Times Square

When I first sat down to eat at Times Square with my sister, who’d recommended the place, I was presented an old, tattered paper menu with plain black text. I also noticed right off the bat that between their exterior sign, the menu and the special, they were using three different logos. The food was amazing and after asking the owner a few questions I found that they weren’t selling a lot of their higher-priced dishes, including fresh seafood that was flown in a few times a week. They had a huge menu, but people couldn’t see what they were ordering, so most of the time, they’d stick with the same old spaghetti and meatballs. Times Square really needed an identity. The place really felt very welcoming, and you felt like you were family when you walked in. There were even caricatures of the regulars drawn by the manager’s brother, which were sketched out on napkins and hung on black frames on the wall.

I wanted to capture the essence of the neighborhood vibe. I presented a proposal to design an identity, which involved tweaking the name, adding Neighborhood Italian Restaurant as a descriptor. I also hired a local photographer to shoot most of the dishes over two days. The mouthwatering food photos were used in the menu and on the website and they worked like a charm. The new identity, website and menus garnered rave reviews from customers, and customers were venturing beyond spaghetti and meatballs and trying dishes like Osso Bucco, Ciopinno and Pescatore. Word quickly spread about this new up-and-coming restaurant in town. Now, Times Square Neighborhood Italian Restaurant has a successful second location and are looking at opening third location soon.

Stop in for a bite if you’re on the north side of Phoenix. Visit their website at TimesSquareAZ.com