Buffet signs provide transparency, help your guests find their way around the buffet and recognize specialties of a vegan, vegetarian or regional nature at first glance. In this way, they fulfill two tasks at once: Buffet signs serve as information for your guests and you yourself can use them to emphasize the advantages of your buffet. Whether it's fruit and vegetables "grown on site", eggs "from happy chickens", sausage and cheese "with organic seal" or self-created dishes that are "vegan" or "gluten-free" - awards like these should be written on the buffet signs to inform your guests.
Placing buffet signs is not mandatory. However, it is a service that is usually well received by guests. In addition, buffet signs do offer some advantages:
The disadvantages, on the other hand, are manageable: you must allow space for display stands or signs when arranging your buffet. Service staff must always ensure that the labels are correct and neat, and must check the placement of buffet signs when replenishing the buffet. Buffet signs in particular that are not fixed to the appropriate dishes can easily wander across the buffet and then cause misinformation and confusion.
You can provide informative and promotional buffet signage in a variety of ways. Before you choose which form of buffet sign fits your overall design, you should decide whether you will handwrite your buffet signs or design them with the help of a computer. Not every shape is made for both options.
For handwritten lettering, use a water-soluble pen so that you can change the lettering if necessary. In addition, with any handwritten sign, the writing must of course be perfectly legible and the writing must be free of spelling errors.
Acrylic signs:
Whether acrylic stands in a classic roof shape or vertical stands, both types are designed so that you can place a lettered paper behind the acrylic. The paper can be easily replaced if dishes vary. Cleaning the acrylic is also quick and easy without paper. The paper can be handwritten or digitally labeled.
Displays with board varnish:
Roof-shaped displays with a surface of blackboard varnish can be written on directly and by hand - either with a chalk marker or with chalk. They can be used several times because the chalk is wipeable.
Signs with clip or magnet:
Signs that you can attach directly where they belong have either an integrated magnet or an attachment in the form of a clip or clamp. The design of the sign determines whether you write on the sign directly and by hand or design a template on the computer that you can then print out.
Signs with holder:
Holders come in a wide variety of forms. Easels and other constructions are designed to hold a mini chalkboard on which you can handwrite with a chalk pen what is waiting for your guests at the buffet. Plain stainless steel holders, on the other hand, reliably hold paper cards. You can handwrite the information on the paper or label the paper with the help of the computer. It is important to use a thicker paper, at least 250 g/m² thick, so that it does not bend.
Also make sure that the signs in your establishment have a uniform design: If you always write down your weekly menu by hand on a large chalkboard, display stands or signs that have a surface made of chalkboard varnish and are written on with chalk are also suitable for the buffet. If, on the other hand, you design your weekly menu on the computer and place it on the table in a place card holder, you should also place a machine-lettered holder at the buffet.
