The Palazzo Menu Project

THE BIRTH OF A MENU : INSIDE THE FIRST 18 DAYS

A Case Study Series on Creative Direction, Culinary Identity & Hospitality Branding

A graphic visual of the Palazzo hardcopy menu design

When I was invited to join The Sephora hospitality chain, I wasn’t there to design menus. I was hired to build the identity of their new hotel. My original mandate positioned me as the Brand Strategy, Marketing & Guest Experience Lead — responsible for shaping how guests would perceive, feel, and remember this newly built hospitality haven in Maitama, Abuja, NIGERIA.

But very quickly, that role expanded.

As the one who understood branding holistically, I naturally evolved into:

• The in-house Events Manager

• The Guest Experience Architect

• The Staff Etiquette & Customer Relations Trainer

• The Creative Lead for all visual and experiential assets

In other words: every touchpoint that reflected the hotel’s image, I shaped.

And that is how the menu landed on my desk. Not because it was “graphic design,” but because it was brand identity.

The Restaurant Had No Name. The Menu Had No Outline. The Hotel Had No Culinary Identity.

At the time, The Palazzo was still coming alive, fresh paint, new furniture, empty rooms waiting for character. And yet, one of the most crucial pillars of the hotel had no structure: the food experience. The proprietor had a unique creative style ; he leaned toward ambition over minimalism and often pursued bold ideas long before the operations were fully ready to support them. Where I focused on holistic readiness before launch, he believed in launching early and refining continuously as the hotel came to life. This difference in approach became one of the biggest learning curves for me, challenging me to balance vision with feasibility, and creativity with operational timing, all while protecting the integrity of the guest experience.

Olly Ejere in the newly built hotel lobby, overseeing creative brand asset placements during the early launch stages.

Day 1–3: Meeting the Chef & Defining Possibilities

The first chef was skilled, confident, talented… and frustratingly stubborn. But beneath his rigidity was a clear understanding of flavour and Nigerians’ emotional connection to food.

Together, we began crafting possibilities:

• Intercontinental dishes that felt familiar and comforting

• Traditional Nigerian meals that spoke to memory

• Seafood-heavy dishes for guests who wanted luxury

• Simple, high-demand items for busy business travelers

With input from the proprietor, the chef, and my guest-experience strategy, we produced an ambitious list of meals. Too ambitious, but full of potential.

Day 4–10: Reality, Budget, and Creative Constraints

This is where things became real.

The menu was large. The kitchen was new. The owner wanted everything, without spending anything.

Budget was our first major battle. Every suggestion had to be justified. Every ingredient had to pass feasibility checks. Every dish had to be filtered through:

• Availability and easy access to raw components

• Cost of production

• Speed of preparation

• Guest preferences

• Consistency of taste and presentation

• Profit margin

But this process refined us. We cut, simplified, and restructured not in creativity, but in practicality.

To survive the proprietor’s demands while still delivering excellence, I had to become both strategist and negotiator.

It wasn’t just menu design. It was operational architecture.

Introducing Real People Into the Process

As we came to an agreement, I knew for sure we were nowhere close to a conclusion, and though the proprietor pushed for me to send in an invoice for production, I continued to stall. You see, in my line of work, waiting is gold. You wait to be sure. You sleep on it and look at it again in the morning to see if you feel the same way about it in your bones. I was not producing anything till I was sure. There was no way I was allowing what happened to the Bakery in 2016 to repeat itself.

To move past theoretical arguments, I proposed something unusual: “Let’s test the draft meals with actual guests.”

Oh! The push back! " Is that necessary? You'll cause our decisions to be influenced. Isn't this an unnecessary expense? Why don't we charge the tasters half the price?" Yes, there was no type of objection I didn't encounter. Luckily, I'm only about 5ft tall, very close to my feet, and so, I stood my ground, as I am known to.

Small tasting groups of 2–5 people began visiting. We ensured they were a wide selection of people with diverse palettes, lifestyles and of different cultures and principles. They tasted. They critiqued. They debated. They told us the truth. This shifted everything. Some meals rose instantly to the top. Some died on arrival with a unanimous "Nooooo!". Some survived solely based on sentiment, and some as anchors to certain heritages meant to be honored.

Meanwhile, as the kitchen evolved, we hired and fired four chefs, each adding something, but none as foundational as the original chef, who remained. Probably because he was so smart, nimble and stubborn.

By Day 18, the chaotic energy had direction. A culinary identity was emerging.

And soon, the restaurant would be named Soul Street, a tribute to extensive collection of the soulful music always playing, it's warm ambience, and the nostalgic flavours that eventually defined it.

Why Are We Starting Here?

Most people think menu development is simply selecting dishes and designing a layout then sending it to the printers. It really is not. It is a sophisticated intersection of:

• Branding

• Guest psychology

• Cultural understanding

• Profit strategy

• Ingredient sourcing

• Creative direction

• Operational limitations

• Kitchen capabilities

• Pricing models

• Customer experience

A menu is a brand document. A cultural document. A commercial document. A sensory document.

In these first 18 days, we weren’t just crafting food; we were laying the foundation for a restaurant that would later:

• Achieve the hotel’s first profitable kitchen month

• Drive room bookings

• Increase online engagement

• Become a favorite for locals and travelers

• Build its own community through food and events

• Engage delivery services across the city

But as challenging as those first eighteen days were, they were nothing compared to what came next. The chef wars, the budget negotiations, the breakthroughs, the failures, the kitchen politics, the tastings, the redesigns; all of it would push the project into a deeper, more transformative phase.

If the menu had a heartbeat in Chapter 1, it finds its voice in Chapter 2. Stay tuned.