STACH the new shop in shop formula situated in the Mercure hotel Amsterdam City

5-2-2016

The from origin in Amsterdam situated foodshop STACH, well known for their sustainable products and specialties from local suppliers, has opened a shop in shop formula in the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City.

Foodshop STACH

STACH, the Amsterdam foodshop, with sustainable to-go products and specialties from local suppliers has opened a shop in shop formula in the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City. STACH is already owner of nine different shops, situated in Amsterdam, Utrecht & Overveen, the Netherlands. The new shop in the Mercure Hotel will be added to their portfolio.

Guests can choose in the new foodshop for local brewed beers, healthy bars, freshly baked biscuits, salades and take away meals. “Due to the changing needs of the customers it is important to develop concepts who meet these needs. STACH offers an unique and qualitative eat experience on an approachable level. STACH is thereby, just like Mercure, locally inspired, this makes the concept suitable for our promise; a unique experience inspired by the local environment”, says Ad Hoondert, the General Manager of the hotel.

Curious (hotel) guests

Within a short amount of time the foodshop had already a lot of guests who were curious about the concept. The fresh salads and especially Dutch products like ‘stroopwafels’ are very popular. “The appearance of STACH does give the hotel lobby a complete new impulse. It creates an cosy environment, a reason for guests to stay longer in our bar and lobby. Also guests who are not staying in our hotel and people living nearby are welcome to make use of the STACH products. It creates a link between us and the local environment of the hotel”, says Ad.

Wrong Christmas Sweater party

23-12-2015

On the Korte Heuvel in the Dutch town Tilburg, they celebrated the last Friday Afternoon Party before Christmas with a ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ theme.

Wrong Christmas Sweater party

Last year, the largest Friday afternoon party from Tilburg has been a huge success as well and they had the same theme; Foute Kersttrui (Wrong Christmas Sweater). Hundreds of people gathered at  the party area of the Korte Heuvel to kick of the holiday season with colleagues and friends. Santa and his Christmas wives were present and there were torches everywhere. One could eat our famous Dutch  pea soup (snert) and there was plenty of glühwein (mulled wine) and beer. This year the ‘Wrong Christmas Sweater’ party was held on Friday 18th December as from 17:00 everyone was welcome. With a wrong Christmas sweater you received free mulled wine at Polly Maggoo. Initiators are the owners of Polly Maggoo and it is now adopted by a number of cafes in the area.

Inspiration

Come up with a nice theme and prolong the festivities surrounding Christmas. Since 18 December, the Christmas Season started and there is no one available for work-related Christmas parties so this initiative in Tilburg is a lovely way to throw a party and to generate additional revenue. Win / win for participants and entrepreneurs. Just as the ‘Kerstmiddag’ (Christmas Afternoon) on 24 December in Hengelo.

A cloud of alcoholic cocktails!

23-10-2015

Bompas & Parr’s ‘alcoholic architecture’ is a pop-up cocktail bar in London’s famous ‘foodie centre’, the Borough Market. In this bar visitors can literally stand in a cloud of alcoholic cocktails.

Bompas & Parr’s pop-up

Up to and including January 2016 Bompas & Parr’s ‘alcoholic archtecture’ will be open for visitors in the Borough Market. In an enclosed area, the air is moistened with a mixture of spirits. Examples of the ‘served’ drinks are the liqueurs Chartreuse and Benedictine, a Trappist beer and fortified alcoholic wine, the notorious Buckfast.

Cloud of alcoholic cocktails

Visitors have to get in a rain suit at the entrance, and then they literally step into a cloud of alcoholic cocktails. The alcohol will be absorbed into the body through the lungs and eyes. This is exactly the reason for the signs ‘breathe responsibly’. The bar is only accessible for 18 years and older.

‘British Museum of Food’ (BMoF)

In the same building as the pop-up store ‘The British Museum of Food’ will be open for visitors from 21 October. This museum will be world’s first cultural institution which is entirely devoted to the history, evolution, science, sociology and the art of food. Some of the museum pieces are: The world’s fastest cheese trolley (from 0 to 62 mph in 6.6 seconds), the first space coffee (brought to 37 km altitude and back) and the first barbecue on 2.100 °C melted lava.

Co-creation around new concepts

12-10-2015

Dick Middelweerd, chef of restaurant Treeswijkhoeve (** by Michelin), has great plans for the coming weeks. From 16 October up to 25 October you can enjoy his culinary talent during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven as at 10 November he will cook at a pop-up restaurant at Buitenplaats Amerongen.

Allegory of the South

In the iconic Augustine Church, in the heart of Eindhoven, major entrepreneurs from the region join their traditional knowledge for the ‘Allegory of the South‘. Atelier van Asseldonk will realize a complete installation, based on a twenty meter long table. The company Oogenlust will decorate the church, supported by master builder Bruns. The nave of the Augustine Church transforms at night into a dining room, where Dick Middelweerd will offer a special menu for the occasion. Guests will toast with Beerze Beer from the region. This initiative is open to visitors during the Dutch Design Week from 16 to 25 October.

Pop-up restaurant at Buitenplaats Amerongen

On 10 November Dick Middelweerd and his team will serve a one-time pop-up five-course dinner at the historic venue ‘Buitenplaats Amerongen’. They will make some of his famous local signature dishes, like his ‘Worstenbrood’ (Meatbread), the smoked salmon (on cedar) in a humidor and ‘prol’. Location is the recently renovated coach house of the historic ‘Buitenplaats Amerongen’. Besides cooking Dick Middelweerd will take care of the music as DJ at the after party!

Co-creation around new concepts

The pop-up restaurant at the historic venue ‘Buitenplaats Amerongen’ is an initiative of entrepreneurs from Amerongen, Peter-Paul Swijnenburg of Buitenplaats Amerongen and Nico Donkelaar from the Olive Oil Shop, who already successfully brought two star chef Edwin Vinke to Amerongen. They combine a wonderful evening to enjoy the dishes of a famous chef with an after party to take the feet from the floor.

The ‘Allegory of the South’ will be a great addition to the Dutch Design Week because of the co-creation of all parties. Check out their video.

Dutch Tappies at the Mart Café in the Market Hall in Rotterdam

30-9-2015

The Mart Café serves Dutch Tappies in the Market hall in Rotterdam. The café celebrates the Dutch cuisine with the common sense the people of Rotterdam are known for with its own twist.

The Market Hall in Rotterdam (opened October last year) has a very international variety of restaurants. And in the midst of all the great international food restaurants, Mart Café from the Dutch Dudok Group, shows all the great treats from our Dutch cuisine.

Dutch tapas or as they say in Rotterdam: Dutch Tappies

Mart Café is an oasis of sobriety among all the exotic possibilities the Markt Hall offers. They offer coffee, beer and bitterballen (our famous small, round croquettes), picks with pickled onions and Dutch liverwurst, toast with mackerel mousse and ‘Kibbeling’ – our fried cod. Next to that Rye bread with cheese and of course the famous Dudok apple pie, and a matching Jenever (Dutch gin) menu with special Jenevers from the area. Café Mart wants to put our own homebrew spirits on the international map again!

The design of the Mart Café

Mart Café is located right next to the main entrance of the Market Hall, on the ground floor with a private terrace and entrance. The decor is minimalistic with raw concrete walls, wood and black and white tiles on the floor. The middle part of the ceiling is open so that a pleasant spaciousness is created between the floors. The arrangement of gleaming ceiling lamps is topped with a huge chandelier of Meccano.

An amazing Greek salad!

21-9-2015

Inspiration from restaurant ‘Funky Gourmet’ in Athens, the signature dish of chefs Georgianna Hiliadaki and Nick Roussos: their Greek salad!

Recently I have read that Coolhaus has started selling scoops of pizza ice cream. The ice cream isn’t made of the same ingredients but according to the website of Munchies they’ve created the same flavor with ingredients like mascarpone cheese, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and some salt. Coolhaus, which I now from their food trucks in New York City, has more strange ice cream flavors, what do you think about ‘Avocado Sea Salt’, ‘Beer & Pretzels’ or ‘Brown buttered candied bacon’? But we recently ate an ice cream more strange but also great in taste, in Athens.

Chefs do create an amazing Greek salad

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Athens and eating out at Funky Gourmet (** Michelin). The chefs Georgianna Hiliadaki and Nick Roussos created an excellent menu full of surprises. One of the most special items was their Greek salad, an ice cream halfway the menu. It’s their signature dish and we were really surprised by the taste of it. You don’t expect ice cream based on the taste of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and feta cheese to be that delicious!

Inspiration from Athens, Funky Gourmet

Although this article is mostly about their signature dish, I highly recommend to make a reservation at Funky Gourmet if you do visit Athens. Hidden away in one of the older parts of Athens, the chefs and their partner Argyro Hiliadaki created a restaurant well worth the visit. We enjoyed their cuisine, the hospitality and next to that the sublime wine from the island of Santorini which the sommelier advised us…

Amazon free take-out delivery

15-9-2015

Amazon starts with one hour free take-out delivery for premium members in Seattle.

Free take-out delivery

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has begun a free take-out delivery service. Amazon Prime members get free delivery on their take-out orders from dozens of outlets and receive them within the hour. The Amazon Prime service costs $ 99 per year.

Delivery of beer, wine and spirits

A few weeks ago Amazon already announced that they began with one-hour delivery of beer, wine and spirits in Seattle. The city is the only place in America where customers can order beer and spirits via fast mail-order. In the rest of the country the delivery is limited to wine. Amazon offers a fast delivery service for alcohol in London already.

Growth of the delivery market

With the rapid deliveries Amazon wants to compete with restaurant delivery parties like GrubHub. The American GrubHub is comparable to the Dutch ‘Thuisbezorgd.nl’. The company delivers take-out meals from 30,000 local restaurants and has customers in 800 American cities. Americans spend an estimated 70 billion dollar on takeaway and delivery meals in 2013. With such numbers offering a one hour delivery service for take-out pays off. In March 2015, total sales in restaurants and bars was higher than the grocery market (!) for the first time. With the expansion of the delivery market, restaurants can increase sales at peak times, without adding extra seats.

Buiten Adem: A sports festival for adults that leaves you breathless

7-8-2015

The Buiten Adem festival (translated Breathless Festival) is a sports festival for adults in Park Transwijk Utrecht on 29 August.

Breathless at a sports festival

There are many festivals this summer, at outdoor locations the weather plays a significant role and one weekend excluded, this is a perfect festival summer so far. All the festivals do their very best to be distinctive, but a handful are another league. Sometimes they literally jump across boundaries, with Jumping Fitness on the line-up for example!

New sports

The festival offers challenging new sports and workouts like XCORE and BRN, CrossXVest, Slackline, Jumping Fitness, High Intensity Impact Training (HIIT), but also good old favorites like yoga, boot camp, kickboxing, power lifting and hula hoop are part of the program as well. The day is filled with music from the emerging DJ’s La Fuente, Tim Hoeben and The Bear is Square.

Healthy eating and drinking (and a beer after the exercises)

Buiten Adem festival is a kind of sports day for adults, where alcohol is only allowed from 17.00 o’clock. The rest of the day there are plenty healthy snacks and juices from Grizzl, Sla-Gerei and the Aloha juice truck.

Earlier, we wrote about the sold out inflatables festival taking place in Amsterdam at the same weekend, that will be a sporty weekend!

Kornuit puts modern craftsmanship in the spotlight

6-8-2015

The brewers (and marketing department) of Kornuit work with the new generation of craftsmen and puts the spotlight on modern craftsmanship.

Modern craftsmanship

Kornuit works together with sausage maker Erik Waagmeester and blacksmith Joram Barbier and has made beautiful videos about them. Under the heading of ‘modern craftsmanship’ Kornuit will give them and other craftsmen the attention they deserve.

Sausage and upcycled beer opener

Waagmeester developed a sausage based on Cascade hop specially for Kornuit. The sausage is available at selected bars. Barbers has designed a bottle opener from an old beer barrel.  The opener which is available at a number of supermarkets in the Netherlands.

Happyhappyjoyjoy – An impression with photos

5-8-2015

Julius Jaspers has brought the colourful streets of Asia to Amsterdam with Happyhappyjoyjoy. Aren’t you able to visit this restaurant? We’ve  got a wonderful impression by photographer Wouter van der Sar via architecture and design company ‘concrete Amsterdam’.

Happyhappyjoyjoy – inspiration

Julius Jaspers leads people from Amsterdam directly to the bustling streets of Bangkok, Saigon and Hong Kong with the opening of Happyhappyjoyjoy in July. During his travels through Asia, the chef was inspired by the colourful culture and cuisine. His inspiration is now translated to the new Asian street food restaurant at the Bilderdijkstraat 158 in Amsterdam. Happyhappyjoyjoy brings together the contradictory tangle of influences from the Far East, where sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami are completely balanced on the menu.

The feel-good menu

Traditional starters and main courses on the menu are replaced with small feel good small plates like typical Asian steamed dumpling, buns with Peking duck or pork belly, hot & spicy shrimps’, clamps in XO sauce and Pad Thai. For the dessert menu Julius created dishes like Banana Fritters and Rice Pudding.

Asian drinks

The spicy dishes can be chilled down with roasted coconut juice or one of the other Eastern sodas. The extensive beer list is packed with Asian brands like Saigon Lager and the Chinese Tsingtao. Cocktails get a thrill with spices like ginger, pepper and Thai basil and Happyhappyjoyjoy serves Yumchatea tea from the Dutch computer science geeks Koh Ngai and Kenneth Touw.

A good-humored chaos

Happyhappyjoyjoy provides an upbeat, eclectic chaos. The vibrant décor is Asian with a wink and fully provided by concrete – which was the Gold Key Designer 2014.  The combination of neon lights and authentic materials, patterns and colours leads you to one of the many night markets that line the streets of Asia. With a jumble of Oriental posters and ceiling of Chinese umbrellas you find yourself just in a true Asian setting.