Restaurant concept:

Casual social dining. This means, relaxed atmosphere, with the intention of sharing plates. Not tapas, and not just small plates, but all dishes have the ability to be shared. It’s a place to meet up, share some great food, good conversation and nice wine / craft beer. Good enough to be a local’s favourite, special enough to be the place for an occasion.

Food/Drink: Simple food, done well. Just really good, fresh, unpretentious, real, favourites, some with a twist. Casual, inexpensive, trendy but not pretentious. Smoked meats, raw bar, wood-fire pizza’s, market fresh. Honest, authentic, Aged, slow cooked, braised meats, comfort food

Good wine list, with decent wines by the glass. Nice craft beers and cider. Half the menu will be “favourites”, and a ever changing fresh specials / recommendations. Eventually an exclusive Chef’s table dinner.

Restaurant style: 70 seater restaurant, long narrow (little natural light) – see plans. There are different “zones” for seating. Banquette / bench seating, bar tables for 2, at the bar, large chef’s table and at the back a “winter garden style” which will double as a private room.

Service is casual – friendly, knowledgable, attentive.

We want it to be a place where people come to meet, enjoy casual social catch-ups with friends, enjoy just good food and drink. It’s easy, it’s central and you know you’ll get a good meal

Brand: Strong, back to the core, a bit quirky / funky. Easy, casual, simple, real, just GOOD.

Colours: Open to suggestions, but thinking blue (like the paint), and silver / light grey?

Logo: We want it to say Jack & Knife (as opposed to something like Nike where it is a symbol). If it has an image / design rather than just fonts, it should be integrated into the wording. We won’t use a logo without the words.

Also would be good if the logo upholds itself in black and white (for printing reasons, etc)

Not too intricate because we will need to make a sign for outside (thinking on wine barrel or metal cut out).

Name: Jack and Knife: We’re not sure whether to use and, &, ‘n’, +

We like the look of + but people have been saying jack plus knife. Website and business registration doesn’t allow & or + but “and” seems boring and ‘n’ seems cheesy.

The heritage of it? Chris (owner) is obsessed with knives, hence Jackknife. Jack may represent Friends (or Jack Daniels!) and Knife represents the food. However, really, it’s just a cool name.

Final logo shown here insitu. This was actually a third draft idea that I highly recommended at the time. We explored 8 drafts until the client was satisfied with every outcome. This logo had a balance of simplicity and edginess. It didn’t emphasise the knife too much but used a stylistic knife shape in the typography.