Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1471699
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 JUNE 2022 16 COMMERCIAL Hammett's Collection opens Hammett's Monastik IBB Hammett's Collection Ltd has announced that their latest shared dining experience, Ham- mett's Monastik, has opened its doors on the Tigne Seafront in Sliema. The award-winning company led by restaurateur Chris Hammett and head chef Jorge Lugo is determined to start a new chapter with its lat- est venture with a focus on local produce and sustainability. The menu is inspired by con- tinental European cuisine, using only locally sourced ingredients and traditional techniques of preservation to get the best out of the seasonal produce available at the time, such as pickling and fermentation. These techniques used by monasteries to be self-sufficient are adopted in the restaurant, as well as the objective to live off the local land. Hence the name Monastik. Using only local produce means that a close relationship has been cultivated with ded- icated local farmers who only use sustainable organic prac- tices and cultivate their crops pesticide free, so they can offer the finest ingredients whilst also taking care of the land for future generations. The goal is to serve solely Mal- tese grown or caught food in the coming months. This comes with its challenges with ingre- dients such as sugar and oil to cook with, but sustainable alter- natives have been found by stud- ying the history books. Besides that, grains cultivated for the production of flour are currently not harvested in Malta anymore, but the restaurant is joining forces with a local farmer to re- vive these and other industries. Meat is purchased from local farmers and is bought whole, to respect the animal by using every part of it in a concept of nose-to-tail eating. The team is slowly getting more involved with the growing of the animals and hope to be able to say that all our animals will be fed 100% organic food and be treated in a better way in the industry in the coming years. Monastik's wines and cocktails are (created with ingredients) sourced from suppliers who use sustainable practices as well. Therefore, the mixologists can offer a cocktail list with many "100% organic" markings. Like the other Hammett's es- tablishments, Hammett's Mo- nastik works with a shared meal format. It's encouraged that multiple dishes are ordered per table to be shared among guests. The idea is that patrons don't only eat for sustenance, but also to share an experience with their fellow diners to bond and recon- nect with them as well as create your own tasting 'menu'.This also drives the kitchen team to constantly change the menu de- pending on what is available at the best possible time and allows guests to have a different tasting experience every time Hammett's Monastik is open for breakfast, happy hour and dinner. This is the fourth restaurant that has opened as part of IBB Hammett's Collection Ltd. The other restaurants are Hammett's Gastro Bar serving Asian Fusion dishes in Sliema, Hammett's Macina Restaurant serving Eth- nic Mediterranean dishes in Senglea and Hammett's Mestizo serving meso South American food in St Julian's. National Lottery plc selects Melita Business for next-generation network NATIONAL Lottery plc, a sub- sidiary of the IZI Group, has selected Melita Business to pro- vide the communications infra- structure required to run the national lottery of Malta. Taking over from Maltco Lot- teries from 5 July 2022, Nation- al Lottery plc will take on the responsibility of operating the National Lottery of Malta, dis- tributing amongst others games popular games such as Lotto, Super 5 as well as a portfolio of new and other games for the next 10 years. In the run up to this transition, Melita Business has deployed fibre-powered 1,000 Mega- bit fixed internet to over 200 National Lottery retail outlets across Malta and Gozo. More- over, it will be hosting all of the gaming operator's key equip- ment in its two ISO 27001 certi- fied data centres, providing high levels of security and reliability. Melita Business will also provide high capacity, and high availa- bility, connectivity between sites over its dedicated Fibre network. Franco Degabriele, Chief Com- mercial Officer at IZI Group plc, said, "Taking over the adminis- tration of the national lottery of Malta and transitioning it in such a tight timeframe to be ready for launch on July 5th has been a big challenge which we have man- aged very well. Our ambition, however, is not just to complete a successful transition but to deliver an improved experience for customers and for our agents within the retail network that lasts for the years to come. This can only be attained through the deployment of a robust commu- nications infrastructure. Mel- ita Business has enabled us to build the required infrastructure through the delivery of a com- munications network that fulfils our requirements across all our points of sale in the market. We are also glad that together with Melita we have been able to de- liver the service within a very tight deadline." Malcolm Briffa, Director of Business Services at Melita Lim- ited, said, "The communications requirements of National Lottery plc is highly technical and needed to be put in place quickly during a massive transition process. With our unrivalled infrastructure and commitment to providing be- spoke communications solutions for clients, Melita Business is proud to be playing a key role in making this transition a success." Ing. Kenneth Terrible, Infra- structure Solutions Sales Man- ager at Melita Limited, added, "National Lottery plc will be in- teracting with hundreds of thou- sands of customers each week, so fast, secure and reliable com- munications are vital. Develop- ing the solutions needed to meet the nationwide requirements of such a complex organisation has been an exciting challenge but one which Melita Business is certainly capable of rising to." More information on the solutions provided by Melita Business is available at https:// www.melitabusiness.com/ From left: Malcolm Briffa - Director of Business Services at Melita Limited, Franco Degabriele, Chief Commercial Officer at IZI Group plc and Ing. Kenneth Terrible, Infrastructure Solutions Sales Manager at Melita Limited