Restaurant Printing Essentials - Gold Image Printing Blog
Written by Ellis Koifman on Monday, November 14, 2022 12:00 AM
Written by Ellis Koifman on Monday, November 14, 2022 12:00 AM
You know what food you’re going to serve, you have the staff trained and ready to go, you have customers eager to get a bite at the restaurant you’ve been telling them about for ages. Everything seems primed and ready to go. You step into your restaurant for the first time and it’s just a plain-looking building with some tables. No glitz, no glamor, no semblance of your restaurant’s soon-to-be-famous name. Where are all the restaurant printing essentials!?
Realistically speaking, you probably won’t walk into your restaurant for the first time expecting it to be just how you dreamed it without actually doing any setup. Without much effort, you can probably imagine the sign or banner out front, the menus, maybe even the coasters. That said, nothing will actually come into being through willpower alone (if only!). What you need is a comprehensive guide to print essentials for restaurants, an effective tool to help you sort out your setup needs and direct you toward that restaurant of your dreams!
The difference between a missed customer and an interested one is good signage. When someone is walking by the building that contains your restaurant, chances are they won’t take a good look inside unless you draw their attention somehow. Even patrons who already know your restaurant’s address from when you market your restaurant will benefit from clear and distinct signage as they seek out your eatery. So what can you do? What does good signage actually look like? How can you go beyond restaurant marketing?
For starters, you’ll want some restaurant print ideas to really grab attention from afar and promote your restaurant. This can be as simple as a vinyl banner spread across the front window of your restaurant, beckoning customers to come in and try your signature dishes! Not sure what size to get to send the right message? Follow our Standard Vinyl Banner Sizes guide! Sidewalk signs are handy too. Why rely on customers turning their heads to see your sign when you can give them a 360-degree view with a deluxe A-frame?
A more permanent (but easily updatable) signage solution would be to throw up some decals, especially window decals, out front sporting your restaurant’s name, logo, and more! You can also make the decision of Window clings vs window decals.
With the outside of your restaurant set and ready to attract eager customers and aching stomachs, you’ll need some restaurant printing to make the interior just as splendid. Before you can set the tables, you should make sure your walls are full of color and design! This can exist in the form of wall graphics, or you can fill them with posters (which you can learn how to hang properly), mementos showcasing your chef’s career, your own foodie journey, and more. Not a fan of full walls? Not the vibe you’re looking for? How about a classy and elegant custom die cut acrylic sign with your motto, name, or something glamorous? You could also support the local art scene by sporting a canvas!
While a table tent with a QR code for a digital internet-based menu may fit some atmospheres, you should always have at least a few custom printed restaurant menus handy. On the same note, you should also opt to have takeout menus ready, not just for ease of ordering and seeing your menu all at once in all its glory, but also to help with restaurant marketing campaigns. One happy customer tacks your takeout menu to their corkboard, another sees it, word spreads. Your family home may have a dozen or more takeout menus in a drawer, each restaurant’s name seared into your memory. Takeout menus (and menus in general) are just one of those restaurant marketing ideas that always seems to pay off. Menus in hand (or on the phone, if that’s what you opted for), your patrons can set their cold drinks onto acrylic coasters, sit back, and wait for their food to come while enjoying the beautiful restaurant you’ve put together.
Much like how you can’t just show up and expect your restaurant to be magically turned into that of your dreams, you can’t expect your amazing team of wait staff and others to function without the proper equipment. While restaurant printing doesn’t cover cookware, it can provide your employees with custom calendars with key dates that feature delicious dishes (bonus tip: print extra, so they can take them home to share with family and friends). Even staff who are all set up with digital calendars can benefit from not having to repeatedly write out the same form. Get Carbonless Forms to save them time and save you money. Of course, as wait staff walk around taking orders, they will need somewhere to jot down cravings and preferences, so how about some notepads. Wholesale simply doesn’t hold a candle to custom printed with your restaurant name (print extra for more swag)! Do the same with Post-It® Notes and you’ll be unstoppable, as will your incredibly well equipped restaurant team!
Gold Image Printing is always here and happy to help with whatever you need! We’ve got your back no matter what; whether it’s printing a rush order of Business Announcements to get your message out to as many potential customers as possible as your grand opening approaches, helping you design your own restaurant printing, showing you how and why to create restaurant print materials, or following up on your custom order request! We also have Artwork Guidelines to help you take advantage of our CMYK full color printing and plenty of Sizing Guides for posters, business cards, even postcards!
If you’ve ordered everything above or even a hefty portion of it, you might be feeling overwhelmed. Now instead of just worrying about the food and staff and the opening day, you’re also worrying about setting up all the restaurant printing decorations and restaurant printing essentials. Don’t fret! We are happy to offer our Graphic Installation Services! Let us know if this piques your interest and we’ll do all the heavy lifting with setup while you and your team focus on what matters most. Set up a corporate printing account for future orders too, so you can change up seasonal signage and always have us ready to jump in and help some more!