# Eddyline Restaurant at South Main — seven expanded concepts

Updated September 21, 2026. Local design concepts for comparison and a later manual Wix rebuild.

## Authority and branding

The supplied restaurant design brief supersedes the broader brewery branding used in the first Codex mockups. All seven now use #00293e, #005288, #59abdf, and #ababab; Montserrat Light headlines, Bold menu names, and Medium body copy. The bold adventure concepts retain heavier display headings for comparison.

Yellowtail is the brief's temporary substitute for Billion Dreams. No Billion Dreams file was found in Downloads or project assets. The actual font is a Wix launch requirement, not a blocker to comparing these designs.

## Additional official-site research

This is a design shortlist, not an objective ranking or a conversion study. Findings are based on official-site content and navigation structures.

| Reference | Observation | Application |
|---|---|---|
| [Mountain Standard](https://mtnstandard.com/) | Distinct food/drinks/wine destinations, grouped about links, hours and compact action links. | Category shortcuts and mobile quick actions. |
| [Sweet Basil](https://sweetbasilvail.com/) | Expandable menus/about groups, separate food/drinks/wine, hours information. | Organized menu dropdown and navigation panels. |
| [The Still](https://thestillwhiskeysteaks.com/) | Strong dine-in story, food/drinks/gathering sections, recurring reservation action. | Hospitality first, with Eddyline's menu as the primary action because booking policy is unconfirmed. |
| [Guard and Grace](https://www.guardandgrace.com/) | Repeated reservation action and location destinations. | Repeat a clear next step without crowding the header. |
| [Hopdoddy](https://www.hopdoddy.com/) | Energetic burger-brand reference from the supplied brief, revisited here. | A contrast for the adventure concepts, not evidence that this style best fits a steakhouse. |

Earlier references remain relevant: [Hestia](https://hestiaaustin.com/) for hearth storytelling; [The Charter Oak](https://www.thecharteroak.com/) for atmosphere and visit links; [BRAT](https://bratrestaurant.co.uk/redchurch-st/) for concise navigation and restaurant information.

The full-screen, drawer, and vertical-rail layouts are design explorations derived from these principles, not claims that a reference uses an identical implementation.

## Seven navigation choices

| Concept | Origin | Navigation | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hearth | Codex | Sticky header with food/drinks/kids/dessert dropdown | Explicit menu discovery; darker first impression. |
| River House | Codex | Direct menu/visit actions and full-screen editorial navigation | Calm presentation; secondary destinations require opening the panel. |
| After the Adventure | Codex | Desktop left rail, mobile Menu/Visit/Call/More bar | Strong orientation; rail uses desktop width. |
| Original / v1 | Claude | Familiar sticky horizontal navigation | Easy to scan; less distinctive. |
| Ember | Claude | Transparent header becoming solid on scroll, right-side drawer | Strong atmosphere; secondary destinations are tucked away. |
| River Light | Claude | Centered logo, balanced navigation, labeled desktop section index | Best match for the bright room; relies on good photography. |
| Basecamp | Claude | Utility strip, primary header, menu shortcut row | Expressive and practical; taller header. |

**Recommendation:** River Light's visual direction with The Hearth's explicit menu dropdown. This best balances the bright building, wood-fired expectations, and a substantial menu. After the Adventure is the strongest outdoor-brand alternative.

## Complete content and provenance

Every concept contains the full Summer 2026 menu supplied in Claude's Ember HTML, which the brief attributes to the Google Slides menu deck. This revision did not independently re-fetch the current deck.

- 66 item blocks, 21 beer/wine rows, and 68 modifier/side rows. These describe markup structures, not 155 unique dishes.
- Featured steak frites, prices, descriptions, additions, category notes, ABVs, cider, wine, cocktails, mocktails, non-alcoholic drinks, kids, à la carte sides, sauces, dessert, GF legend, and the original raw/undercooked-food notice.
- Exact text parity across all four categories on all seven pages: 28 comparisons recorded in `menu-parity-check.json`.
- Real HTML menu, keyboard category tabs, section shortcuts, source-deck PDF link, and a browser print layout showing all categories.
- Hours/address, directions, click-to-call, room photography, story, drinks, gathering inquiries, FAQ, Instagram, and brewery/pub/beer-locator cross-links.

Photos come from the supplied Claude HTML files; the design brief documents their professional-shoot origins. No competitor photography or synthetic food imagery is used. Sliced steak is not claimed to be independently verified elk photography.

Claude's narrative layouts remain recognizable. Navigation, full-menu presentation, guest information, and footer links have been updated; these are expanded editions, not untouched copies. The original files in Downloads remain unchanged.

## Audit fixes and launch checks

- Replaced the initial brewery palette and Avenir/Oswald typography with the restaurant specification.
- Removed unconfirmed table-holding/reservation claims, 8–60 event capacity, placeholder event email, and specific street-parking availability.
- Hours and contact details follow the supplied brief. The attempted official Southmain-page fetch was unavailable; they were not independently reverified here.
- Seasonal menu availability and current prices still need confirmation before launch.
- Native navigation dialogs support Escape, focus containment, return focus, backdrop dismissal, and destination focus.
- All four menu categories support arrow keys, Home, and End.
- Fonts and photos are local. Restaurant JSON-LD uses supplied facts and omits unsupported reservation/email fields. Mockups are noindex, with no invented ratings or reviews.
- No pretend map, social feed, reservation, event-booking, or submission workflow. External links and telephone inquiries are functional.
- Wix launch should confirm hours, seating/party policies, private-event contacts, seasonal prices, dietary notation, and the Billion Dreams font.

## Validation and delivery

Checked desktop and mobile rendering, image loading, internal anchors, duplicate IDs, all menu categories, keyboard switching, dialogs, Escape, destination links, and concept filtering. Narrow-screen issues identified at 320px were corrected and retested. See `qa-results.json` for the final browser results.

Open `index.html` from disk or use the local preview. External ordering, maps, Instagram, brewery, and source-PDF links require internet; the concepts themselves use bundled assets. Run `python build.py` to regenerate from retained templates (requires BeautifulSoup and the design brief in Downloads). No live restaurant website was changed or published.