The John’s Place Project

John’s Place has been an award-winning culinary cornerstone in Chicago for over 30 years but was in need of a facelift — not just visually but in all aspects. We started by creating a fresh Brand Strategy, one that included a focus on the wants and needs of today’s healthy customer without losing sight of the comfort food that made the restaurant a mainstay of families dining in the neighborhood. The company’s values resonated as much today as they did in 1994 and were our guiding ideals as we took on the work of refreshing not just the identity of the brand but its operational approach.

With the strategy defined, we looked at the menu and the interior and exterior design of the restaurant. For the menu, we analyzed item performance in their Toast POS system within and across dayparts. We added new menu items and refreshed others with organic ingredients, and refocused our attention on the local sourcing that was a key part of the John’s Place origin.

“Truly impressed with your overall grasp of our brand and your methodology to get us on the right path. Your exercises were spot on and I was blown away with your insights.

While I realize that this is your profession, not all consultants are built alike.”

Image of an array of materials, colors and decor for John's Place redesign

Our objective for the interior and exterior building improvements was to minimize cost while creating excitement and visually conveying the friendly and fun personality of the restaurant’s namesake, John Manilow. Using the color palette from the new Brand Identity suite we created, which included hand-illustrated logos derived from an old sketch, we designed an interior with fun color and wallpaper that worked well with the constraints of using existing furniture, not changing any flooring or tile and not painting the exposed ducts and ceiling. We painted the exterior of the restaurant and installed new signage, in addition to adding a sweet scalloped valance along the entrance awning, new umbrellas and abundant flower boxes.

The final step was extending the new identity and outlook to the Website. We analyzed various platforms including ChowNow, Toast and Squarespace and the owners decided to stay with their existing Bentobox platform. In order to not spend on custom development, we designed a site using one of the existing Bentobox templates that came alive with the new visual branding.

Makes you hungry for a visit?

Picture of John Manilow standing in front of the red door at the original John's Place restaurant on Webster in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood

After

Before

Screen shot of the older version of the John's Place website Home Page

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