FOOD & BEVERAGE
MENUS THAT TELL A BETTER STORY
Menus work best when treated as a strategic communication tool, not an afterthought.
This is Part 2 of a three-part series on the most over- looked profit lever in food and beverage: the menu. Part 1 (September 2025) focused on using menu design to improve profit margin. Part 2 dives into how to build a menu that tells a story guests want to buy into. Part 3 will look at how choice architecture and guest behavior impact menu design.
By Travis Talbot, Resort Hospitality Strategist, Hospitality Arts Group
One narrow column of text, all-caps drink names, and descriptor fine print so tight guests had to use the magnifying app on their smart phone. Mix-matched naming themes like “Brad’s Old-Fash- ioned” sat beside “Bourbon Old Fash- ioned,” both with similar ingredients, both priced the same, both ignored. During the off-season, the team overhauled and re-designed the page from font to formatting. They grouped cocktails into three clusters—“Moun- tain Legends,” “Local Innovators,” and “Applauded Après.” Descriptions were trimmed to one line each, and a short note under the header read, “collabora- tions with regional distillers using arti- sanal ingredients.” Within a month of reopening, cocktail sales rose 20 percent and the “Applauded Après” section outsold the pack. Nothing in the overall theme changed. The shift was all perception. That is how a menu markets. Its lan- guage builds tone, and its layout builds logic. Together these tell a specific story.
Names and phrases shape how guests imagine the experience before they taste it. “Grilled Cheese” is just lunch. “Moun- tain Melt: cold smoked sharp cheddar, 3 Hills Bakery sourdough, farmers cut pickles” invites people into the land- scape. “By the Glass” sounds transaction- al; “Iconic Reds” sounds like curation. A good story builds value, too. A $22 burger feels steep until the menu quiet- ly declares premium: “Silverstone Ranch 80/20 with baconaise sauce, heirloom tomato salsa, buttered and toasted bri- oche bun.” The story justifies the price. Guests are not paying for toppings. They are paying for composition, in the writ- ing as well as the dish build. These details work because they pull the guest into the story of the concept. They also help the staff. A menu that tells a clear story gives servers and bartenders language they can repeat naturally. It becomes part of the house vocabulary, not a sales pitch.
Every year, hospitality white papers on menu design come out reinforc- ing the notion that something as simple as a featured or formatted item can outsell unformatted ones by as much as 25 percent, and that language choice alone can lift the perceived value of an item by double digits. Yet the average menu still gets designed on a borrowed laptop, printed in-house, and laminated like a pool pass. When you treat a menu like an asset, it performs like one. Consider one resort scramble that reframed its digital board layouts by streamlining the bulk and replacing it with a clear “Legendary Favorites” high- lighted section. The move increased throughput by 15 percent, and check averages climbed based on suggestive selling. No financial asks. No extra staff. Just sharper communication for more ROI.
THE MENU IS MARKETING
THE SCIENCE OF SUGGESTION
Guests start forming opinions the sec- ond they handle the menu. The weight of the paper, the fonts, the spacing between items, even the phrasing of a drink name—all of it signals what kind of experience they’re in for. In one resort hotel lounge, the cock- tail list had long been an afterthought.
A STORYBOOK FOR ADULTS
Menus have always been behavioral tools. They guide attention, simplify decisions, and create the illusion of free- dom of choice while quietly shaping the outcome. Even small wording changes can lift sales. The difference between “Fish
Every menu tells a story, whether the writer means it to or not. The difference is whether the story sparks interest. Sto- ries should be short, arousing (mentally and viscerally) narratives about place, people, and palate.
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