menukarma blog

I’m not advocating that a restaurant must have a web site. Certainly, it is one of menukarma’s most important aims to provide good, basic information on behalf of restaurants who do not have their own sites. There are some of you, however, who don’t have web sites, but really should – simply because it’s cheaper and easier than you think. And there’s also a lot of room for your creative talent on the web. In another article, I chided noob restaurateurs for over-indulging their creativity, and putting too much passion in their concepts and menus, at the expense of business sense. Here’s an opportunity to channel that irrepressible individuality into a positive. Quirky designs that flout conventional web design principles are in. Eschew the gloss. The public will readily forgive a new restaurant for not having the flashiest site on the web, especially if it’s clever and doesn’t take itself too seriously. A simple web site might even be a complement to your brand, say for example if your values as a restaurant include giving people a lot for their money.

Here’s a simple, little 1-page web site that I admire. For what it is, it couldn’t be any better than it is. It gives you an exterior picture, an interior picture, a few sentences “about us” and a selection of specialties from the house. I especially like this last item, in lieu of a full menu — since it conveys something about what the kitchen believes it does well, without committing the chef to anything too specific. The page also has some nice meta-tags. Check out the HTML source code. Good job, Auberge la Cabirotade!