Creating visually stimulating menus that are attractive as they are informative is a growing trend in the Richmond bar scene. These menus serve as clever marketing tools and generate a buzz with guests. Fold-outs, bright colors and flip-books, many created with the help of professional graphic designers, are all in the mix. As bartenders attempt to tell a story through the cocktail, the menu becomes a "movie trailer" of sorts.
Here’s a peek at a few Richmond restaurants bringing a splash of imagination to the cocktail list.
Little Nickel's cocktail menu (photo courtesy of Little Nickel)
Little Nickel
4702 Forest Hill Ave., 804-230-8743
Constantine Giavos, son of restaurateurs (and Little Nickel owners) Katrina and Johnny Giavos and creative director for the new South Side restaurant, knew immediately that Little Nickel’s Polynesian theme would be a perfect fit for a creative cocktail menu.
A Parsons School of Design graduate, Giavos designed an illustrated menu for Perly’s restaurant and delicatessen four years ago. When it was time to design Little Nickel’s, he strove to re-create Midcentury menu designs reminiscent of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s, tropical-themed eateries known for their vibrant cocktail menus. Giavos teamed up with local designer/illustrator Justin Tran to find a balance between contemporary and classic. In addition to playful illustrations, the menu also features subtle differences in typefaces to highlight the elements of certain drinks.
“I think people are very visual, and when they see something like [the menu] and see the [cocktail] vessel, they are going to go for it more than just seeing a typed-up list,” Giavos says. “I think for [Little Nickel] it really works because we're having fun, and I think it’s in the spirit of tiki in America, and that’s what we wanted to adapt: vibrant colors and a difference between drinks so they get a better idea of what the drink is.”
A cocktail's history and the inspiration behind it are key when trying to put a new twist on a classic. “If you don’t understand the history, you can’t understand it the right way,” Giavos says. “Looking at old menus and the foundation of restaurants in America and going to the source is so important to me."
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Tazza Kitchen's spring cocktail menu (Photo courtesy Tazza Kitchen Scott's Addition)
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The back of Tazza Kitchen's spring cocktail menu (Photo courtesy Tazza Kitchen Scott's Addition)
Tazza Kitchen
1500 Roseneath Road, 804-372-0702
Six months ago, Lauren Spain, a seasoned bartender and beverage director at Tazza Kitchen, became heavily involved in training new employees at the Scott's Addition restaurant. Wanting to spice up her training materials, she broke out her art supplies.
“I got tired of handing them a printout of something typed out and boring,” Spain says. “I had all these art supplies and was feeling creative, and I decided to doodle and said, you know, I’ll hand them these, and maybe it will catch their attention and help them learn.”
Not only did Spain's drawings help the employees learn, they've also helped sell more cocktails. For restaurants like Tazza that aren’t specifically known for their mixed drinks, the illustrated menus have been a user-friendly guide for guests. Spain says the menus became so popular that they have expanded to Tazza locations in North and South Carolina as well.
“I think for our restaurant it really works because I don’t know if a lot of people come to Tazza thinking they’re going to get a cocktail,” Spain says. “It gives us an edge, and it really helps [customers] see what they are going to get and draws them away from a vodka tonic or something like that.”
The illustrated menus have also been an aid for servers when suggesting cocktails, Spain says, helping them recommend drinks when customers ask for certain flavor profiles.
“They can point to the menu and say, ‘Oh, you want a vodka soda? Well, we have a refreshing drink called The Lucy, and it's herbaceous, and I think you’d really like it,’ and then guests go for it,” Spain says. “It’s also been great to reintroduce myself to a passion [for art] I once had and hadn’t used in a while.”
Tazza plans to continue using illustrated cocktail menus designed by Spain, which will change seasonally.
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A cocktail menu from Rogue modeled after a field journal (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Rogue has featured cocktail menus that resemble a Denny’s menu, a festival guide, a National Geographic magazine and a field journal. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
Rogue
618 N. First St., 804-477-3456
Jackson Ward's Rogue (originally The Rogue Gentlemen) was branded as a cocktail bar from the day the doors opened, something owner John Maher embraces and strives to maintain. Maher always knew that his goal was to provide a unique experience, beginning with the cocktail menu.
“I knew I wanted to stand out, and this was a way for us to be super creative, weird, out of the box and have fun,” he says. “A lot of times a guest would come into the bar and not understand any of the words or the spirits. They think they don’t know enough to order, and to give them something like this [he points to a fold-out menu featuring actor Richard Gere] with a half-naked man inside, it puts them at ease, makes them laugh, and it’s no longer a big deal.”
Three years ago, Rogue debuted its first illustrated cocktail guide, and it was a hit. The concept continued to evolve, and now a new menu is unveiled every three months with 16 new libations.
“Over time people got really excited about our menu releases, and it would be a big deal,” Maher says. “We would post teasers, and launch day would be insane. People tend to think they come in and they want a gin and tonic, and then they're like, ‘Oh, they're doing all this crazy s*** on their menu, maybe I’ll have one of their cocktails.’ If you’re going to sit here and read the menu anyway, you might as well order one of the drinks that goes with the story.”
Currently, the restaurant is producing a hardcover cocktail book, scheduled for completion this summer. It will include drinks, recipes, fun facts and a look at the inspiration behind the cocktails. Instead of simply making a random assortment of drinks, Maher, his bar staff and graphic designer work together to choose different subjects (novelists, directors, hip-hop artists and chefs) and will design cocktails based on those themes.
“We're not your average bartenders,” Maher says. “We're trying to think more about why we do what we do. It’s more along the lines of continuing to be different. Anyone can print out a menu on paper, and that’s boring to me. We take a lot of time to test the drinks and make the cocktails and understand what goes into them.”
