Purpose of the Menu Cover
As a guest at a restaurant you probably never paid too much attention to how the menu looks, you opened it and started to look for some appetizer. As a restaurant owner everyone should be aware of the importance of the looks of their menu and menu covers. There are probably many other details in hospitality to take care of but once the dishes are appealing, the atmosphere is making customers come back, a menu cover is worth a second or two of your time.
First of all, a menu cover has to be protecting the menu itself. The sole purpose of the menu holder is to keep running costs low in this economy by keeping spilled fluids and stains away from menus. This is extremely important for places where fifty guests skim through every printed menu at the tables every day. Just imagine how much would it add to running costs if you had to get it all printed again at the end of the day and the afternoon all of them looked like a used napkin. Menu covers therefore have to be cheap as well, because natural wear and tear will sooner or later put them from your tables to the bins and it does matter how much and how often you will pay to replace them.
The menu cover has to be attracting. After taking a seat at a restaurant, the menu cover is the first thing guests touch and look at. They will observe the place too, but they’re focusing their attention to the menu at first. There are probably five people out of a hundred who take a good look at the menu holder as well, but is it worth it to please every paying customer to the fullest? Only if one of those five writes half a sentence about your menu covers on their blog you’ve already achieved what these things are designed for. They catch attention and attention is an edge over the competition.
The covers have to be in harmony with the restaurant. Hospitality is a balancing feat and those who don’t get it right will go out of business sooner or later. Every detail of the place has to be in harmony with each other and menu covers are no exception. Modern restaurants should go for modern covers; exclusive places might consider cloth or leather holders. Design studios can help you with nailing the perfect solution; a few hundred dollars spent on a great design probably returns faster than you might think.
It is important to think about protecting the menus from spill and stains but looks also matter. Your guests should never take a used, stained menu about your dishes in their hands, it would give them the idea that your cooks care about the food as much as you care about presentation.
