Foodservice

A few years ago, Illy defined a handful of Illy Bar Concepts: the Core Bar is situated in historic centers, and functions as a meeting point that expresses the culture and the daily life of its location. Landscape Bars are set in busier areas, such as shopping malls or museums, and are meant to provide a restorative break. Transit Bars are spacious bars for travellers, in stations or airports; Community Bars serve regular customers in residential or semi-central areas; and Corner Bars are stylish, open-plan affairs offering fast service for quick consumption.

Last year, Illy announced that its line of concept bars would continue to expand under a new brand: Espressamente. Over a hundred cafes have opened everywhere from Rome, Munich and Oslo to Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai, all under Italian design, led by architects Luca Trazzi, Claudio Silvestrin, and Paola Navone. Fast growth countries are France and China. The United States, home of the Banana Coconut Frappuccino, isn’t on the roll-out list. Yet. Its first careful forays are temporary ‘Illy Gallerias’ in New York City: SoHo last fall, and the Time Warner Center this fall.

Unlike Starbucks, Illy is focusing purely on high quality coffee. Forget being spaces, where consumers can park themselves with their MacBooks and Venti Lattes — Espressamente is all about a perfect shot of dark elixir. With rapid expansion plans, this means plenty of opportunity for franchise-minded entrepreneurs. It also shows that innovation never stops: next up, how about the inevitable uber premium coffee chain that will get away with charging 12 dollar for out of this world lattes? It’s all about upgrading the experience these days, not to mention upgraded margins. One to watch.

Website: https://www.illy.com
Contact: exportcs@illy.it

Business Week

French Kit a bien manger is doing for Paris what Leaping Salmon did so well for London until they sadly disappeared: delivering semi-ready meals to busy urbanites, who want to dine well, but don’t care for the shopping and chopping.

Deliveries include all the ingredients for a stylish dinner, and cooking instructions. Part-time gourmands put it all together and get the satisfaction of having prepared their own fresh starters, entrees, and desserts.

Prices charged rival those at top-end restaurants, and reflect the fact that Kit a bien manger is sourcing its ingredients from exclusive purveyors, going after moneyed professionals looking for a proper insperience. Needless to say, customers can choose from a wide range of wines to accompany their meals (which is, as every food expert knows, where you make the real margins).

Springwise

Founder Jared Ross started Veda with the intention of serving Indian food that was both fast and healthy. Veda cooks with minimal amounts of oil, has a simple menu and uses high quality, healthy ingredients, with plenty of vegetarian options.

VEDA in Toronto

The coffee chain, which has become known for much more than just coffee, jumped into the fast-food breakfast fray Wednesday with the introduction of five sandwiches on toasted English
The sandwich line — now available in 126 Chicago Starbucks stores — is their take on the quick, portable breakfast that Oak Brook-based McDonald’s has made its hallmark and that more American consumers seem to want.

Los Angeles Times

Interesting new health convenience product:

Easy 4 Busy

Dubbed Harrods 102, the new store brings luxury and convenience together in a one-stop concept. Besides selling groceries and wine, Harrods 102 also houses a Yo! Sushi bar, a Krispy Kreme stand, florist, pharmacist, dry cleaning service, and oxygen bar.

More on this… Springwise

Bridging the gap between personal chef and home cooking, a growing number of high-end restaurants and chefs are offering custom-meal delivery. Six-month-old Solar Harvest in Beverly Hills, which sends meals to Mr. Bronson, charges about $150 a week for five days of meals, including bison burgers on Napa cabbage. In March, Daniele Baliani, most recently executive chef at Boston’s Pignoli, launched My Befana in New York. The prepared-foods shop offers delivery of a snack and three meals, like braised short-rib stew bourguignon, for $40 a day.

Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

If your are interested in food Blogs here is a handy-dandy reference guide to all of the 2005 Food Blog Awards. It will save you a lot of wasted time.

Accidental Hedonist