FIG Restaurant

Headed by chef Mike Lata, FIG is known for its comfortable neighborhood feel and a menu centered on local, sustainable ingredients. Over the years, the restaurant had received write-ups in everything from Details to Forbes to Southern Living, but they didn’t have a website that supported their growing reputation. That’s where{e} house came in. Never known to turn away from good food, we eagerly took up the challenge to make FIG’s online presence as delectable as their culinary offerings.

The goal was two-fold. First, design a site that captured FIG’s neighborhood feel and food-loving aesthetic. Then, program the site to allow the restaurant to take advantage of the full range of modern online technologies: easy updates, social networking and brand building. To meet these challenges, we gave the site a warm, Lowcountry feel complete with crisp photography featuring the food and atmosphere of FIG. Then, we created the site with a customized content management system (CMS) that allows FIG to easily make its own updates such as changing out menus, posting links to news stories and writing on the restaurant’s blog. Finally, we helped FIG get started on Twitter and made sure they could measure results by following page hits.

In the first two months after the website’s launch, FIG received nearly 16,000 visitors (311% more traffic that their competitors) and over 50,000 pageviews (284% more than the industry standard). And these visitors are sticking around. The site has a lower bounce rate and more new visitors than the industry average and almost 17% of those who come to FIG’s website download the menu. Additionally, chef Mike Lata’s tweeting has generated increasing buzz about the restaurant, with several food writers tweeting about Mike, including Gourmet’s Ruth Reichl. Thanks to the success of their website and online efforts, FIG is now turning their local foods into national acclaim.