Theme Restaurants and Restaurant Names

Restaurant website design ideas

2010-03-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

These days in is not difficult to take care of online essentials: hosting, domain name, some generic template and even customized graphics for your restaurant's website. If all you want is give people some idea about the menu, the hours and the directions that's fine. But a website can be turned into a powerful marketing tool even for a smallest of restaurants. Here are a few ideas you can implement on your restaurant's web page.

It would be of course, easy to draw attention of Internet users to your website by adding interesting content that is not 100% relevant to your restaurant business: Flash games, blogs on various topics, popular video clips etc. It would be wiser, however, to be of service for people who are likely to become your customers. For instance, use restaurant's website as "an excuse" to provide valuable information for people who visit your town or your neighborhood. Use maps, photographs, local weather reports, reviews of local shops and museums, public transportation info -- anything you can possibly think that could be of value for people who visit the vicinity of your establishment. Are you near a major highway? Maybe a web camera can be used by thousands of commuters to check the traffic. Be creative, spend some time brainstorming. If you are hiring a web design firm, poke their brains a little, because these people likely have encountered many types of clients with various needs. Just make sure that your restaurant website design is always very lucid and people can see the name of your business on every page with easy links to access the parts of the website that are meant for potential customers.

Consider adding something to the design of your restaurant that would make it so unique that people would want to travel an extra mile just to see it. Same ideas as in having a themed restaurant, but a lot less hassle :) Again, be creative. Dinosaur fossils? Unique sports memorabilia? A collection of antique sowing machines? It can literally be anything, as long as you are sure that a good number of people will want to stop by just to see your unique display. Once you have it make sure that you advertise. Dedicate a page on your website, but leave some room for desire to see more, do not have high resolution object of your world's smallest operating gas grill (on which you can grill a special order, of course). Make them want to come and see it!

By all means offer coupons, but there is more that you can do. How about, pick one order number daily that wins a 25% coupon off the next meal? Your customers will have to come to your restaurant's website in order to claim the prize, in the mean time learning about all the useful information you actually happen to have there.

Always remember that the design of your restaurant's website can do much more than the sign on your restaurant!

Cheese Restaurant (a theme restaurant)

2010-03-11T11:17:00.000-08:00

This would be a great concept for a theme restaurant. Cheese is an essential ingredient of many dishes and deserts (don't forget cheesecakes!). You can built your menu around a few cheese staples, such as pizza, calzones and lasagna, but be prepared to impress your patrons with a wide selection of cheese, served on platters. You can also serve cheese-bread before the meal.

Chances are, people will end up liking a couple of your carefully selected items, so you can sell them at a gift shop. Cheese lasts a long time, so you will never have problems with inventory, even if you choose to carry a couple very expensive imported cheeses. There are thousands of kinds of cheese available world-wide. When it comes to decorating the restaurant, you can use vintage cheese production tools, old packaging and some whimsical farm animals (cows, goats, sheep) to make the kids happy. White, yellow and green would be an easy choice for uniforms and even furniture.

P.S. Still looking for an actual restaurant that has already implemented this idea. Let me know if you find one!

Dutch restaurant names

2010-03-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

The Gourmet's Guide to Europe (1911) provides a wealth of information for anyone who wants to research the history of restaurant business in the Old World. Particularly, some names of great restaurants (many no longer operational) can provide some ideas if you are trying to come up with a suitable name for your own establishment. There are even some decor ideas for a themed restaurant. I am posting a few excepts from this book, regarding Dutch restaurants.

There are several restaurants in the Hague which deserve mention. One is Twee Steeden in the Buitenhof. This is a new building Buitenhof next door to the Hotel Deux Villes, or Twee Steeden, a comfortable hotel with a garden. The building of the restaurant is of buff stone with a good deal of carving and gilding on the front and balconies of wrought iron. The walls of the
restaurant's big room on the ground floor are crushed strawberry in colour, and the upholstery is of greenish grey. There are other rooms on the first floor.

Another is the Cafe Royal in the Vijverberg, an establishment which has its large room on the ground floor. The restaurant is comparatively airy, and the cookery French, and my Vijverberg Dutch friends tell me "fairly good."

The most distinctive of the Hague restaurants calls itself simply The Restaurant, though it made its name and its fame as Van der Fiji's. It is in the centre of the town, and its three windows look out on to the dusty little triangle of the Plaats and the tower where the brothers De Witt were torn to pieces by the populace. The walls of the dining-room are panelled with blue silk, and during the week of my visit to the Hague, when I both dined and lunched several times at the restaurant, I was always received by a very fat maitre d'Hotel, who bowed in a dignified manner by letting his first chin drop into his second and third ones. The cuisine is French, and it has a cellar of excellent wines. Of the hotels which contain restaurants, the Hotel des Indes and Hotel Vieux Doelen have a reputation for good cookery. The former was in olden times the town house of the Lange Voorhoot Barons van Brienen. In winter many people of Dutch society, coming to the capital from the country for the season, take apartments there, and during that period of the year the restaurant is often filled by very brilliant gatherings.

Here are some other Dutch restaurants mentioned in the book:

Van Laar
Amstel Room
Cafe Riche
Plaats Royal
Cafe-Restaurant Fritschy
Stroomberg

Restaurant Design: New Baroque style

2009-11-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

The term New Baroque has not been clearly defined, but in my personal opinion the idea is clear. The original Baroque style saw its purpose in astonishing the viewer, sometimes even employing optical illusions, mechanical novelties etc. Modern reincarnations of the same design approach deserve to be classified as New Baroque. These spaces are always a pleasure to behold, even though some of them don't look particularly reminiscent of that famous era in art history.

Bon restaurant (Moscow, Russia)

Buddakan (New York)

Caspaia (Brussels)

Chateau (Tokyo)

The restaurant is located in an authentic looking Baroque building. Don't you want to see what's inside?

The Cristal Room (Paris, France)

Lagrimas Negras (Madrid, Spain)

The name of this Spanish restaurant means Black Tears, a visual concept certainly reflected in the design.

Gilt (New York)

Fabbrica (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Restaurant Signage, Menus, Logos

2009-09-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

Just found out about a useful restaurant design book:

1000 Restaurant, Bar, and Cafe Graphics: From Signage to Logos and Everything In Between (1000 Series)

That's 440 pages of restaurant related graphics, artwork, menus, logos, signs, promotional and packaging ideas, stationary etc.

Italian restaurant names: simple ways to find the right one

2009-08-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Using the same principle that I have previously suggested for finding French restaurant names, you can get a glance at the names of some very authentic restaurants and cafes in Naples in 1845. An official publication of the city magistrate lists all known restaurants (trattorie) in Naples! Simply pick what you like and make sure that it means what you think it means :) And, of course, look around to verify that nobody else is using this fancy name for their own Italian restaurant.

You will notice that nearly all of these Italian restaurants have names that begin with Del (Della, Di etc.). Trattoria must be implied. Here are some nice examples:

Del Buon Gusto
Del Cavalieri
Della Colomba
Della Corona di Fiori
Della Sirena
Dell'Ancora d'Argento

Here is the link to the book (go straight to page 68):
Manuale del forestiero in Napoli

Restaurant names are followed by the names of Neapolitan cafes.

Another way to come up with a suitable name is to simply look at the map of Italy. There is a world of difference between trying to pronounce Italian names vs. French names. I would recommend not to pick a location name for a French restaurant. However, Italian names are usually easy to pronounce.

See also:
Italian phrases, sayings and mottos used in heraldry
Italian, please! -- Italian language, customs, culture and Italy's impact on civilization

Beach themed restaurants

2009-06-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

The summer this year curiously makes me think of a particular type of theme restaurants build around experiencing something that is completely out of reach in the area where the restaurant is located. For people who live in cold climate (that would be just everybody this summer!) beach themed restaurants would have considerable appeal throughout the year. This idea is almost too simple. All it takes is some beach-inspired restaurant furniture, life-jackets, beach balls, umbrellas, oars... I would even get some real sand. The menu is not difficult to figure out. Sandwiches, grilled meats and veggies, fruits and refreshing drinks.

A380 - Jumbojet Themed Restaurant

2009-06-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

This restaurant is name after the A380 jumbojet, with all of its interior design based on the airplane theme. It is located in Taipei, in the university quarter. As you can imagine, the waitresses are dressed in flight-attendant uniforms. One thing is certain, this Western menu eatery does not create great expectations. Airline food is notorious for being hardly edible. What an opportunity to shine and to impress!

See also:
Aquarium-themed restaurant

French Restaurant Names

2009-05-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

It is very typical for restaurants that feature French cousine to reflect it in their names. A crucial requirement for such restaurant names is that they can be easily pronounced by people who never studied French. I have a very neat trick that you should at least look into if your plan is to open a French restaurant in North America.

OK, proper names are usually adopted by foreign speakers more easily than other types of words. If you are looking for copious lists of Parisian names, look no further than a book currently available as a free download at Google books:

Paris and environs with routes from London to Paris

This book dates back to 1898. Let's face it, in American culture most things French have a certain late 19th century flare. This book contains numerous lists, including an alphabetical list of the hotels, restaurants and cafes (page 426). You can go with a name that sounds familiar, intriguing or simply easy to pronounce, while sounding distinctly as a French word. A lot of the restaurants are long gone, so you will have no problem reusing their names. And proper names of Parisian streets, boulevards and squares cannot be copyrighted, so you are covered.

Also, remember that by choosing a particular location in France as your inspiration you make it easier to find decorative elements for the space.

There is also a very essential book on French signage, because you will probably want this sort of stuff for your French restaurant, n'est pas?:

Entrez: Signs of France

See also:
Italian Restaurant Names: Suggestions
Italian phrases, words, mottos and quotes
Restaurant Signage, Menus, Logos
Dutch restaurant names

Strange restaurant names

2009-05-07T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of strange restaurant names that I compiled:

Bitterroot
Booby's
Boomerang
Buffalo Wagon Pan-Asian Cuisine & Sushi
Bunganut Pig
Chilli Banana
Chubby Weiners
Earwax Cafe
Economy Shoe Shop
English Dairy
Feed the Beast
Frog & Onion Pub
Golden Resource (Chinese)
Good Stuff House (Chinese)
Gunshop Café
Heaven's Dog (Chinese)
Hestia
Honey Don't Forget The Milk
Hungry?
Jack N Grill
Laughing Ladies
Monkey Face
Natural Selections (Thai)
Not For Tourist
Not Just Snacks
Olive or Twist
Plumed Horse
Potbellies Kitchen
Railside Restaurant
Rockfish
Shakespeare's Pizza
Shepherd's Market
Shorty's
St. Alphonzo's Kitchen (Italian)
Strange Taste Cuisine (Chinese)
Tao (Mediterranean)
Thai Me Up
The Creekside Restaurant
The Library
The Wooden Monkey
Thong Thai
U Otter Stop Inn
Walhalla
Whatever Bar
Ye Olde Fish n' Chips

See also:
Restaurant name suggestions
Restaurant website ideas

Restaurant Name: Ideas and Suggestions

2009-04-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

How to pick a name for a restaurant?

Ready to name your new restaurant? It would be a good idea to spend some time thinking about it before you commit thousands of dollars to naming your establishment, because once named a restaurant cannot be very easily renamed. It is costly and you might lose existing customers. There are several approaches to naming a restaurant. If you believe that you have an approach that is radically different, please share, in exchage for having your restaurant's name featured prominently on this webpage. And I am not just talking theme restaurants here!

Naming a restaurant after the location

The great advantage of naming your eatery after the specific location is that people can easily find it. Davis Sq. Pizza, anyone? Of course, if you ever plan to establish a franchise this may or may not work. A more generic name may be better in this case. In fact, you can choose a name that represents a remote location. Like a Texas Barbecue in Minnesota or Oregon. Location names are very easy to remember, and you can always throw in something that would better define your restaurant, the type of cousin, the theme etc.

Theme restaurant's name

Theme restaurants tend to have more colorful and exotic names. Often these are one of a kind establishments. You can certainly try to reflect the menu of a themed restaurant in its menu, but it would almost make it appealing to less people. The attraction of a themed restaurant is not its menu, but its design and atmosphere. People may come to your restaurant from 50 miles away just to see a dinosaur skeleton or what have you. Chances are if all they want is a good meal, they can find a restaurant nearby. It is sad, but I must admit that there are some themed restaurants with mediocre and overprices food. Still, they do pretty well. No names will be named here :)

Make your name your restaurant's name

You've seen them. Bob's pizza, Tom's pancakes, Jack and Gill's etc. Not extremely innovative, if you ask me. Names like these reflect the price range more than anything else. Probably something on the cheap side, don't you think? You can kick it up a notch by adding some foreign charm, though. Chez Henri? But this name has other problems.

Using your menu for inspiration

If you have one item that you feel is particularly strong, go ahead and feature it in the name. But seriously, is it all that easy to build a restaurant around a single recipe? What's worse, people may end up associating your restaurant with only one menu item. I have heard from numerous people that they never ate at The Cheesecake Factory because they don't like cheesecakes. This restaurant happens to have one of the most extensive (albeit eclectic) menus around!

Totally random names that "sound good"

Blue Moon? Silent Garden? Seven stars? I am not a big fan of names that tell you nothing about the place itself. Don't get too poetic with your restaurant's name. It will probably cost you.

Names to avoid

Always make sure that the name you are thinking of is not trademarked. Also, be careful when you use slang, local dialects, and especially foreign words. People must be able to pronounce your restaurant's name! Not everybody knows enough French to pronounce Chez Henri. Also, something that sounds totally benign in one language can be extremely offensive in another one. The use of foreign words in one case when you just may want to contact a professional to check things out for you,

A safe and meaningful way to name a restaurant

Unless you want to have a modern sounding name, there is a great way to research restaurant names. Get some old guide books or telephone books from the area that you want to use for inspiration. Look at the names of restaurants from the past. Like anything? Make sure nobody is using the name already, and you are all set. This is especially great if you want to name an Italian or French restaurant.

See also:

French Restaurant Names

Italian Restaurant names

Business name ideas: How to use Greek to build the image of your company

Restaurant-Aquarium (Nais Aquarium)

2009-04-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

This restaurant in Guatemala contains 15 aquariums (or, perhaps, is contained within them). The owners take great pride in their collection of species, so this more than just randomly picked sea critters. The menu features primarily traditional dishes with a slight bow towards seafood. This design idea can be very easily replicated. Just keep in mind the costs of maintaining those aquariums!

Nais Aquarium

Blind Restaurant Experience: Dining in the dark

2009-04-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Not that a restaurateur can completely avoid any need for design this way, but you can certainly come close to spending almost nothing on interior design if you decide to open what some people call a blind restaurant. It usually means that patrons get to dine in complete darkness. Naturally, for vision-impaired people this does not present any problems, but for the rest of us the experience is quite unique. Typically, you will be ushered into the darkness and seated. Simple rules and precautions will be explained, then you are ready for a strange awakening of senses. It is common knowledge that in the absence of visual stimuli our hearing greatly improves. But the sense of taste and the ability to enjoy the texture of otherwise mundane foods also increases!

Dining in the dark is, of course, not something that most people will choose to do on a daily basis, but if you plan to cater to both the blind community (who, obviously, can work as your waiting staff!) and the general public in a large metropolitan area, why not consider this idea? There are also additional features that you can try to introduce. Berlin's Nocti Vagus restaurant has the following list of extras: "Live music, Dark Theater, Comedy, Erotic Evenings, Creepy Story Evenings" etc.

A few restaurants of this kind (I believe that The Blind Cow was the original blind restaurant):

Dans le noir (Paris, France)
Dans le noir (London, UK)
Nocti Vagus (Berlin, Germany)
Opaque (LA-West Hollywood, CA)
O.Noir (Montreal, Canada)
The Blind Cow (Zurich, Sqitzerland)

Zetor - a tractor themed restaurant

2009-03-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

A very strange establishment in Helsinki, Finland. This restaurant serves a typical Finnish menu in the atmosphere of old farm equipment. The word is, it started as a joke, but eventually became rather successful. I guess, the moral here is that if you manage to get your hands on a good number of objects that are old and sort of stick together in a common theme you can build a restaurant around it. Some weird nostalgic feelings will inevitably be invoked in some people.

"Mars 2112" - Space themed restaurant and bar

2009-03-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

"The Mars 2112 restaurant is a space themed restaurant for all the family located in the heart of the Times Square district at 51 Street and Broadway. Mars 2112 is a spectacular mingling of fantasy and reality, a 35,000-square-foot, bi-level, multi-dimensional, immersive environment that catapults travelers to a completely new world."

You can see how sometimes 40% of the theme effect is achieved simply by lighting effects :) Also, finding the right seats and tables is crucial. A nice touch - soft drinks are unlimited and served in souvenir Mars 2112 cups.

T-Rex restaurant at Disney World

2009-03-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

T-Rex restaurant is particularly interesting in its attempt to combine several themes under the umbrella of a single themed restaurant. Prehistoric environments and creatures are the broad theme of this establishment, but you have a choice of Ice Room, Coral Reef Room, Cave Room and, of course, a gift shop.

Ninja Restaurant

2009-03-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

Ninja Restaurant (NYC) is a supposed to be reminiscent of a Ninja castle in the Feudal Japan.

See also:
Space theme restaurant

Ancient Egypt themed restaurant

2009-03-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is my first post in a series of articles about possible ideas for themed restaurants. Creating an interesting environment is a great way to attract patrons, often from outside of the immediate area. It does not have to be expensive. All it takes is an original idea, a proper design and some artifacts that can flesh out the theme you have in mind.

Ancient Egypt is a fascinating topic for both adults and kids. I have been unable to find any restaurants that feature this theme, but it seems that this idea could be very easily implemented. I would be delighted if someone became inspired by this idea. Let's look at some key elements:

Exterior and interior design must be done in warm sandy colors, with accents of white, blue, red and gold.
I would suggest hard wood flooring and simple wooden furniture. You can go with wooden benches for a rather authentic look.
There are some traditional Egyptian decorative motifs that you can easily apply on various surfaces. Use this site for reference: http://www.egyptartsite.com/motifs.html
For accents, use objects directly associated with Egyptian culture: statues and paintings of Bastet cats, Ankhs (ancient Egyptian symbol of life and eternity), busts of Egyptian gods and rulers.
Look for museum quality reproductions of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. You can obtain amazing objects that can be prominently displayed at the entrance of the restaurant. This will entertain the patrons and can even attract new customers. If possible invest in a few actual antiques to anchor your little museum area.
It would not be a great idea to look to Ancient Egyptians for inspiration when you are selecting menu items for your restaurant. I would suggest to look at a variety of generally popular Mediterranean dishes. Of course, the Nile can provide a very natural sagway for fish. Consider placing a complimentary basket of bread or fresh fruit on every table when your patrons arrive.

Restaurant Design Ideas: Blog Started

2009-02-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to do this for a while!

Bizarre themed restaurant features hospital-like atmosphere

2008-06-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

It rarely gets more bizarre than this. Behold Hospitalis, a restaurant in Riga, Latvia. I can only assume that Hospitalis means 'hospital' in Latvian. The name fits, because this restaurant uses medical care as its theme, with such sub themes as dentistry, obstetrics and reanimation. There is even a psyhiatric ward. This is the only restaurant on earth where you can choose to be treated as a mental patient (includes a straight jacket and "force feeding"). The menu is rather extensive: traditional European, seafood and local cousine. All served on hospital-ware with various medical instruments instead of forks and knives. To sum it all up, a very sick place!

See also:
Space themed restaurant