Three things I’ll miss about Fuel Restaurant
4 Comments
Tiny Bites Consulting
November 16, 2009
You may have already heard that Kitsilano jewel Fuel Restaurant will be closing its doors at the end of the month. Many in the Greater Vancouver food community are lamenting its passing even though the people behind Fuel are not truly going away. They’re reopening a few days later as a more casual, Pacific Northwest concept that will hopefully be affordable enough for it to become a regular dining haunt of mine.
I was lunching at Fuel for one last time last week when it suddenly dawned on me that I had never written about what has been my top Kits restaurant pick for the past year. I wish this was less of a eulogy, but better late than never to go over the top three things I love about Fuel.
And who knows…maybe Fuel will listen to this little piece of mine and consider keeping these items around for the next incarnation.
1) Sitting by the open kitchen
There are only two circumstances where I would prefer to sit at the bar for a meal: a) when I’m dining solo and b) when I get to watch my meal being prepared.
The latter is why I prefer to take a barstool seat in front of Fuel’s open kitchen. Like my experience at Atlanta’s Two Urban Licks, eating by the kitchen allows me to watch the staff work their magic and whet my appetite with the sizzle of the grill and the aromas that waft my way as each plate comes together.
It also gives opportunity to converse with the people closest to the food and ask them questions: what’s in season? Where did you source your ingredients? How’d you make that amazing sauce?
2) Business lunch set menus
When I have a client or business partner that I want to impress, I usually take them to Fuel.
They offer $25 and $35 “business lunch” set menus, guaranteed from start to finish to take 45 minutes or less. Fuel won’t rush you if you wanted to dally, but it helps to know that they will accommodate 1-hour schedules and won’t mind when you whip out a laptop while you eat.
I’ve been able to get Wifi access and outlet power during all the business lunches I’ve had, so if you might need these services, ask – it may be something that they routinely offer.
3) Fried Chicken Fridays
The fried chicken special offered for lunch on Fridays is the main reason that I’ve been able to return so often to Fuel without draining my disposable income for the month. The $20 combo includes a beer plus 3 pieces of buttermilk battered chicken, seasonal greens, a butter-laden biscuit, and housemade gravy that I cannot get enough of.
They’ve improved the recipe since my first Fried Chicken Friday visit, now dunking said chicken twice into the buttermilk batter for extra crisp. Should this plate pass over to the new restaurant’s menu in December – and better yet, should this become a regular item not just to be enjoyed on Fridays – I suspect that I’ll become a familiar face at lunchtime in the Kitsilano area.
Fuel Restaurant
1944 W 4th Ave | Kitsilano
(604) 288-7905
Categories: Food, Kitsilano, Restaurants
5 things that diners look for on a restaurant website
11 Comments Tiny Bites ConsultingMarch 3, 2009
We pulled from personal experiences and the testament of our network to highlight some of the key pieces of info that people look for when visiting a restaurant’s website.
Restaurant overview
If your restaurant has been recommended by a trusted source, it’s likely that your site visitor already knows who you are and what you serve. But don’t leave it to chance. Have an easy to find summary of what cuisine you deliver and the vibe your space gives off. While it’s highly convenient to have this info on your front page, you could also go into more detail on a dedicated About page.
Take a look at Fude, a restaurant in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village. A highly visual graphic header and descriptive About page tells you about their regional focus and already makes you curious to dine there.
Location and hours
Don’t make your readers work to find where you’re located and when you’re open. Many restaurant websites include this critical information at the top or bottom of every page. We like that.
If you wish to be even more helpful, list a clearly marked Location page with an embedded map (a Google map, for example) and link to a service that can provide custom directions.
We like how Seattle’s Le Pichet does it.
Online menu and pricing
One of the first things we do when choosing a restaurant from a list of possibilities is to compare menus. Some nights call for a culinary adventure. Other times, humble, homestyle meal will hit the spot. Let site visitors easily figure out what you serve and what you charge.
It may seem easier for you to upload your menus as a PDF download, but your site is not for your convenience: it’s for your customer’s convenience. The best restaurant websites let people peruse the listings as a regular page that loads quickly and is easy to scan.
We love the menu section of Seasons 52.
Photos of your food and space
Although your menu may describe your dishes well and clarify price range, people still want to know what to expect when they walk in the door and when a plate is set in front of them.
To prove that your meals entice, use vibrant food photography from the home page to the deepest corners of your site. Have a special gallery of your wares and decor if you have a collection of great photos. Don’t let your visitors leave your site without craving what you make.
Browse through the photo gallery of Atlanta’s South City Kitchen and see if you can leave it without a little rumble in your tummy.
Reservation instructions or contact info
If a diner has been won over by the allure of your restaurant, a search for phone numbers, email addresses, or reservations instructions may result. Consider integrating a real-time reservation application into your restaurant’s contact section. People do appreciate the convenience.
New York’s Restaurant David Drake has a reservations link that seats tables using Open Table.
Common search obstacles
People do not go to restaurant websites to look for:
- Splash screens
- Animations
- Music
- Menus in unusual places
Often, the items above interfere with a diner’s hunt for these 5 things, causing your reader enough frustration to result in a lost table.
Table talk
It’s time to chat. Please respond to the questions below or let us know which restaurant sites are doing a good job of fulfilling your information search quickly.
Diners: what else do you go to a restaurant website for?
Restauranteurs: how easy does your site make it to find these 5 things? What else do you offer at your restaurant that you promote on your website?
Categories: Consulting, Featured
Client Spotlight: Scout Magazine
1 Comment Tiny Bites ConsultingMarch 3, 2009
Last fall, Andrew Morrison of Urban Diner fame contacted Tiny Bites Consulting to help out on his new vision: an online magazine on Vancouver food, culture, life, and style.
Over a series of dinner meetings and meet-ups at the lounge in Boneta, we hammered out the specs for a WordPress-powered site with a heavily customized Revolution theme. Scout had a number of goals, such as:
- Building a large, loyal, local readership
- Encouraging online conversations amongst readers and visitors
- Maximizing ad revenue potential
In order to accomplish Scout’s objectives, Tiny Bites Consulting:
- Helped in purchasing scoutmagazine.ca and hosting the site on Bluehost
- Set up WordPress for site management and phpBB for forum management
- Implemented the Scout’s bold, media-rich design to spec using PHP, HTML, and CSS
- Created dynamic sidebars to allow adspace to be unique for the default view and each of the 4 topic categories
- Showed how Twitter can be used to promote articles, distribute polls, attract a wider audience, and encourage conversation
- Tested that the site looked good in the major browsers, mobile devices, and didn’t break in Internet Explorer 6
But don’t take our word for it. Check out the site for yourself.
Categories: Consulting, Featured, Our Clients, Web Development
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