Menu Cover

A Menu cover is one of those details that whilst not usually being at the top of the list of vitally important features of a restaurant or café, can still leave an impression, either good or bad, in a customers mind. I know from personal experience that if I visit a restaurant and they have clear menu covers that have grown cloudy and cracked with age or a fabric menu cover that has accumulated a few food stains over the years, my impression of the restaurant instantly goes down a few notches and if it is an expensive restaurant, I may even leave. Let's face it, if the owners of the restaurant can't maintain cleanliness and freshness with their restaurant menu cover, how am I to expect that they will go to that extra effort to guarantee the same with their food. Whether the restaurant menu covers are made from an inexpensive clear plastic or top of the line brushed aluminium or hammered copper with a customized menu cover design, the most important item to get right is to keep them clean and up to date.

The next most important detail to get right is to choose restaurant menu covers that complement the theme or style of the restaurant and so tells the client that the owner is someone who is prepared to go to that extra trouble and expense so that the customer can enjoy their dining experience all the more. Just a quick look around on the internet will reveal a great many websites that specialize in menu covers. Internet websites are a great way to research the prices and different options available when trying to choose a menu cover that enhances your restaurant. It is even possible to find menu cover outlets that can supply menu covers wholesale and discount menu covers.

The range of sizes, shapes and materials that menus covers can be purchased in is quite astounding. We have all seen, as previously mentioned, clear plastic cafe menu covers that are perfect for take away coffee shops, diners or fish and chips shops that provide cheaper food to the public. But how many people have seen the hammered aluminium wine menu cover that has the restaurant logo attached to the front in the form of a metal plate and a silk lined interior. Or how many people have seen the mahogany wooden menu cover with the five star restaurant name chiseled delicately into the wooden cover. These are the types of options that are available to the owner of a restaurant or café as they attempt to determine what type of menu cover will best represent their business and enhance the customers dining pleasure.

For instance, an owner of an asian restaurant would do well to consider the different materials and styles that go hand in hand with asian food. Some of these materials include woven bamboo or cork. Basket weave bamboo can be used as a flexible menu cover that has the added bonus of being washable so that they can easily be kept in pristine condition. Cork can be used in hard cork menu covers by being attached to ply thus giving it the strength to endure years of handling. Cork is also resistant to staining. Whilst these materials provide relatively cheap menu covers, they also look great and can truly lift the beauty of the table in the right type of restaurant.

Another wonderful thing about menu covers for restaurants is that they can be chosen to match other features of the restaurant to create continuity in the restaurant theme that is subtle, yet leaves a lasting impression upon the diner. Using the above example of the Asian restaurant, woven bamboo menu covers will perfectly match bamboo placemats, bamboo blinds and cheap bamboo laminate flooring, providing a tropical feel to the dining space that compliments any Asian dish. The owner can even go to the point of matching the baskets used in yum cha and other asian cooking.

When looking at a more fine dining experience, the aforementioned mahogany wooden menu covers provide that feeling of quality that one would expect of a more traditional five star restaurant where one can sit by open fires sporting ornate fireplace screens and beautiful antique wall clocks above. Other woods that can be used for this purpose include beech, maple and cherry. Each of these gives a rich colour and texture that are perfect for a more traditional dining experience. These can be embellished with the restaurant name attached as a metal plate to the front of the cover and an opulent fabric lining sewn to the interior of the cover. These go hand in hand with any wooden implements that may adorn the table including salt and pepper grinders and wooden napkin rings. They also complement the wooden blinds, lace net curtains and wooden display cabinets often found in this type of restaurant. The examples of menu covers mentioned above are only a few of the many possibilities that owners can choose from. Others include leather, bonded leather, and brushed metal menu covers as well as a range of shapes that is limited only by the imagination and creativity of the designer.