Flour & Water: Al Dente After Dark
Client: Flour & Water Hospitality Group
Industry: Hospitality
My role: Creative direction and custom illustration
Flour & Water is one of the Mission's most beloved restaurants: serious about pasta, never stuffy about it. When the team launched Al Dente After Dark, a late-night tasting menu, they needed it to feel like its own experience while still being unmistakably Flour & Water.
They brought me in to create the launch creative: a custom illustration that anchors the printed menu and carries the rollout across social and email.
The Approach
I started broad. I presented 5 distinct creative directions, each a different take on what "after dark" could mean for a restaurant known for warmth, craft, and quality. They ranged from moody and nocturnal to playful and a little mischievous. The direction the team chose answered it with a single strand of pasta: one elegant noodle that becomes the fork, the plate and the moon, a whole evening drawn in one line.
We refined it over two rounds, reworking the layout to sit comfortably at the top of the menu. The finishing touch was a roughened, stamp-like texture. That handmade quality leans into what makes Flour + Water special: food and a space that feel elevated but not fussy.
Final Illustration
One strand, one evening. The noodle traces the fork, the plate and the moon, so the whole late-night experience lives in a single continuous line. The mark stays minimal and confident and lets the illustration carry the idea.
In the Wild
The illustration was built to flex. It leads the printed menu and carries through the launch on social and email, so the launch felt like one consistent world, from the first Instagram post to the menu in a guest's hands.