Rubio’s Baja Grill, the Carlsbad, California-based fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain, knew it needed a facelift. ”Through a lot of consumer research, we learned that people in our core markets knew us for great Mexican seafood like our fish tacos,” Rubio’s spokesperson Alison Glenn Delaney explains. ”But we have great char-grilled chicken and steak products like grilled chicken and carne asada burritos and quesadillas, too. We knew we had a wider potential market, and we wanted to transform our menu and other key items to help change customers’ perception.”

To establish a new image, Rubio’s didn’t overhaul its food or business practices. Instead, it changed its menu board, salsa bar, dinnerware and packaging to achieve “a more sophisticated look that conveys the message we’re geared more toward adults than children,” Delaney notes. And the company did it all “pretty inexpensively,” she adds.

“We didn’t want to start from scratch-it would have been too expensive,” says Delaney, explaining that Rubio’s wanted to create a consistent look in all its stores. To minimize the expense, the company kept its six-panel menu boards and salsa bar cabinetry, and worked with Mires, a design firm in San Diego, to revamp the colors on the menu board and bar.

The board now features a black border with dark red headers, a khaki-colored background and highlighted items called out in teal. The salsa bar boasts a black metal template that fits over the ice and matched the new black bowls and black ladles at the bar. Even the paper that wraps the tacos and other items ordered at the counter has changed. It is now a “rustic tan, like butcher block craft paper, like you would see at a stand in Baja,” Delaney says.

Feedback so far had been positive. ”People say the menu is a lot cleaner and simpler to read. And the black template and bowls at the salad bar set off the red and green of the salsas and limes that are around the salad bar,” she reports.

Rubio’s experience shows even small changes can reap rewards. The key is to make sure your design and presentation choices—dinnerware, flatware, menus and table tents, linens, lighting, serving and accent pieces—mesh with everything else in your eatery. ”A lot will depend on the type of atmosphere you’re looking for,” says Gary Halpern, vice president of Trimark United East, a foodservice equipment and supply dealer/distributor in Sough Attleboro, Mass. ”On every level, it’s important to pick the things that are representative of the food you’re serving.”

RS (Rattlesnake) Jones restaurant in Merrick, N.Y., for example, uses a cowhide patterned vinyl tablecloth, along with a rustic “specials” menu hung from a wooden holder from Maverick Menus, to get across its Southwestern barbeque theme. And Bazaar Del Mundo, which operates Casa de Pico, Casa Bandini, Rancho El Nopal and Casa Guadalajara in San Diego, achieves an authentic Mexican look in all four Mexican restaurants with custom-designed, handblown glassware—some tipped in green, some in blue—from Aztecas Design, the restaurants’ Jose Luis Hernandez says.

The glassware Hernandez chose is not unusual, says Halpern, who sees a trend toward colorful glassware, dinnerware and coordinating flatware, often with Southwestern and Mexican-inspired hues and/or patterns. Libby, he notes, offers swirl-patterned flatware that coordinates with the company’s Cantina dinnerware line. Mid-to upscale restaurants frequently opt for patterned and embossed products, which is what the new Agave in Avon, Colo. did when it selected a custom-designed dinnerware pattern—an off-white plate with a brown-and-blue, scroll-patterned rim—from El Anfora. And even restaurants that use plastic plates and glasses, especially for patio seating, are turning to colors like the sunburst and cantaloupe in cambro’s product lineup, he notes.

Table linens, too, are key to creating ambience, according to Halpern. ”A lot of people use vinyl tablecloths with patterns to incorporate Mexican colors,” Halpern says. Linens are a cost-effective way to add color if you’re using white, all-purpose china, Halpern adds. Joan Wallett, owner of Tijuana Taxi in Rehoboth, Del., says she just started topping tables with oilcloth tablecloths in sunflower, floral and vegetable patterns from Reign Trading to do just that.

Whatever your design and presentation choices, forethought and careful planning will ensure you achieve the right look for your restaurant. ”Sometimes things evolve in a haphazard what,” says Mires’ John Ball, who worked on the Rubio’s project. ”But it really is more about investing thought than a lot of money. Design and presentation are huge where customer perception is concerned. From sending the right visual cues to representing your strengths, you have a chance to communicate with your customers, and do it better than the competition. The opportunities are everywhere. You just have to think it through.”