Amapola Rico Taco

eCommerce, Latino Food, Mexican Food, Restaurant Sites

Status:
Online
Client:
PopMenu
Established:
2025
URL:
amapolaricotaco.com
Location:
CA , USA
Project Scope:
Website Redesign, Multi-Location SEO, OLO Setup, Menu Architecture

Project Overview

Modernizing an Inland Empire Legend

Since 1976, Amapola Rico Taco has been an institution in San Bernardino and Colton, serving legendary authentic Mexican cuisine across five bustling locations. However, their digital presence was stuck in the past—a single-page site that offered no online ordering and failed to communicate their rich 50-year legacy. The brand needed a digital home that felt as fresh as their handmade tortillas without sliding into a generic "Tex-Mex" aesthetic.

The mission was to engineer a high-performance digital hub on a tight deadline before a major regional food festival. We needed to unify five locations under one cohesive, modern brand identity (inspired by Cholita Linda) while implementing a robust e-commerce engine to capture catering leads and streamline daily takeout orders.

Challenges & Goals

The Challenges

Location Confusion: With five stores, customers struggled to find specific hours and maps due to scattered third-party listings and a disjointed website.

Visual Friction: The default CMS styling clashed with the brand's cool gray-blue palette and bold Red/Green logo, requiring significant custom overrides.

Missed Revenue: The lack of direct online ordering and a dedicated catering funnel meant the business was leaving significant revenue on the table.

The Goals

Unified Navigation: Build an intuitive "Store Finder" component that seamlessly guides users to their nearest location's specific menu and hours.

Brand Personality: Implement a custom design system using Bungee typography to mirror the "chunky" personality of the logo while ensuring high readability.

Conversion Speed: Integrate Popmenu OLO with "One-Click" sticky buttons on mobile to reduce friction for on-the-go customers.

Strategy & Approach

Phase 1: Blueprint & Branding

We established a refined color token system (#2E77A4, #769BAD, #928C82) to create a cool, contemporary backdrop that allowed the heritage Red and Green logo to pop without vibrating visually. We paired this with Bungee headers for personality and Source Sans Pro for ultra-legible body copy, ensuring the site felt established yet modern.

Phase 2: Multi-Location Architecture

To solve the location confusion, we engineered a custom two-column component. The left side features a searchable list of stores, while the right side integrates Mapbox for visual orientation. We applied Custom CSS overrides to neutralize default CMS styles, ensuring AAA-contrast compliance and a premium feel.

Phase 3: Performance & SEO

We didn't just design for looks; we designed for speed. We compressed and lazy-loaded all imagery, achieving a 96+ Lighthouse score on mobile. Simultaneously, we implemented distinct LocalBusiness and Menu Schema markup for each of the five locations to dominate "near me" search results in the Inland Empire.

Solutions Delivered

Area	Highlight
Visual Design	Crafted a responsive layout with custom SCSS styling and Bungee typography to reflect the brand's bold heritage.
Store Finder	Developed a split-screen location finder with Mapbox integration to easily route customers to one of 5 locations.
E-Commerce	Integrated Popmenu OLO with dynamic menu filtering (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) and a sticky "Order Now" mobile button.
Catering Engine	Built a dedicated inquiry wizard and event-booking form to capitalize on high-volume food truck festival traffic.
Client Enablement	Delivered a library of Loom video tutorials ("Editing Specials," "Reading Analytics") to empower the internal team.