Case Study: A Heavenly New Website for The Elysian Bar

Challenge

The Elysian Bar is a popular restaurant and bar in New Orleans’ Marigny neighborhood, located inside the historic Hotel Peter and Paul.

When The Elysian Bar approached our team, they wanted to redesign their Wix website according to their existing brand in a way that would capture the essence of their beautiful space and would be easier for their team to maintain, especially with constant updates to their menu. They also wanted to feature their customers’ various experiences from the early morning coffee crowd to lunch, to aperitivos, to dinner and late-night cocktails.

Expanding the Brand

The Elysian Bar had an existing visual brand and a small illustration library previously created by another designer, as well as lots of beautiful photography, but they had had trouble translating all of that to their website. We worked to expand their brand into a functional website display, taking care to highlight their brand’s illustrated elements and placing their photography front-and-center on the site.

The Elysian Bar's new easy-to-update food menu

Easy-to-Update Food + Drink Menu

The Elysian Bar updates its seasonal food and drinks menus continuously throughout the year. Previously, they were uploading images of their menus every time anything changed, which was cumbersome and meant that anyone using a screen reader or other assisted viewing device couldn’t access their menu. With our implementation of Wix Restaurants Menus, the Elysian team can now quickly add new menu items, update existing ones, or archive them until next season, and their website automatically reflects their changes.

Featuring Elysian’s Unique Spaces

The Elysian Bar’s space actually consists of seven distinct areas , all with different dining experiences, from which customers can choose when making a reservation. To both highlight these unique spaces and avoid any confusion customers might face when choosing, we included a full page dedicated to photos and descriptions of each of The Elysian Bar’s spaces, as well as several sections throughout the site leading customers to the page. This also helped achieve Elysian’s goal of featuring various customer experiences in different settings, from the coffee café to the bar.

From the Client

My restaurant and bar had the pleasure of working with Online Optimism for a website redesign. Our small business is a fine dining restaurant housed in a boutique hotel. The guest experience is different from other establishments, because we offer service from coffee to cocktail hour in a variety of unique spaces. We were looking to capture both the offerings and ambiance while still keeping the site clean, navigable and easy to update.

We are so pleased with the service Claire and Online Optimism rendered. From the proposal stage to site publication, the team is extremely communicative and understanding. Online Optimism worked with our request to use Wix as a hosting platform, and Claire’s thorough explanations and training make site updates a breeze.

Their team goes above and beyond: they are professional and flexible, consistent and accommodating. Thanks again for a job well done.