Guillemot
Background
Guillemot is a concept for a coastal fine-dining restaurant, named after the seabird: a seven-course tasting menu built on the morning’s catch, served by candlelight to thirty-two guests a night.
It started from Veloria Eve, a luxury restaurant layout by designer Saptashi Saha: a dark hero with the name centred in the navigation, a plate breaking out of it, then cream and dark panels side by side. I made it a seafood restaurant with its own chef, menu and photography, and built it as a working site.
Core problem
A fine-dining restaurant sells an evening, not a list of dishes, yet its website is often a slideshow, a PDF menu and a phone number. Guillemot sets the mood first, with the room, the chef and the plate, and keeps the reservation one tap away on every screen.
Our Process
The page is dark and candlelit where the room is and cream where the food is, with champagne-gold buttons. The headings are set in Cormorant Garamond and the small print in Manrope, both served by the site itself.
Every photograph is a free Pexels photo, chosen from seventy-one candidates and cropped for its place. The signature plate is cut out as a circle so it can hang over the edge of the hero and turn slowly as you scroll.
What I built
01 - A hero that sets the room
Four candlelit rooms crossfade behind the headline, with a progress line under each. The slideshow pauses when it is out of sight, and a slim bar with the reservation button follows you down the page.
02 - A menu card
From the sea and sweet endings, each photograph captioned like a menu. On a phone the catch becomes a row you swipe.
03 - The Tide Menu
Seven courses in a disclosure, with the price per guest and the wine pairing.
04 - A reservation request
It offers only the restaurant’s real service times: dinner from Wednesday to Saturday and lunch on Sunday. It turns away Mondays, Tuesdays and dates more than thirty days out, and gives clear messages when something is missing.
Key Deliverables
- Concept, naming and copy
- Visual direction (candlelight, cream and champagne, Cormorant Garamond)
- Photo selection and art direction
- Layouts for phone, tablet and desktop
- Tasting menu and reservation request
- Static website, deployed on Vercel
Results and Impact
Guillemot is a concept, not a real restaurant. The reservation form checks everything you enter but sends nothing, and says so. The photos are free stock photos from Pexels.
Want a website like it for your restaurant? Book a call.