Every restaurant, bar, and cafe needs a menu. But given the current environment of extra hygiene measures needed during the coronavirus crisis, the old format of a menu that’s been handled by many other hands before your own needs to be rethought.
There are many hygienic options available to bar and restaurant managers reopening after national and local lockdowns, from digital versions accessible on a smartphone, viewed by taking a snap of a QR code, to large, wall-mounted poster menus, or A3-sized menus that double up as placemats, to be disposed of afterwards.
For those taking the digital route, it can be as simple as an image on social media, or a restaurant’s website, or perhaps a custom made app. It’s quite common for potential diners to review a menu online before deciding on a venue, so it is good practice to have a digital version to showcase your menu online regardless.
However, for opportunistic walk-in customers who may not have checked out the menu options before entering, this could end up being problematic in accessing, especially in places where mobile data access could be patchy.
QR codes are a simple method to get quick mobile access to a website or online information. The square block of black and white symbols can be generated for free online, pre-programmed to direct a phone’s internet browser to a website or online image (i.e., your menu).
The placemat-as-a-menu solution has been used by many fast-food restaurants for years and can be easily adapted for any restaurant. If placemats and table coverings are already being used and disposed of, then they can easily double-up as menus.
However, this can be seen as wasteful, so an alternative is to have menus printed as posters to be displayed in prominent positions. Many restaurants have a specials board, so this is not too dissimilar.
Whatever your decision, we have some design tips for your menus.
Carefully consider where your menu is going to be displayed. This will help you determine the size of fonts and the format. You will need your menu to be readable, whether it’s on a poster on a wall, possibly a few metres away, or on a smartphone screen a few inches across.
If you are posting it to social media, the size may need to be configured to meet each channel’s preferred aspect ratio.
Keep your fonts simple and readable. Given the new ways in which menus will be displayed, keep menu fonts to a modern san-serif format. Save the fanciful brand-related typography for bigger and bolder posters and signage. Ensure your colour palette is kept to a minimum, as too many colours can be distracting.
Given how menus will be viewed in different formats, be economical with the information you choose to share. Keep tales of the origin of your most famous dish or the precise provenance of your ingredients for social media. Offer the pertinent information such as suitability for those with dietary restrictions, and price.
If you need poster printing or COVID sign printing for your restaurant or bar, talk to us today!
