4 Ingenious Ways to Reinvent Your Butcher Paper Roll

Chances are pretty good that your restaurant or deli has one - if not several - rolls of butcher paper in the kitchen or supply room. Depending on your menu selection, restaurant style, preparation and presentation, or delivery, you may use it a lot or only on occasion.

Regardless of its current role in your restaurant, we’re willing to bet that there are several interesting and exciting ways you could be using that butcher paper roll that you haven’t considered yet. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Tear-off menus

Tear-off menus made with butcher paper or kraft paper are an intriguing idea that has really taken off in trendy restaurants in cities like New York and San Francisco. Why not take a page out of their book and implement your own paper tear off menu?

All it takes is one extra step in the paper converting process before you receive your butcher paper roll: custom flexographic printing on one or both sides with your current list of menu items displayed on the roll. Then, you can hang the roll up on the wall near the entrance and run the paper down through a simple wall-anchored tear bar, and every guest who comes through the door can have their menu torn off and handed to them on the way to their table.

This works really well with restaurants whose menus change frequently, making more traditionally printed menus cost-prohibitive. Even if your menu rarely changes, it’s a creative way to set your restaurant apart.

2. Daily specials

Using the same basic setup, but with a simple, blank roll of kraft paper or butcher paper as your canvas, you can offer guests a unique view of your daily chef’s specials, Happy Hour appetizer deals, or any other menu items or special messages you want them to see.

Once the special is over - or, better yet, you’ve sold out - just pull it down and tear it off. You’re left with a blank slate for the next marketing buzz you want to generate.

3. To-go packages

Styrofoam boxes and other to-go options can be expensive and can sometimes clash with the overall look and feel of your restaurant. Many places have found that butcher paper - whether white or pink - makes a more appropriate statement while keeping costs under control and providing a neat, clean, and simple way for customers to bring their uneaten food home.

This has probably become most popular in BBQ restaurants, as it matches so well with the pink butcher paper craze that’s taken over the barbecue industry, but it could work equally well for leftovers that are easy to transport and contain very little liquid.

4. Presentation and decoration

For some establishments such as butcher shops, delis, and BBQ restaurants, butcher paper is a recognized and expected part of the aesthetic.

As a result, many of these types of locations have found success using butcher paper as tray liners and table covers, as part of their display case designs, and in many other creative ways throughout the restaurant. While butcher paper table covers work well when they’re custom sized for that purpose, some of these decorative and presentation-based uses can come right off your butcher paper roll.

No doubt, as you look around your own unique restaurant location and consider your setting, you’ll be able to figure out where your go-to butcher paper roll can fit into your ongoing operations. If it’s time to order a new roll, contact us or order pink butcher paper directly on Amazon.