When the “after” is worse than the “before.”

HotOperator developed a menu for Carrington Restaurant in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, in 2022, with updates in 2023. This particular business group is known for changing marketing people like most people change their socks—which has, unsurprisingly, led to wildly inconsistent marketing results. And the menu is just one example.

Their latest menu? A total step backward.

When I got a sample of the new menu, I decided to use it as an example of making a lot of little mistakes that add up to a lot of lost revenue. Here’s what Carrington got wrong (again)…

1. Vertical Layout Disaster

The entire menu is stacked vertically. No horizontal scanning. No natural eye-flow. Just a long, confusing list that makes every category feel like an overwhelming wall of text. It’s the visual equivalent of reading an old phone book.

2. No Highlights = No Sales Strategy

When we designed their menu, we used visual highlights to create flow and drive sales. Those highlights also helped smooth operations, reduced service times, and increased check averages. This new version? Nothing is highlighted. It’s like they actively tried to make the menu harder to use—for guests and staff. 

3. Ten Entrées? Seriously?

There are 10 items in the entrée section. Here’s the rule: 7 items max for major categories, 3 for minors. It’s backed by behavioral psychology and sales data. We broke their original menu into digestible sections for a reason—faster decisions and happier guests. This bloated list? Total amateur hour.

4. A F**** Price List?**

Are we in a high school cafeteria? In 2025, listing prices like a spreadsheet is the single most boneheaded thing a restaurant can do. It screams “buy the cheapest thing,” and it’s costing them real money.

Here’s the fix (again): Tuck the price at the end of the item description. Not bold. Not standalone. Not in the item title. Period. They get an F here—for “Fiscally irresponsible.”

5. Only 5 Appetizers?

This place overlooks one of the most beautiful bays in Wisconsin. People want to sip a drink and graze. And this is when you scale back the app section? You couldn’t come up with two more appetizers? Lazy. Embarrassing.

6. No Standalone Salad Category

C’mon. This crowd will absolutely order salads. Especially if you give them a protein upgrade option—chicken, steak, shrimp, whatever. That’s profit on a plate. And instead, they just buried the greens like they don’t matter. Clueless.

7. Strategic Pricing: Still Not a Thing

We argued with them about pricing when we worked on the original menu. They wanted flat, boring numbers. And here we are again: prices with no strategy, no thought. With their volume, this could easily be a $100,000/year mistake.
Honestly? If they don’t want the money, we’ll do the menu engineering for free and just collect the spare change they’re leaving on every damn table.

Final Thoughts

Restaurant operators: Pull your heads out of your asses.
The game has changed. If you’re still designing menus like it’s 1985, you’re going to get crushed.

Carrington’s new menu? It’s not just a bad update—it’s a full regression. A downgrade. A masterclass in how to undo good work.

Good luck with that, I guess.

If you want to avoid these mistakes, reach out for a 15 minute consultation. Get your head back on your shoulder and pick up the damn phone!