Parkway Bakery and Tavern is a beloved New Orleans fixture. A legendary poor boy purveyor, Parkway has become an essential destination for locals and savvy visitors alike. It has made high-profile television appearances, played host to the President, and made a dramatic post-Katrina comeback.
Parkway's known for its legendary poor boys, but we needed to remind people that Parkway Bakery was, after all, part Tavern. To do this we gave the bar a subtle makeover that attracted a younger service industry crowd. The menu design is a fresh take on their existing materials maintaining the brand's integrity. We created a custom-made weathered sign made from reclaimed Katrina wood and hand-painted the words "Parkway Tavern" to help further differentiate the bar from the restaurant.
Increasing bar sales means targeting service industry professionals. To take advantage of a local publication's Bar Guide Issue, RAPJAB produced an ad for Parkway's service industry night. The copy, a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact that New Orleanians like to drink, showed people that Parkway had a fun, adult side that hadn't been seen through the sandwich shop's family atmosphere in the past. The design was purposefully different from Parkway's restaurant marketing efforts in order to grab the attention of service industry professionals who may have overlooked one of their regular ads.
Most food photography is clean and minimal to showcase the culinary art at hand. But when your product is a too-big-to-fit-in-your-hands roast beef poor boy covered in gravy, the photography should be decidedly sloppy, favoring authenticity over polish. Is your mouth watering yet?
With most visitors staying in hotels clustered along Canal Street in the French Quarter or the CBD, Parkway’s Bayou St. John location is easily reached by the charming Canal Streetcars—which just so happen to feature Parkway advertisements during peak festival season.
Considering the relatively small space offered by the available streetcar hip panel [72” x 21”], RAPJAB’s strategy was to craft a punchy and memorable headline to pique tourist curiosity and investigation. No maps. No address. Just confidence.
RAPJAB's headline does a whole lot of work in just seven words. Referencing Tennessee Williams’s classic play, the line manages a public transportation joke, sets Parkway up as a distinctly New Orleans destination, and pokes at a certain multinational sandwich chain.
