Jacobs Italian Kitchen
Table booking one row beneath the first pizza, in a wood-fired trattoria site made for long evenings.
- Sector
- Italian restaurant
- Year
- 2026
- Work
- Website design
- Screens
- Two desktop screens and the full homepage
01 Serif wordmark. JACOBS in terracotta serif capitals over a widely spaced ITALIAN KITCHEN, quiet enough to sit beside a pizza.
02 Paired headline. Tall, narrow serif capitals in two mirrored clauses: an adjective and a noun, twice.
03 Menu dial. An arc with three stops; the ringed terracotta node marks the pizza on screen.
04 Overhead Margherita. Shot from above on pale stone, so the blistered rim and torn basil carry the photograph.
05 Three-field booking. Guests, date and time, with 2 guests and 7:00 PM preset, docked right under the hero.
06 Two ways in. BOOK A TABLE in solid terracotta, ORDER PICKUP in outline: eating in leads, eating at home follows.
- Flour Dust#F3EFE9 · Background
- Oven Char#1F1F1D · Type
- Terracotta Glaze#D44B1D · Accent
- Sage Linen#DFE3D8 · Surface
- Basil Leaf#354615 · In the photo
About the project
The full write-up, if you want it. About 4 minutes.
01Brief and idea
The problem, and the one idea that answers it.1 min
The brief
Italian restaurants sell evenings more than single dishes. The brief we set ourselves: book the table first, then show the menu by course, sell private dining for birthdays and long lunches, and handle pickup for nights in. We wanted it warm, calm and generous, without the usual red check cloths.
The idea
Good food, long evenings: the page takes its time. One Margherita fills the hero on pale stone, a dial beside it turns to Diavola or Funghi, and a dark booking bar underneath asks only for guests, date and time. The menu follows, sorted by course. Then the oven tells the story, the dining room gives the hours, and the last two bands cover gatherings and pickup, so every way to eat at Jacobs has its own place on the page.
02The write-up
The design, decision by decision.6 chapters · 3 min
A booking bar under the pizza
Most restaurant sites make a guest scroll past the story before they can book. Jacobs, imagined as a wood-fired kitchen in Jumeirah 3, docks the reservation right under the hero. A charcoal bar reads A TABLE AT JACOBS, then asks three things: how many guests, which date and what time, with 2 guests and 7:00 PM already filled in as sensible defaults. FIND A TABLE closes the row in terracotta. The header repeats the choice, BOOK A TABLE in solid terracotta beside ORDER PICKUP in outline, so eating in and eating at home both start at the top.
A dial instead of a carousel
Beside the Margherita a thin arc curves down the screen with three stops on it: MARGHERITA, ringed and set in terracotta, then DIAVOLA and FUNGHI in charcoal beside empty circles. A short rule and FROM THE WOOD-FIRED OVEN close the arc at the bottom. It reads like the dial on an oven or an old radio, and it suggests the obvious interaction: turn to Diavola and the pizza changes. It does the work of a slider without the arrows, dots and autoplay that usually come with one.
Italian without the clichés
There are no red check tablecloths here, no flags and no script lettering. The palette is flour white and pale sage with charcoal type, and terracotta picks out the wordmark, the short rules, one full band and every button. Headlines use a tall, narrow serif in capitals that feels closer to a printed menu than a pizzeria sign, while a book serif carries the softer lines. The hero is shot from above on pale stone, the crust blistered black at the rim, with basil leaves, a vine tomato, scattered chilli flakes and a small dish of olive oil around it.
The menu, one course at a time
COME HUNGRY. LEAVE HAPPY. opens the menu on a sage ground, with a short terracotta rule and the line A few favourites from our kitchen. Across from it, four tabs sort the kitchen by course: PIZZA in a filled terracotta pill, then PASTA, SMALL PLATES and DESSERTS along a hairline. Below sit four white cards for Margherita, Diavola, Pappardelle Ragù and Burrata & Tomatoes, each carrying a single descriptive line, a price and an underlined VIEW DISH link in terracotta. A single FULL MENU button is centred under the row.
Story, hours, a crowd, a night in
Below the menu, each way of eating at Jacobs gets a band of its own. On charcoal, A LITTLE ITALY. A LOT OF HEART. sits beside hands shaping dough in front of a fire-lit oven. On cream, YOUR TABLE IS WAITING. pairs a dining room of rust leather banquettes and a potted olive tree with the opening hours and two buttons, BOOK A TABLE and GET DIRECTIONS. A terracotta band, MORE PEOPLE. MORE TO SHARE., invites birthdays and long lunches, and a last strip of stacked pizza boxes stamped JACOBS offers ORDER PICKUP.
What the controls are for
Each control on the page has a job. The booking bar would check availability and send a confirmed request to one inbox, the course tabs would filter the menu, and every VIEW DISH link would open a page with the dish photographed and described. ORDER PICKUP would take payment into the restaurant's own account, and staff would update the menu, prices and opening hours on their own, with no developer involved.
03Type and voice
Type, colour, photography and the lines on the page.3 roles
- Display
- Tall, narrow, high-contrast serif capitals: two brief clauses, stacked and punctuated like a printed menu heading.
- Labels
- A condensed sans in capitals, widely spaced for straplines and set tighter on buttons, tabs and links.
- Body
- A classic book serif, upper and lower case, kept for the warmer lines that sit under each headline.
A tall, narrow serif in capitals for the headlines, a classic book serif for body text and a condensed sans for buttons and labels. The wordmark sets JACOBS in terracotta serif capitals over a spaced ITALIAN KITCHEN. Colour is flour white and pale sage, with charcoal for type and the booking bar, and terracotta for every action. Photography is warm and often overhead: blistered crusts, basil, a fire-lit oven, a laid dining room. Light bands alternate with charcoal ones, and a single terracotta band holds the gatherings.
GOOD FOOD. LONG EVENINGS.
COME HUNGRY. LEAVE HAPPY.
A LITTLE ITALY. A LOT OF HEART.
MORE PEOPLE. MORE TO SHARE.
A NIGHT IN, DONE RIGHT.
Generous and unhurried. Headlines come in balanced pairs of short clauses that mirror each other, and the body copy talks about time, tables and company more than it talks about ingredients.
04The plan
Grow: 5 pages, and what it includes.4 includes
5 pages: home, menu, story, visit us, private dining, on Grow, AED 4,999 one time. What it includes:
- Table booking by guests, date and time, straight to one inbox
- Pickup orders, paid into your own account
- Menu by course, with prices and photos you edit yourself
- Google Maps listing set up and submitted for you, where Google allows it
A site like this sits on Grow. AED 4,999 one time, with a fixed quote in writing.
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