James Bond might have had the latest gadgets, but 007’s enemies truly appreciated elegant surroundings. They often plotted in extravagant restaurants, which inspired the luscious interior of New York’s House of the Red Pearl, a Chinese-themed speakeasy.
Naturally, an elegant restaurant requires an equally elegant menu.
Intrigued by the idea of seamlessly blending menus with a venue’s ambiance, Mucca Design created a masterpiece. They designed a menu resembling an ancient Chinese folding fan, complete with a pre-scored area down the middle. This allows guests to discreetly hide their faces, adding a playful touch to the speakeasy experience.
Elegant Details
Printed by Masterpiece Printers on 80 lb. Domtar Cougar Smooth White paper, one side of the menu features current offerings of main courses, appetizers, and side dishes. These get updated regularly in-house, but we’ll delve into that shortly.
The exterior of the “fan” was flooded with Red ink and embellished with Red Hot Foil dots, a nod to the “House of the Red Pearl” name.
Chinese characters in Red Foil further enhance the authentic Chinese feel of the piece.
A Classy Tribute
This tone-on-tone effect pays homage to the speakeasy’s hidden-in-plain-sight aspect. Concealed behind an Asian grocery store inside New York’s Tin Building, the speakeasy’s location remains a secret to many.
Mucca Design also took charge of all the branding for this iconic venue.
Innovative Menu Design
What’s even more impressive is the menu’s adaptability. Large, perforated, and pre-scored sheets allow easy updates. The restaurant’s high-end laser printer handles the reprints, and staff simply fold the new menus along the pre-existing score.
One of the biggest challenges: creating a die-cut sheet that wouldn’t rip or jam inside the printer.
To address this, the menu’s design features multiple scores radiating from a central point. This results in its impressive seashell appearance and feel. Printed in Red on the back, a traditional Chinese poem about gratitude reminds guests to tip their service staff generously.
An Elaborate Puzzle
The following pieces fit inside, or sit next to, the beautiful Red folding fan menu:
- The White drinks menu sports a scalloped top similar to that of the Red folding fan and provides a nice contrast in color and size, as it protrudes from the top and bottom of that menu.
- The full-bottle wine list wows with Red Hot Foil dots and Chinese characters on the White cover.
- The dessert menu looks just like the main folding fan one – Red foil on a Red cover – but is less than a quarter of the size. And last but not least…
- The check holder is another Red Foil on Red cover piece, only with a couple of important differences. Not only does it not fold like the previous menus, but it also lacks the scalloped edges of the meal and dessert menus.
From the Red foil and matching interior details to the clever way designers made the menus updatable without sacrificing uniqueness, these materials are as creative as James Bond’s gadgets. And if you use the dessert menu correctly, you’ll accomplish something 007 never did: enjoying a Fortune Cookie Sundae at meal’s end!
