Yotel Hotels. It may qualify as a “pod” but Gerard Green, ceo of Yotel hotel in London, says his tiny rooms offer “a first-class travel experience comparable to a luxury yacht or private aircraft,” reports Ernest Beck in The New York Times. Yotel, www.yotel.co.uk, hasn’t yet opened for business, but when it does next year its guests can expect “a fold-out bed and table, a flat-screen television, wi-fi and downloadable movies and audio.” The tiny room rate: $130 per night. Yotel will be competing against EasyHotel, www.easyhotel.com, also in London, operators of EasyJet, the airline. The EasyHotel pod, measuring just 100 square feet, “will offer a double bed on a platform, a sink, a toilet, a mirror and a shower” — done up in a signature orange. Prices will range from a low of $9 (if you book early during low season) to $110 (last-minute during high season).
Read the article http://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/july/jul_22a.html
In Chicago, “a city best known for its steak houses and hot dogs,” the loudest buzz right now is for a restaurant called Green Zebra,” whose menu is four-star, but almost entirely based on vegetables, reports Mark Bittman in The New York Times. The restaurant’s chef, Shawn McClain, earlier made a name for himself at an “upscale, ultracrative and well-publicized” Evanston eatery called Trio, says he opened Green Zebra (named after an heirloom tomato), to “cook for my vegetarian friends — both of them.”
Green Zebra is located at 1460 West Chicago Avenue, near downtown Chicago. The web address is: www.greenzebrachicago.com
http://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/august/aug_5b.html
The key to working with the press is the relationships you build. If you’re working in your local area only, and will be approaching the same editors, send a short note of introduction on who you are, with your press kit. Let them know you are available for interviews and to help them out in a pinch. If they need to photograph a dish for an upcoming spread, offer to create that dish for them. The more accessible you are, the more they may call you, giving you on-going publicity and exposure.
http://www.ontherail.com/business/press_kits.html
French tradition and American convenience culture have been united in the concept of a drive-in boulangerie, reports the Times. Baguettes, sandwiches, croissants and pain au chocolat are all passed through open car windows at the drive-in, located on the site of a disused petrol station in Le Port Marly to the west of Paris – the first of its kind in the country.
The slunch, a contraction of the two words Supper and Lunch, has crossed the Atlantic and become chick in Paris. For those busy families who go away to the country for the weekend the way to meet up with city friends is to join them for slunch late Sunday afternoon in town.
On the menu – often set up buffet style – will be cold soups ( avocado/basil, artichoke/lemon, squash/vanila), salads, mixed greens or often with cold fish or meat, Smoked fish in any variety, a pot stew (duck with pineapple, veal with turnips and olive, ) and possible one or two classic gratins served lukewarm such as gratin dauphinois. Tres chick is of course if guests bring local farm produce and add that to the buffet. Sweet desserts are not normally part of the slunch but healthy herbal teas are much appreciated to finish off.
The slunch trend is predominantly seen in private homes, but as happed with the brunch savy restaurateurs are bound to catch on to this soon.
