Fast casual dining is one of the hottest and fastest-growing segments in the restaurant industry, and for good reason: it’s quick, relatively cheap, and most of all, it's fun.
One of the most common presentation styles for these busy restaurants and food trucks is meal baskets and cones. Instead of ceramic ware used in traditional dining or ultra casual paper plates used at home, baskets and trays are just the right medium to deliver a hot Reuben or burger with a side of fries.
While meal baskets and appetizer cones come in a wide variety of sizes, styles, and materials, they’re not built for carrying food alone.
They need a quality liner, and that’s where custom printed butcher paper and kraft paper come into the picture.
Why custom printed butcher paper?
Because liners complete the presentation for a fast casual dining experience, and the difference in price between plain and custom printed liners is so small, it only makes sense to take full advantage of all the benefits you can derive from using custom printed kraft paper and butcher paper basket liners.
Here are just a few of those benefits to think about:
1. Emphasizes your branded color scheme
While plain white liners serve a great purpose such as adding contrast and class to a sandwich on dark bread, it makes for a much more cohesive look and feel if your basket liners can match and complement your restaurant’s brand.
This could be as simple as a red-and-white checkered pattern that matches your table coverings, or a solid color basket liner that calls out an accent color in the restaurant’s decor. Or, it could be designed to enhance the basket itself if all your baskets are the same color.
2. Includes your restaurant logo or other branding message
Since customers will view this paper throughout their meal, why not take advantage of that time to reinforce your branding efforts with a custom printed logo or tagline message? Or, added messaging to back up the personality and vision of your brand.
Here's a great example that everyone has likely seen: Subway’s napkins. If you can’t picture them instantly, every napkin you use at Subway has the Subway logo and their famous tagline, “Eat fresh”. But then, just below that, they have a chart labeled, “6 Subs Under 6 Grams of Fat” with a list of sub choices and their respective fat grams.
Subway has worked long and hard to establish their brand as a healthier alternative to other fast food, and this custom printed paper product does an awesome job of reinforcing that message.
3. Boosts the benefits of takeout bags
One of the reasons so many customers love fast casual dining is because they want something other than drive-thru fast food, but they still don’t have a lot of time to sit down for a formal meal.
For that reason, plenty of your customers are likely to order a basket to dine in but then end up wanting to leave before they’re finished. A logical next step is to wrap up what’s left in the basket liner and carry it out.
If your basket liner includes a custom printed message, offer, or branding option, it’s suddenly become a moving advertisement that could potentially bring in customers from anywhere it travels after it leaves the restaurant.
Ultimately, custom printed kraft paper or butcher paper is just as functionally effective as plain basket liners, so it makes sense to add a logo for only a few cents more.
Want to learn more about finding the right food service paper for restaurant branding? Contact us today to discuss your options.
