Launching a new restaurant brand on a shoestring budget.
There are a handful of well-financed, well-known farm-to-table restaurants in New York City. Our client wasn’t one of them.
As a new, independently owned restaurant, Greensquare Tavern would have to carve out its own competitive space in a very crowded market. And it would have to do so on a very limited budget.
The bad news was, their modest budget would have to include everything from gut-renovating the restaurant’s space (the former Schaffer City at 5 West 21st Street) to creating all marketing materials, from the logo to the website to advertising.
The good news was, this would give us the chance to craft a new brand around the physical space and realities of the restaurant, rather than trying to retrofit around any existing design or color codes.
By building the restaurant’s brand from the bricks outward—from the look of the dining room to the placement of the bar, to the look of the logo and the colors we used– we stayed true to a single vision and maximized the value of every dollar spent.
For Greensquare Tavern to stand out from the pack, it would have to stand for something more than just local ingredients and an organic manifesto.
Partners Larry McIntyre, Leon Bell and John Marsh were open to creating a brand personality than was more irreverent than earnest. They also wanted to encourage a brisk bar business! We wrote the restaurant’s tagline, EAT LOCAL, DRINK GLOBAL, as the rallying cry that would unite all future efforts.
Before (left) and after.
Old bar with eel tank (left), and new bar.
Back dining room with skylight before (left) and after.
Old banquettes (left) and new high bar tables.
Old bar area (left), new bar area.
To create an inviting space without major investment, we made strategic decisions that would exploit the original beauty and character of the interior, without adding costly new materials.
The existing space had a lot of old, dark wood, large banquettes, captain’s chairs, and maroon tablecloths. The bar was not visible from the street
But there were also gorgeous old brick walls and spectacular vintage tile from the 1920′s.
Another huge asset was our contractor, Mirik Pollak, who was one of the restaurant investors. He and his team worked tirelessly and were tremendously resourceful in helping us save time and money.
The first design decision Florence made was to rip out everything that blocked the beauty of the tile and brick. All those big, heavy banquettes had to go. We sold the captain’s chairs on Craig’s List for $1,000, which helped pay our new ones, which were sleek, black, and graceful—a perfect foil for the aged brick walls and vintage tile.
The beautiful old tile.
All the old dark wood was painted over in a light, bright shade that would pick up the lovely blue and teal of the original tilework.
We expanded the bar area and removed the partition that blocked it from the big front window. Now, passersby could be drawn in by the sight of a well-stocked, vibrant bar.
While renovating, we discovered that the old bar was dry-rotted. Working with Florence, Larry McIntyre designed the new bar out of light natural beech to reflect the airy, contemporary feel of the new restaurant and showcase the beauty of liquor bottles lined up on well-lit glass shelves. The bar was built by Craig Palmer (craigpalmernyc@yahoo.com) in record time.
The beautiful tiles also informed our brand’s color codes. This was a huge asset in helping us stand out from other farm-to-table restaurants.
The existing farm-to-table restaurants in NYC, for the most part, had brand personas that were rustic or retro, with brown and green color codes. Using those colors would have literally camouflaged us into the category. So we embraced the teal and gold of the tiles.
Our print ads and other promotional materials reflected our more irreverent approach to eating local.
Now that we had a strong design scheme, we needed décor—but by now had nearly exhausted our budget. Fortunately Florence has strong ties to the local photography scene, and turned the restaurant’s spacious brick walls into a gallery for fine art photography. She partnered with Duggal, the premier photo lab, to offer rotating photography exhibitions hosted by guest curators.
Now Greensquare Tavern was a restaurant that supported local farmers AND local photographers—with a vibrant brand image that helps it stand out from the category.
greensquaretavern.com
