Restaurant Pitch Deck- A Vinyl Bar & Rotating Kitchen
Off The Record
This is a concept, not commission, inspired by 10+ years of experience in hospitality (FOH managment, barista & server) & as a professional baker. I build this concept to demonstrate brand and creative strategy and identity work from an idea to a finished product.
ROLE
Brand Strategy, Visual Identity, Naming
YEAR
2026
LOCATION
Logan Square, Chicago
TYPE
Concept Development
01-The Opportunity
Chicago has great restaurants and bars, but few places that merge the two into something playful.
The Gap
Logan Square is one of Chicago’s most exciting neighbourhoods for food and drink, but it’s still missing a certain kind of energy. Somewhere the food is intentional and impressive, the vinyl is central and the venue is inviting enough that you end up staying longer than you planned.
Off the Record fills that gap: a vinyl bar and rotating kitchen inspired by London’s private members’ clubs, designed with the analog feeling of a golden past and the warmth of Chicago’s community.
The Challenge
Building a hospitality brand from scratch means solving several things at once: establishing cultural credibility before the doors open, building programming that creates return customers, and developing visual language that signals the right subcultures without feeling performative. Logan Square audiences are design-literate and will call out a fake.
02- Approach
The Residency Model
The concept centres on The Residency: a rotating chef model that brings new culinary talent into the space seasonally while the soul of the room stays the same. It’s a platform for emerging chefs, a chance to travel and cook somwhere new for established ones, and for guests, a different food culture every few months without having to leave the neighbourhood.
For Chefs
A low-risk space to experiment and play outside of their main project. No lease or buildout required, just the food. Residencies rotate seasonally (3-4 months), long enough to develop a real menu.
For Guests
A reason to return, to stay invested and never get bored. The room and people stay familiar but the taste stays fresh. Each residency brings a new cultural and culinary point of view while the vinyl keeps spinning. Favourite recipes from each chef can come back for Sunday family-style meals, future cooking classes, or special events.
For the Brand
Ongoing content and collaboration opportunities without requiring a single culinary identity. The restaurant works as a home for many voices rather than just one.
03- Naming
Off the RecordVinyl bar & Rotating Kitchen
The name had to work on three levels. Literally, it’s a vinyl bar. Tonally, it needed to carry intimacy and discretion, the sense that you had to be there. And culturally, it had to reflect Chicago, a city built on jazz, blues and house music. Here, vinyl isn’t about nostalgia, it’s about heritage.
Finding the Right Name
-
Consideration:
Strong vinyl reference, community feel
Why it lost:
Too close to the Brooklyn venue with the same name -
Consideration:
Warm, tactile, nostalgic, anti-digital
Why it lost:
Generic, could be anything, not hospitality specific -
Consideration:
Print/music double meaning
Why it lost:
Leans journalistic more than musical -
Consideration:
Backstage & performance culture reference
Why it lost:
Feels more music venue than bar/restaurant -
Consideration:
Abstract, curious, playful
Why it lost:
Too cold, no warmth of invitation -
Consideration:
Film industry nod
Why it lost:
Insider-y, excludes more than it welcomes
Off the Record won because it worked on every level at once: vinyl, discretion, and a phrase people already use, earning the double meaning naturally.
04- Programming
A Week at Off the Record
This calendar turns brand strategy into lived experience, producing events built around the communities and audiences they're striving to bring together.
Monday
Industry Night
Discount night for service workers. Guest DJs welcome. The night off, done right.
Tuesday
Collage Night
Communal tables, bring magazines to donate, the rest of the supplies are provided. Bring your own crafts if you want to be creative in other ways (zines, watercolours, monoprinting, crochet, whatever your heart desires).
Wednesday
Open Decks
Sign up for a 30-minute slot to DJ, the booth is yours. Bring your own records or use ours.
Thursday
Live Jazz Club
Rotating local musicians. donation-based cover. The kind of jazz your parents played when they thought you were asleep.
Friday
First Fridays
Monthly local artist showcase. Art on the walls, music in the air, something new to discover. Specials all night long.
Saturday
Craft Market + Late Sets
Monthly craft market by day, late-night DJ sets after dark.
Sunday
Long Table
Community tables where everyone eats together. Everyone has a role in the kitchen, some weeks you cook, some weeks the chef teaches, some you just show up hungry and help clean.
Daily
Vinyl Hours
Staff picks on the turntable. Guests can request or bring their own.
05- Visual Direction
The Mood
Before designing anything, I needed to define the world Off the Record lives in. I’ve designed four mood boards to set the visual direction.
Inspired by: Warm, textured, analog, the 1970s filtered through a contemporary lens, nostalgia
I’ve chosen burnt orange and cream as staple colours as they represent both autumn and cooler/cosier times, as well as the vibrancy of summer, meaning the brand will survive all seasons.
The Space
Dark wood, leather banquettes, brass details, coloured tile, industrial bones with residential warmth
The Table
Seasonal ingredients, natural plating, shared dishes, aesthetic and delicious food
The Sound
Vinyl stacks, turntables as furniture, album art as decor. The music brings it all together.
The Details
Matchbooks, handwritten specials, vintage glassware, worn menus, all making the restaurant feel lived-in and comfy rather than new and prestine.
06- Visual Identity
The Mark System
The brief was “Brooklyn feel, Chicago warmth”. Rather than a single logo, I built the identity as a system: three marks with specific roles, unified by a loose illustrative line line and a terracotta-on-cream palette. To move fast, I used AI image tools to explore each direction and test how they’d feel in use before committing. These are concept marks, not the final artwork, which will be produced properly by a graphic designer.
The Rabbit
Primary mark & brand character: a rabbit with the wordmark stacked behind him as the text trails, following him into the space
Figure in Glass
Secondary mark. Used for coasters, matchbooks, glasswear, merchandise
Abstract Vinyl
Texture/ decorative element. Used for menu interiors, watermarks, backgrounds, small but important details
Explorations that led to the final system:
07- Applications
The Brand in Use
Menu
Held on a wooden clipboard, easy to change, simple and chic. The rabbit presides, abstract circles add texture, and the section headers tie back to the wordmark.
Collage Night Poster / Social Media Post
Programming meets promotion. Collage Night brings the brand’s creative side to life and attracts an artistic crowd of regulars.
Matchbook & Coaster / Stickers
The small details you can pocket and keep. The coaster introduces the secondary mark, playful & a little cheeky, with the warmth of your favourite neigbourhood bar.
08- Deliverables
What Was Made
Strategy
Brand brief: positioning, audience, competitive landscape
Naming strategy and rationale
Programming calendar
Identity
Four moodboards
Logo concepts: running rabbit with wordmark
Concept mark system: rabbit, figure in glass, abstract vinyl
Applications
Menu design
Event poster
Collage night poster
Matchbook, coasters and stickers
09- Measuring Success
How I’d Know It’s Working
Off the Record is a speculative passion project, one of many I hope to bring to life one day.I designed the strategy with real, measurable outcomes in mind. Here’s how I’d know it was working well:
Build a Regulars Base
Earn Discovery
Make the Residency a Destination
Attract Collaborators
The programming calendar creates repeat behaviour- Industry Night for hospitality workers, Long Table for the Sunday crowd, Open Decks for the music enthusiasts and vinyl curious. Success looks like recognising faces. The metric: repeat visit rate within 90 days.
“Off the Record” as a name implies word-of-mouth, not billboards. The visual identity is built to be shared organically and socially. The metric: percentage of new guests citing social media or friend referral as discovery source
The rotating chef model only works if it generates anticipation. Each new residency should feel like a reason to return. The metric: reservation volume in the first two weeks of a new residency vs. the final two weeks of the previous one.
If the concept is positioned correctly, chefs should want to be a part of it. A healthy pipeline means credibility in the culinary community. The metric: inbound residency inquiries and quality of applicants over time.