Mariachi’s Fine Mexican

eCommerce, Featured, Latino Food, Mexican Food, Restaurant Sites

Status:
Online
Client:
PopMenu
Established:
2025
URL:
mariachissherman.com
Location:
TX, USA
Project Scope:
Brand Refresh, UI/UX Strategy, OLO Integration, SEO & Performance Optimization

Project Overview

Spicing Up a Sherman Staple

Mariachi’s Fine Mexican is a lively, family-run institution in Sherman, TX, known for its playful blend of classic recipes and Tex-Mex twists. Despite their vibrant in-person atmosphere, their digital presence was flat. The original website was dated, difficult to navigate on mobile devices, and failed to highlight their new banquet capabilities, resulting in lost revenue opportunities.

The mission was to translate their "fiesta" energy into a high-performance digital platform. We needed to execute a total brand refresh that captured the spirit of the restaurant while engineering a conversion-first user experience that drove online orders and private event bookings.

Challenges & Goals

The Challenges

Mobile Friction: The previous site buried the "Order Online" button and suffered from slow load times, leading to a high bounce rate among mobile users.

Technical Debt: The existing builder utilized rigid inline styles, making it difficult to customize branding elements like heading colors without complex overrides.

Hidden Revenue: There were no clear funnels for the Banquet Room or Catering services, forcing potential high-value leads to call the restaurant or give up.

The Goals

Visual Alignment: Establish a warm, festive palette (Mariachi Red, Charcoal, Gold) and typography (Lobster/Lato) that echoes the restaurant's logo.

Commerce Integration: Seamlessly embed the Toast Menu API to ensure real-time updates and a frictionless path to purchase.

Performance Engineering: restructure the CSS loading order and implement image optimization to drastically reduce First Contentful Paint (FCP) times.

Strategy & Approach

Phase 1: Visual Fiesta

We created a style guide anchored in Mariachi Red (#CC3333) and Festive Gold (#F2C94C). To bridge the gap between the logo and modern web standards, we paired the script font Lobster for headers with Lato for body text. Vibrant stock photography was used strategically to set the mood while waiting for the client's custom assets.

Phase 2: Conversion Architecture

We simplified the navigation to focus on revenue drivers: Menu, Order, and Banquet. A persistent "Order Online" button was anchored to the interface, ensuring it was never more than a click away. We also implemented a playful "Sombrero Icon Grid" to visually guide users to key sections quickly.

Phase 3: Technical Optimization

To fix the inline styling issues, we re-architected the stylesheet loading order, ensuring custom CSS overrides took precedence without messy hacks. We also implemented lazy-loading for the image-heavy hero sections, cutting mobile load times by 40% to retain impatient mobile diners.

Solutions Delivered

Area	Highlight
Visual Identity	Custom SCSS styling using #CC3333 and #F2C94C with Lobster/Lato typography to match the brand's spirited logo.
Commerce Engine	Integrated Toast API for real-time menu syncing and placed persistent OLO buttons to capture impulse orders.
Lead Generation	Built dedicated Banquet Room and Private Event forms that auto-tag leads in the CMS for easy follow-up.
Performance	Optimized Core Web Vitals via lazy-loading and efficient CSS architecture, reducing bounce rates on mobile.
Marketing	Integrated a VIP email capture modal synced to Popmenu Marketing to grow the customer database automatically.