Of course, the level of not only chefs but also designers has risen in the restaurant industry over the last decade. If earlier most businesses opened on the principle of who is in how much and with a bow on the side (literally, the love for banquet chairs with ribbon bows seemed indestructible), now opening a coffeehouse is somehow inappropriate. Shop 15 square meters without a design project and author’s ceramics.
The changes affected not only the interior and presentation of the dishes, but also the menu, of course. And not everyone liked it. And so.
How has the standard menu been for the last few years? This is one or more pages, but not a lot, not more than five, usually white or beige, rarely other, but always calm and muted tones, minimalist font, no pictures, of course, a small number of plates in each section and only their main ingredients a description listing .
On the one hand, it looks really stylish: it does not create unnecessary visual noise, it does not fan out millions of pieces of colored paper of different sizes with special offers in front of the guest. The guest is still missing.
It also limits the choice, which is actually a good thing because too much variety makes people think about relocating or ordering standard dishes. And it’s great to try new things.
But there is also a minus. If a cafe is serving something more or less classic like tartar or a green salad, you can still figure it out. And when the author’s menu is supplemented with nothing but a few dry lines, guests begin to disappear and get nervous. Moreover, if the waiters themselves do not know the dishes very well, then in general a nightmare begins.
– Excuse me, but in the salad called “pomegranate, corn, green butter” there is only pomegranate and corn, no greens?
-Of course there is, a delicious big salad with pomegranate seeds and corn kernels.
They bring a plate – they did not cheat, there is greenery. Instead of just the expected arugula, or at least a little lettuce – three leaves of coriander. The rest of the salad is literally a jar of corn kernels sprinkled with pomegranate. It seems that there is nothing to complain about, they did not promise arugula on the menu, but behind these concise numbering in the names it always seems that the exact composition of the dishes cannot be hidden.
And by the way, this happens too, and that’s bad too. Sometimes you read something like “pears, green salad, nuts” and they bring it – it also turns out to be some kind of cheese, and this is pretty important to many people who usually don’t eat dairy for various reasons.
It’s good that Moscow restaurateurs don’t get caught up in this kind of menu design. But on the contrary, something completely different began to emerge – emotional. You may have come across such a design: descriptions and impressions, when the ingredients are not written much under the name of the dishes (which is, of course, very important). “The dish where people go to Georgia”, “Sweet farm tomatoes and delicate stracciatella cheese with homemade raw squeezed butter”, “Blueberry cake according to our manager’s grandmother’s recipe” – and you want to order it right away, right? to feel?
And most importantly, this is important not only for guests who find it easier to choose (because they will already imagine the taste at the stage of reading the menu), but also for the restaurant itself.
Sometimes you get the feeling that there are very few people who think that the restaurant has a function not only to cook but also to sell. The interior should sell, the staff should sell, the menu itself should sell. Unobtrusively, but in any case, guests come for the taste and experience – and they need to get them to meet their needs. Descriptive adjectives sell, emotions sell – that’s absolutely true. A particularly good find for us was the wine lists, where brief descriptions began to be given under the wine names: “Crispy juicy Riesling with notes of summer apple.” Sometimes you don’t even need to invent something, it’s enough to sort the wine by country or year, because for most consumers who don’t really understand wine, it’s just an empty phrase, but by the same descriptors.
Do you want a dominant plant or exotic fruit in your glass? We have several suitable positions for you. Maybe gasoline or dried fruits for the particularly sophisticated? And there is this too.
A menu is more than part of the interior or a list of what the chef can cook. This is a dialogue between the restaurant operator and the chef with the guests. And when people’s questions go unanswered, they stop asking.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.