Hand-painted menu and chalkboard for your restaurant

What can be painted in a restaurant?

The daily menu on a large wall, in painted letters, with space left for chalk; the wine or cocktail list, illustrated; prices and dishes on a counter board; the restaurant’s name and motto above the pass. Giulia also paints the dishes themselves: a pizza, a seafood platter, a lemon tart, as illustrations on the wall. Everything drawn for the house, in her hand.

Who paints the menu board?

Giulia Dal Bon, a painter trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where she also studied graphic design. She draws the lettering and paints by brush, on site, and travels all over Europe. Corriere della Sera, Domus and Sky Arte have covered her work.

How is a painted menu changed when the menu changes?

Giulia separates what lasts from what moves. The frame, the section names and the illustrations are painted for years; dishes and prices go on a chalkboard area, painted with chalkboard paint, which you rewrite yourself. For a menu that changes every season, she can also come back and repaint the area in a morning.

Which lettering style?

Your house’s. Roman capitals for a trattoria, a flowing script for a tea room, block letters for a neighbourhood café, brush cursive for a wine bar. Giulia draws three lettering proposals on the sketch, mounted on a photo of your wall, and you choose. Two free sketches, adjusted with you.

Can she paint during service?

Yes, in odourless acrylic paint, protecting the tables around. Many restaurateurs choose the quiet afternoon hours; others have the painting done during service because customers like to watch. A menu wall takes a day. The counter board goes to the studio and comes back ready.

Do you also do chalkboards and movable panels?

Yes: pavement board, counter board, terrace sign, wine list on wood. Giulia paints them in the studio and delivers them, or paints them on site if they are already fixed. On a movable board the lettering can be varnished to stand outside, with a chalk area for the dish of the day.

And an illustrated menu, to be printed?

Giulia also studied graphic design at the Brera Academy: she draws the lettering and lays out the menu like a page. She paints the original by hand, in watercolour or acrylic, the dishes, the vines, the harbour, the restaurant’s front, and you have it printed on your menus, placemats and labels. You own the signed original, which often ends up framed in the dining room. It is an image that will be yours alone.