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Guests visiting London's Mandarin Oriental hotel at any other time of the year will miss out on the hotel's latest dining experience: a brand-new outdoor restaurant that's open only in the summer. Nestled in the shelter of the Mandarin Oriental’s north façade, The Park Terrace restaurant overlooks the southern meadows of Hyde Park below the Serpentine Lake and serves guests from May 1st through September 30th. Soft linens, elegant teak furniture, quarried Portland stonework and a lush floral backdrop combine to create the informal elegance of an English country garden that's available all day long for early morning breakfasts, sunny lunches, traditional afternoon teas and balmy evening dinners. Head Chef Chris Tombling’s highly seasonal menu features fresh, summery dishes. The restaurant's staff, meanwhile, go far beyond just serving food to create what might almost be considered a luxury urban beach. On hot summer days, a Terrace Butler is on hand with a selection of sunscreens, cooling iced towels, water sprays and a sunglasses cleaning service. Guests can also borrow designer sunglasses—including children’s sizes—along with hand-held Mandarin fans, soft pashmina shawls, books from the hotel’s Vintage Classics library, and a selection of magazines and newspapers. There's nothing like limited-time availability to increase an offering's appeal, as we've noted on numerous occasions before, and reflecting local seasonal rhythms enhances the genuine feel of something that's still made here. Throw in some five-star summer meals and a pampering spot to sun oneself, and you just may have something tourists will return to year after year. (Related: Restaurant to close and reopen every season.) Website: www.mandarinoriental.com/london/dining/the_park_terrace
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A few years ago we wrote about UK-based Omlet and its hen-and-coop kits for urban or suburban gardens. Recognizing that a chicken-keeping venture can be daunting for those who have never done it before, however, an Australian contender is now offering a short-term rental option that lets customers try before they buy. Sydney-based Rentachook manufactures and sells a variety of coops, as well as selling the "chooks" (as they're known down under) and feed to go with them. For those who want to test the chicken-keeping waters before diving in, the company lets customers try out its Eco-Coop package and see how it goes for as much as six weeks (or even longer by arrangement) before they commit to keeping it. Included in the AUD 360 package are a chicken coop and two hens along with feeder, waterer, food and straw. Customers can try it out and see how well keeping chickens fits in with their lifestyle and garden; if they decide to return the package, they get back AUD 260 of the money they paid. For those who decide to keep the set, on the other hand, benefits include fresh, free-range eggs (up to six per chicken per week, the company says) and an environmentally sustainable pet that eats scraps, removes weeds and turns compost. (Rentachook's coops, incidentally, are also made as sustainably as possible, using Australian grown plantation pine and wheels from old prams.) Delivery and setup ranges from AUD 50 to AUD 80, depending on location. In a world with skyrocketing food costs and growing interest in organic and sustainable methods, there's plenty of reason for consumers far and wide to produce their own. Make it easier for them—such as by reducing the up-front commitment—and you just may be rewarded with some golden eggs yourself! Website: www.rentachook.com.au
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Trash is always a problem at summer music festivals, and Denmark's Roskilde Festival has typically been no exception. After the 2007 festival, it took more than 500 people several weeks to clean up the heaps of garbage left behind—at a cost of more than one million euros, the festival's organizers say. That's why this year's festival, which took place earlier this month, promoted the slogan "Less Trash—More Music" in its effort to control the leftover garbage. Special red garbage bags were handed out to festival-goers throughout the course of the four-day event, with rewards in the form of free beer or chocolate milk for each bag collected, along with a chance to win more beer, festival kits, tents or tickets to next year's event. Through a competition sponsored by Tuborg, collectors of the most garbage (1,048 bags!) also won backstage passes to Neil Young's performance. For recyclables, meanwhile, Roskilde provided stands to collect cans, cardboard, drink containers and more. In exchange, participants were reportedly rewarded with cash refunds of roughly EUR 0.10 per bottle, allowing the most zealous of the festival's 67,000 paying attendees to come close to recouping the cost of their tickets. About 97 percent of the cups used at Roskilde's concession stands were brought back for recycling as a result, according to PSFK. Meanwhile, more than 1,600 sleeping bags left behind were donated to the homeless. As if the music, the sustainability and the rewards for being clean weren't enough, attendees at this year's Roskilde got a little extra free love, too. In addition to the usual wrist band, festival-goers were given a condom (donated by Hanky Panky) and a set of earplugs (sponsored by TrygFonden), too. In Roskilde’s words: “Say goodbye to herpes and tinnitus.” In our words: Follow examples like that, and say hello to a new generation of loyal customers! Website: www.roskilde-festival.dk Spotted by: PSFK via Matthew Cua
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Almost exactly a year ago, we featured Vator.tv a Silicon Valley company that lets entrepreneurs pitch their "next big thing" to potential investors via short web videos. Recently, a similar venture got started in the UK. cmypitch.com describes itself as "Dragons' Den meets YouTube" and besides letting start-ups pitch their ideas to attract funding, the website also aims to provide other services for entrepreneurs, like directories of business opportunities, franchises, businesses for sale, etc. Those in search of funding can pitch for investment by uploading a short video supported by a summary business plan, for a fee of GBP 200 for a three-month listing. Due to UK financial regulations, viewers need to register and then "self certify as an investor" before they can watch a single pitch. Which could seriously hamper the website's growth—users are less likely to forward a video to other potential investors if they know the recipient will need to register and self certify just to view a short clip. That said, British entrepreneurs in search of funding will no doubt welcome an additional opportunity to reach out to potential investors! Website: www.cmypitch.com
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BIC, the French purveyor of billions of lighters, pens and razors, recently launched the anti-iPhone. No waiting in line, no activation, no costly plans and no frills whatsoever. BIC phones, which retail at EUR 49 and come in orange and green versions, are ready to go: the battery is charged, SIM card installed and the phone comes with 10 talk minutes that are valid without registering with network provider Orange. Once the 10 minutes are up, customers can activate with Orange for a further 50 free minutes, and can buy top-up cards for more talk time. BIC/Orange stress that this isn't a disposable phone, more of a back-up phone for households to use when an extra, dedicated line might be useful—when selling a car or an apartment, for example. We can also see these selling well at airports, for travellers who want a local phone to avoid roaming charges, and want to be able to use it immediately without first having to charge or activate. Which makes for a good vending machine opportunity: set up machines near gate exits at Charles de Gaulle. Website: www.bicworld.com Spotted by: RK
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Using its Newton Machine, UK clothing retailer Topshop recently gave customers the opportunity to explore their inner model by letting them star in their own iconic fashion shoots. Topshop created temporary photo studios in three of its London, Manchester and Dublin stores, using a set-up that fashion photographer Helmut Newton created thirty years ago. As explained by Topshop: "In the 1970's Helmut Newton came up with the idea of The Newton Machine, a specially made studio to take fashion images without the photographer being present. The machine's original purpose was to capture the subject as they see themselves, which draws parallels to today's obsession with engineering one's self-image." Like Newton's models, Topshop's customers just had to walk in, strike a pose and press a button to set lights and camera in action. Naturally, they were encouraged to dress up in the store's clothes. Customers received a print of their fashion shoot, and the images were also posted online for all to admire. Fun example of a marketing campaign that appeals to consumers' gravanity while driving foot traffic. (Related: Jet-sized gravanity.) Website: www.newtonmachinetopshop.com Spotted by: RK
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When the Democratic National Convention descends upon Denver later this summer, a fleet of vehicles provided by General Motors for the event won't be using just any ordinary fuel. Instead, the flex-fuel cars will run on clean-burning ethanol derived from waste beer produced at Molson Coors' Golden, Colo., brewery. Whereas most ethanol is based on corn, Coors produces about 3 million gallons of the stuff each year from beer that gets lost during packaging or is deemed below quality standards, for one reason or another. Coors says it is the nation's first major brewer to convert its waste beer into ethanol, having begun the practice back in 1996 using a facility owned by Merrick & Co. Turning the waste beer into ethanol eliminates about 70 tons of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from Coors' emissions annually, it says. At the convention, the GM fleet—which includes vehicles with biofuel capabilities and hybrid technology—will run on a mixture of fuel combined with ethanol from the Coors facility. The cars will provide transportation for numerous delegates, staff, members of the media and other special convention guests. Of course, in addition to the ethanol sponsorship, Molson Coors will also provide real, drinkable beer for select convention events—perhaps just as important as powering its cars... ;-) Website: www.molsoncoors.com Spotted by: Flemming Birch
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We've covered many of the twists and turns that have taken place in the world of journalism over the years, including the citizen journalism efforts at OhmyNews and Danish Avisen. Now a new experimental site in the San Francisco Bay Area is offering community control on a different level by giving readers a chance to fund the stories they want to see professionally written. Due for launch this fall, Spot.us is a nonprofit that lets any individual or journalist post an idea for an untold story in the local community. Professional journalists then write pitches based on those ideas and place them in the site's wiki, where members of the community can view them and vote—via micro-pledge—on the stories that are most important to them. (Examples currently on the site have a distinctly eco-minded focus, such as the inaugural one entitled "Ethanol Could Be a Weak Link in State's Energy Network," which has already reached its USD 250 goal.) Supporters pay only if their topic wins full support, in which case freelance journalists are commissioned to report and write the story. Spot.us then publishes it in its news feeds under a Creative Commons license and offers it for free to local media outlets. Exclusive rights to the story will be granted in exchange for a percentage of the original donations, Spot.us says. Spot.us, which is currently in what it calls pre-alpha mode using a grant from the Knight Foundation, encourages participants to limit their donations to a maximum of 20 percent of the story's costs, and will enforce that through technology once the site goes live, it says. It is also currently vetting pitches and reporters, but aims ultimately to let the marketplace do that. Also of interest is that Spot.us uses activism site The Point—which we covered not long ago—to coordinate its funding efforts for each pitch. One of the big concerns about citizen journalism has been that it lacks the rigor and integrity formal journalistic training imparts, as well as the trust that comes from the longstanding reputations traditional news organizations typically possess. Spot.us promises to do away with such concerns while still giving the community a strong guiding voice. Will this be a new model for news media? We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, one to watch! Website: www.spot.us Spotted by: Julie Sammons
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Polystyrene products have been used for years as home insulation and Styrofoam packaging, but the petroleum-based materials are infamous for the toll they take on the environment. Ecovative, a Troy, N.Y., start-up, aims to replace such products with an organic alternative derived from fungus and agricultural waste. Rather than being manufactured from preexisting ingredients—a process that inevitably takes considerable energy—Ecovative's Greensulate is actually grown afresh. A mixture including water, recycled paper and rice hulls (a form of agricultural waste) is injected with living mushroom cells inside a mold and then placed in a dark environment. There the cells begin to grow and sprout thousands of cellular strands. In one to two weeks, the result is ready to be dried into a panel of insulation that can be used to keep a house warm in winter and cool in summer, or to protect a package during shipment. Greensulate is fire retardant, and it's also unlikely to trigger mold and fungus allergies, by virtue of the drying process. And while its polystyrene counterparts take up landfill space indefinitely, Greensulate is highly compostable, enriching the soil surrounding it and even aiding the breakdown of other nearby waste. Current cost projections suggest Greensulate will retail at costs competitive with traditional foams, the company says. Ecovative is still working on R&D and compliance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International standards and International Building Code. It will focus on material optimization and compliance testing throughout 2008, it says, with a commercially available insulation product targeted for mid-2009. The company is actively seeking strategic partners to aid in Greensulate's commercialization. One to get in on early? Website: www.ecovativedesign.com Spotted by: Michael Martin
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We've written on a few different occasions already about upscale ice-cream trucks aimed at grown-ups (one in Los Angeles and one in the UK), and now New Yorkers are getting in on the mobile dessert action with a few different trucks that deliver high-end ice cream and baked confections. The Treats Truck, for one, uses its two trucks—aptly named "Sugar" and "Dot"—to sell cookies, brownies and other baked goodies to customers on the streets of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. Favourite delectables on the company's trucks include the Oatmeal Jammy and the Cran Almond Crispy along with peanut butter sandwich cookies, caramel cream sandwich cookies, four kinds of chocolate brownies daily, frosted sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and a rotating list of specials. All goodies are baked from natural ingredients at the Treats Truck's Brooklyn bakery. The Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Company, meanwhile, sells specially crafted ice cream from its truck, which serves the SOHO area each afternoon. Ginger, Giandujia and Red Currant are among the flavours Van Leeuwen makes using locally sourced, hormone-free milk and cream. The company uses only cups, straws, bowls and spoons made from renewable sources, and it donates one percent of its profits to Wildlife Direct. Then there's Wafels & Dinges, aimed at serving "good things Belgian" from its roving truck throughout the city—not to mention DessertTruck, which serves up such delectables as chocolate bread pudding, goat cheese cheesecake and a dark chocolate mousse bombe. DessertTruck can be found seven days a week at St. Mark's place and 3rd Ave. Besides allowing small, high-end confectioners to compete in a market that would otherwise involve prohibitively high rents, upscale dessert delivery trucks like these also provide a perfect opportunity for us to repeat our favourite refrain: everything can be upgraded! One to cause the Good Humor man concern in wealthy urban centers around the globe. ;-) Website: www.treatstruck.com — www.vanleeuwenicecream.com — www.wafelsanddinges.com — www.desserttruck.com Spotted by: Yael Miller
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