When your customers look at your menu, what do they see? They see your cuisine, of course, but they also learn about the character of your restaurant, the mood you are trying to establish, and maybe even how clean and well-run your restaurant is.
“The menu design represents the character and the personality of the restaurant,” says Phyllis Weege, president of Menu Masters and a three-decade veteran of the menu design business. “It should make an impression right away. It sets the stage for the dining experience.”
In this Q&A, Weege answers questions about menu design and its importance to your restaurant.
Q: At what point should a new restaurant start thinking about menu design?
A: It should be considered right from the beginning of the planning stages. When we help a restaurant with menu design, we like to talk to the chef, the front of house manager, and the owner and listen to their vision. Do they want a casual feel? Is it a fine dining restaurant? Family friendly? Do they want photos of their food? Will they have weekly or daily specials? All of these things play into the design.
Q: So the menu should match the overall look of the restaurant?
A: Yes. In fact, we often work with the restaurant designer to carry through the brand. We’ve even made menu covers out of the wall coverings in the restaurant, and we’ve taken pictures of the artwork on the walls and printed them on a substrate incorporated into the cover. We also do logo design, so if a restaurant owner hasn’t gotten that far into the design, we can help with that.
Q: What if a restaurant is already open and established – can you help them, too?
A: Yes, we often work with established restaurants that want to step it up and have a more professional menu. And what they discover is that their menu is always more than just a list of items on a page. When we professionally engineer a menu, it becomes one of their most powerful sales tools. We’ve seen it again and again – when we re-engineer a menu professionally, they say, ‘We should have done this at the beginning.’
Q: What are some basic organizational keys to a successful menu?
A: The menu should be calling out the most profitable items, so sales of those items increase. Those items can be emphasized with positioning, use of color, and fonts to draw the eye. Interestingly, the science has changed over the years about how to position items on the menu. The old theory was that the featured items should be on the upper right corner, but a professor in California scientifically measured peoples’ eyes as they read a menu, and discovered that most diners read the menu like a book, from left to right. So we position the featured items on the menu based on that study, and it’s proven successful.
Q: How has the internet affected menu design?
A: A menu has to be designed so that it looks great online – many people check out a restaurant’s menu online before going. And the menu needs to be designed so that it can be effectively converted to mobile applications and read on the phone. We help our clients in those areas, too, as well as with social media and email marketing.
Q: How important are the materials used in the menu?
A: There are a lot of options in materials, and which you use depends on the look you’re trying to convey and your budget. The benefit of working with Menu Masters is that we work exclusively with hospitality, so our services are tailored to the perfect solution. So if our customers have expectations, such as a metal cover or a backlit cover, we can give them prices for these and help them make the decision. Sometimes restaurants start with a simple paper menu and a year later move up to the next level of presentation, say a leather cover or a wood board.
Q: Any other tips?
A: One area that sometimes is overlooked is the bar menu. The bar menu should complement the main menu. We had a client that was a family dining restaurant with a bar, and they were hesitant to emphasize the bar menu because they didn’t feel it fit their environment. But we suggested that they create a separate beverage menu and leave it on the table. Their existing clients loved it – people who never realized before that they could order a glass of wine or a beer started doing it, and profits increased.
Q: What are some common menu mistakes?
A: Sometimes owners and managers under estimate the importance of their menu as a sales tool. They may wait too long to update their prices or replace damaged and worn menus. If the menu is tattered or dirty or if the coil is broken, that menu needs to be replaced. In addition to the bad impression it leaves, it makes the diner think, ‘Is this restaurant not successful? What’s the kitchen look like? Are they cutting back on the quality of ingredients?’ We recently designed and printed a client’s menu who had waited way too long to replace their menu. We introduced them to a more durable synthetic material with a laminate coating for their high-volume restaurant. The synthetic material has outperformed the traditional printed laminate they had in the past. It was a little more expensive upfront, but it looks the same now as it did six months ago. And they are realizing higher profits.
Q: Bottom line: So the menu helps profitability, right?
A: Yes! Once the server presents the menu, they leave the table and the menu remains. At that point the menu should be going to work for you. Menu Masters clients have realized 10 to 15 percent increases in sales after a redesign. That translates to a nice pop to the bottom line!
If you have more questions or would like to speak with someone at Menu Masters, visit their website at www.menumasters.net or call them at 800-542-6388.