This id the graphic project for the menu of Agriturismo Ca' Lunati, a beautiful restaurant in the hills near Bologna, Italy.
I had the pleasure to work side by side with the client for this one, and I think the result reflects the personality of the place: an elegant, attentive to detail but genuine restaurant, where tradition and innovation meet to create something new and special.
For this reason I chose a vintage engraved style for the illustrations, which I drew digitally, put beside a modern choice of fonts: Glacial Indifference, Kulachat Slab and Allura.
The first page of this menu is a short summary of their story and their values as business: how it all started with the grandparents moving to the countryside to open a farmhouse, how everything is now managed by the daughter and granddaughter with respect for the environment, how they choose local products and careful research raw materials for the restaurant.
Particular attention goes to seasonal products, for this reason there are separate menus for Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, followed by dishes to be savored all year round (playfully named "the untouchables").
Pages 7 and 8 are mostly about set menus, that's why I chose to surround them with a frame, to give the idea of something carefully thought in advance.
The beverage page was quite a challenge: not only different types of wine, beer etc, but also lots of different bottle capacities! In the end I came up with the idea of grids: columns and rows are always effective to clear things out.
Three pages went to describe briefly each and everyone of the restaurant providers, that the client care to underline as they are virtuous examples of the Italian territory, especially of the surrounding area. It's an ever-evolving list, as the restaurant is constantly improving.
The last page is an illustration of hands making tortellini (a typical fresh stuffed pasta, symbol of the city of Bologna) followed by the quote "In everything we do, we confuse the images of everything we love" by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Finally, two seasonal adding pages: one for the season of an historical grape of the area, and one for the season of truffles, also very typical there.
And the overall look of the Menu:
