July 16–23, 1998

food

What's On The Menu?

Katherine Dahlsgaard sizes up the design of local restaurants' bills of fare.

By Katherine Dahlsgaard

Sidebar: Looks Tasty

The restaurant menu is the culinary equivalent of a street-corner shell game. You might think making a winning choice is completely under your control, but you're being manipulated by subtle visual shoves. Profitable items get prominent placement, pricey signature dishes are highlighted with boxes and color, and the pricing is calculated to influence your choice.

Of course, the menu not only sells you on the food, but promotes the restaurant's image. Rouge 98's burgundy booklet suggests you're in a Parisian café. Warmdaddy's down-home dish descriptions imply sweet Southern cookin'. Continental's slick, ratpack style makes you think: "I'm so fabulous for eating here!"

These days, menu engineering is big business. Steven Grasse, CEO and creative director of Gyro Worldwide (who designed menus for Stephen Starr's Continental and Café Republic), says that his design agency tries "to capture the vibe of the whole place; when you open the menu, it should feel like the restaurant." Prilla Rohrer, co-owner of Flux Visuals (the agency responsible for Rouge 98's and Striped Bass' menus), agrees. "Menu covers communicate graphically the identity of the restaurant." Her agency designs the outside shells of menus, but doesn't get involved in the area of item placement. Yet she's always wary of menu design when she goes out to eat: "I often find them cluttered and manipulative."

Menus are a relatively recent creation. At first, restaurants relied on waiters to recite the dishes, a time-consuming affair. Written menus (originally on chalkboards) proved much more convenient. The individual printed menu, an American invention, appeared in the mid-1800s, reflecting advances in printing, increasing restaurant size and lengthier bills of fare. By the 20th century, when printed menus became part of the overall sell of a restaurant, cover graphics and sophisticated design proved a necessary component to a restaurant's success. A new book, May I Take Your Order by Jim Heimann, compiles some of the notable menus of this century (see sidebar).

Philadelphia is in the midst of a restaurant renaissance. Are its menus keeping up? Here are a few of the prevailing trends:

 

Size Does Matter

Extra-large menus make the patron feel big and important (Live Bait, Circa), but the little book menus (Rouge 98, Le Colonial's Salon) give one the impression of exclusivity, as if you're in on a secret. Le Bec-Fin wins the bonus combination prize: its dinner menu is big and written entirely in French.

 

Squint And The World Squints with You

Some restaurants still feature the old-school blackboard to list a small menu or the day's specials (Friday, Saturday, Sunday; Little Fish; Warsaw Cafe). However charming and casual, this mode of menu may require that you crane your neck, goggle your eyes or ask the haplessly situated member of your party what you can eat that evening. Bravo to Serrano, where the specials board is simply plonked on your table and then read aloud by your server, whether you want to hear it or not.

 

Kafka Cringes

Another trend in menus is over-description. Every detail but the killing of the animal is included in the explanation. From The Latest Dish: "marinated chicken breast, caramelized onion focaccia, arugula, saga bleu cheese, bacon, roasted garlic mayo and spicy shoestring fries" (otherwise known as a grilled chicken sandwich). From City Tavern: "Tender chunks of turkey with mushrooms, early peas, and red potatoes in a rich sherry cream sauce topped with flaky pastry crust, baked crisp in a pewter casserole accompanied with egg noodles on the side" (otherwise known as a pot pie).

 

Adjectives Deleted

Some dish descriptions come unfettered, like bullets. The winner in this category is Stix, where "grilled squid" and "beets" cut right to the chase, and abbreviations ("chicken parm sandwich") and slashes ("shrimp/rice") limit the number of nasty characters. Stix is also a great place to take a child with Attention Deficit Disorder: the entirety of the kid's section reads "kids $5: pizza, chicken, flounder, spaghetti/meatball."

 

Feed An Army

At Chinese restaurants and especially at diners, the menus seem to offer kazillion dishes all day, every day. If I had a dollar for every item on Little Pete's and the Melrose Diner's menus, I'd have $321.

 

Suffer The Little Children

Remember the thrill of "Turkey Lurkey," "Hot Diggety Doggies" mazes and word finds? Whatever happened to the kids' menus of my untroubled youth? Don't children matter anymore? Kudos to IHOP, with a placemat menu featuring pictures for kids who want a decent meal but can't quite read, and Le Bus, for their separate, neon-colored rocket and choochoo-shaped kids' menus.

 

Pissy Potpourri

Anything described on a menu as baked, broiled or grilled "to perfection." "Soup in the mood of the day," rather than "soup du jour" (which, when you think about, is pretentious enough). Words inexplicably placed in quotes "eggs," "candied," "in house," "the," "kiwi." Too many damn fonts: Oberon's placemat menu, a cute idea, but every font except for Duchamp's (and that's featured across the street on brother Rococo's menu) is represented until your head explodes and you have to order another drink just to calm down (a conspiracy?).

 

So Adorable, Who Cares What it Tastes Like?

These are menus which feature provocative, terrifying or whimsically titled items, such as Backstage's "Porker Stevenson"; Martini Lounge's "Romeo and Juliet's Love Elixir"; Lemongrass' "Evil Jungle Princess," "Screaming Mermaid" and "Ugly Duckling"; The Griffin Cafe's "Mr. Green Jeans."

 

Philosophy Korner

Some menus come complete with helpful quotes. Rouge 98: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well" (Virginia Woolf). Jamaican Jerk Hut: "The stone that the builder refuses shall be the head corner stone" (Bob Marley). Cafe Zesty: "For myself, I declare that there is no greater fulfillment of delight than when…" (long bit from The Odyssey). Lemon Grass: "Never tried Thai food before? It's not easy at first, but neither is life."

 

Summer Dining Guide '98