The Foolery Pizza + Bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan Hires Keur Design Studio for Website Design
You know the dive: small, unglamorous, eclectic, old-style… dated decor, cheap beer, local clientele. Perhaps you also know the fine dine: it’s sophisticated it’s unique the service is impeccable the food unmatched.
The Foolery is a “Fine” Dive, and in 2023, the good people of Misfit Joints (Social Misfits, Misfit Society Coffee Club) asked us to come along for the ride and build a website for this new venture.
Fine + Dive
The Foolery serves Detroit-style square pizza with an excellent cocktail program led by Netflix’s “Ultimate Drink Master” Lauren Paylor O’Brien. Inside you will see raccoons hanging from the ceiling, stickers covering the booths, and hub caps on the walls. The website, like the bar, should be fine and dive: a little sophisticated, a little eclectic… perhaps a bit unglamorous in some ways. Still, impeccably executed.
Step #1: Structure
We began with the structure: feature the most important information prominently. The location details, online ordering buttons, and hours should be the first thing the customer sees. We decided on maximalist approach to the navigation, keeping everything within reach. And, we planned for a place on the home page for news and updates.
Step #2: Design
Next, we designed the website. Taking inspiration from old dive-bar websites—you know the ones from the early aughts with the narrow page and busy backgrounds—we wanted something like that, a little left of center. So not all of the elements are precisely aligned. It’s a bit text-heavy in places. And colors are, in areas, maybe a little eccentric. We have a few illustrations scattered throughout, some of them blinking or moving. Still the heart of the website is well-executed with a high-end feel.
Step #3: Development
With our designs solidified, we borough the website to life using Squarespace as the hosting platform. Here’s why: it’s an extremely simple platform to learn, so our client can easily update the website without hiring us for every little change. And yet, with some light coding on the back-end, we can trick out the website with all the bells and whistles of a fully custom design (a fun mobile menu, subtle hover animations, an old-school drop-shadow).
