Visited an old diner downtown and their menu colors threw me off

Stopped by Mel's Diner on Elm Street last weekend, the place hasn't changed since the 80s. Their menu uses this faded orange and brown combo that actually works way better than I expected for readability under those dim lights. Anyone else notice older joints just had a natural feel for palette choices without overthinking it?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahw531d ago

oh man @lilyt90 i totally get where youre coming from but the old diner near me had a dark green and cream menu that was actually super easy to read. the key was they used really thick paper with a matte finish so no glare at all. my grandpas place did something similar with a dark red and white setup and i never had trouble picking out the specials. i think a lot of it came down to the specific colors and how much contrast they used rather than just being old. some places definitely messed it up but when they got it right it was way better than those cheap printed menus you see today.

lilyt901d ago

Hate to disagree but those old orange and brown menus were awful. My eyes literally hurt trying to read the specials half the time. The faded colors just made everything blur together especially under those weak yellow lightbulbs they always had. Plus that weird glossy paper they used reflected light right in your face. It's not some natural talent for palette choices, it's that they didn't care back then because nobody complained. Give me a clean black and white menu any day over that vintage mess. Sometimes nostalgia makes us forget how annoying things actually were.