Stanton’s City Bites

eCommerce, Restaurant Sites, Sandwich

Status:
Online
Client:
PopMenu
Established:
2025
URL:
stantonscitybites.com
Location:
TX, USA
Project Scope:
Website Dev & Design, OLO Setup, Content Migration, Legacy Survey Integration

Project Overview

Serving History on a Bun

Since 1961, Stanton’s City Bites has been a Houston institution, evolving from a family grocery store into a beloved burger joint. However, their digital presence was struggling to balance their rich history with the demands of the modern diner. The brand needed a digital home that was prepared to launch within a tight six-week window to align with marketing pushes, requiring a delicate blend of nostalgia and high-speed functionality.

The mission was to create a "Retro-Modern" digital experience. We needed to preserve the soul of the original 1960s grocery store—using visual cues like wood textures and diner typography—while integrating a frictionless, mobile-first ordering engine to drive takeout revenue in 2025.

Challenges & Goals

The Challenges

Timeline Pressure: The project required a full design, build, and launch within six weeks to hit the February 18th target date.

Aesthetic Balance: The design had to feel "fresh" and mobile-friendly without losing the "fun, casual" vibe of a historic hole-in-the-wall diner.

Content Continuity: Vital legacy content, including the detailed family history and a popular customer survey, had to be migrated seamlessly without breaking user engagement.

The Goals

Visual Nostalgia: Execute a design system using Bebas Neue headlines and wood-grain accents to mimic classic diner signage and interiors.

Conversion Speed: Implement a "One-Click" ordering strategy with sticky navigation to reduce friction for hungry mobile users.

Performance: Achieve sub-2-second load times on 4G networks through CSS minification and lazy-loading assets.

Strategy & Approach

Phase 1: Retro-Modern Typography

To capture the diner spirit, we established a bold typographic hierarchy. We paired Bebas Neue for headlines (evoking vintage menu boards) with Josefin Sans for body text to ensure modern readability. The color palette—Black, White, and Red with wood-grain textures—was chosen to mirror the restaurant’s physical flooring and signage.

Phase 2: Frictionless Navigation

We adopted a "Woo-Woo" inspired navigation strategy to prioritize revenue. This included a Sticky Header and a floating Red "Order Online" CTA, ensuring that the path to purchase was always visible. We structured the menu with "Photo-First" logic, utilizing high-quality hero shots to drive appetite appeal immediately.

Phase 3: Engagement Migration

We didn't just move text; we moved culture. We successfully migrated the legacy "About Us" story and the interactive customer survey, optimizing them with semantic HTML and Schema markup. This preserved the brand's voice while enhancing its visibility in search results for terms like "best burgers in Houston."

Solutions Delivered

Area	Highlight
Visual Design	Implemented a custom theme using Bebas Neue typography and wood-grain textures to reflect the brand's 1960s heritage.
Online Ordering	Integrated Popmenu OLO with floating "Order Online" buttons, creating a seamless funnel for takeout revenue.
Customer Feedback	Migrated and optimized the legacy interactive survey, capturing 400+ submissions for continuous quality control.
Performance	Achieved < 2s page load times on mobile networks via image lazy-loading and efficient CSS architecture.
Accessibility	Ensured full WCAG compliance with high-contrast text and keyboard-navigable menus for an inclusive experience.