 5.000 pounds) and thinks many kebab restaurants will follow. His customers are happy with the precise and hygienical way the meat is cut.

Robots in the hospitality industry

We recently wrote about the healthy fast food (lunch) restaurant ‘Eatsa’ in San Francisco that looks more like an electronics store than a restaurant. There is no staff to take orders and everything is fully automated. The founders of Eatsa promise faster, more nutritious, affordable and tastier meals. This is realized without staff at the front of the restaurant, like the robotic arm that reduces the manual labour. In the hotel section we spotted The Hen-na hotel that opened this summer and is staffed with robot receptionists, porters, cleaners and waitresses. Are robots slowly taking over? I hope that hospitality remains human. 😉 ^Marjolein

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