Menu presentation today is confusing, to say the least. Should you go digital, throw out a single paper after each use or use a chalkboard? Or can you still use a menu board?
Meet Taste Envy, a small Seattle based design company that has a menu solution for today’s Covid-19 world. They offer menu and service ware solutions that are antimicrobial, wipeable with disinfectant as well as dishwasher safe. It’s a material that most people are familiar with, a resin hardened recycled paper that is often sold as cutting boards. However, Taste Envy turned this same material into menu solutions.
Taste Envy was established in 2008 by husband and wife team Nadine Stellavato Brown and Jason Brown. As a small product and graphic design firm, they found menu design lacking in both simplicity and longevity. Jason Brown, the product designer of the duo immediately sought to find a green material that would stand up to high traffic solutions. He found paper resin, a post-consumer product that is manufactured close to their facility in Seattle. “It checked all my boxes,” said Jason “it was not only green, but it could get wet, hot, and could withstand many conditions.”
In addition to paper resin being a green product, it is antimicrobial and dishwasher safe. Taste Envy currently offers menus, wine, and beer flights, and serving trays out of this material.
“We can offer a menu solution that does not immediately go into the trash bin,” says Taste Envy co-owner Nadine, “and we have several solutions to protect the patrons and staff.”
For one, their plastic overlays are designed to cover the entire board thus protecting the paper from being touched during service. Additionally, the overlays show fingerprints that alert staff to disinfect the menu. Furthermore, all menu board materials can be wiped down between uses. For a more thorough approach to sanitizing, the paper resin menu boards, can be disassembled and sanitize through the dishwasher which is illustrated in “how-to” videos at www.taste-envy.com. Plus, all menus and service ware material can be custom etched with a logo for only a few dollars each. It’s a brand win-win.
