Branding Solutions for Restaurants- Burger Warfare
SITUATION:
On Battleground Avenue in Greensboro, North Carolina, there’s a burger skirmish going on. Not between competitors but within an imaginative new concept restaurant named Burger Warfare. The dining establishment is a Wall E meets Terminator type of place, where giant robots greet customers and digital camo covers the walls. Part future, part past, it’s all about fun and food.
The project began more than a year ago, under the vision of real estate developer and restaurateur Marty Kotis, who wanted to create an exciting dining establishment for a city that lacked entertaining dining options. More than creating a restaurant for a certain demographic, Kotis wanted an establishment that was fun, and kept people talking long after the burgers and shakes were consumed.
Fusion Custom Art + LuxCore at Burger Warfare
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE:
Two challenges faced designers at Burger Warfare. The first challenge involved wall coverings.
The restaurant’s walls are covered in a hand-painted, digital camouflage pattern that extends throughout the restaurant and into the restroom waiting area. Kotis planned to take the digital camo feel into the restrooms to fully immerse diners in the concept, but hand-painting wasn’t an option. A tightly-spaced, moisture-laden environment called for something more durable.
The second challenge was the restaurant’s bar front. Kotis wanted to depict the rolling wheels of a tank tread across the front. Whatever material he used must have custom artwork abilities, plus meet sanitation codes and handle the knee and shoe scuffing that bar fronts must endure.
Fusion Custom Art + LuxCore at Burger Warfare
SOLUTION:
So Kotis turned to ATI Decorative Laminates for surfaces that would meet the aesthetic needs of the establishment, but withstand the wear and tear of a business that’s open seven days a week.
“ATI was great to work with,” said Kotis. “They were excited about the project and had just the right product to make several areas pop that otherwise would have been overlooked.”
Kotis chose ATI’s LuxCore product, a proprietary, translucent FRP panel imaged with ATI’s Fusion process and backed to be used as a laminate. The translucent panels pass sanitary codes and are easy to clean, and they are suitable for wet environments such as commercial kitchens and baths.
The custom bar front features a clear surface with the tank tread image fused to the back of the substrate. Kotis created custom artwork of a modern and colorful tank tread that ATI built into the product.
The restroom walls use LuxCore to continue the digitized camouflage pattern, also created from custom artwork that ATI worked into the product. Both surfaces convey the brand message while standing up to water, wear and tear.
While Kotis considered other materials for the depicting the tank tread and camouflage visuals, including ceramic tile, LuxCore came out on top for several reasons: it’s health-grade material, a critical element for restaurants; extremely scratch and stain resistant, and bars and restrooms get a lot of wear from shoes, knees, feet, elbows and barstools; easy to install, they did the work themselves; customizable, they created a unique image; and it costs much less than other substrates.
Beyond the properties of the product, one thing Kotis especially appreciated during the manufacturing process was that ATI allowed them to create several samples to ensure the color was correct. “The ATI facility is truly impressive and we are lucky to have them in Greensboro,” said Kotis. “We plan to use them for several of our upcoming projects.”
In comparison to all the other custom elements in the restaurant, the development, production and installation of LuxCore was a breeze. It will battle the environmental elements of the burger war for many, many years to come.
Product used: LuxCore
Designers: Marty Kotis and Jenna Lumtscher
Installation Year: 2015
