Branding for Owl's Nest Restaurant
Pittsburgh, USA
Project Background
"I acquired a space for a cigar shop and bar. The building already had a restaurant area. I offered acquaintances a percentage of the revenue to participate in opening it, but all declined. A school friend with over 20 years in the restaurant business inspired me to open the restaurant myself, despite my lack of experience. I studied books on service and sales and visited Michelin-starred restaurants in the USA. The name 'Owl's Nest' emerged. The 'Nest' symbolizes gathering family together, a hearth. The 'Owl' represents wisdom, traditional family values, tranquility, magic, and mystery. Opening the restaurant has been a series of incredible events."

— Kirill Faerovitch, Founder
Location
In the restaurant business, location matters. Upper St Clair is a Pittsburgh neighborhood inhabited by affluent individuals, yet there are few high-end restaurants nearby. The building is adjacent to a golf club frequented by the city's successful residents, who currently have to travel many miles for fine dining. Unlike typical roadside restaurants, this venue offers nature and sunsets. It also addresses event organization needs, such as meetings for children's football teams, weddings, or other family events.
Positioning
Food as high art; dining as a theatrical performance.
While most restaurants adhere to basic service standards, Owl's Nest goes further by crafting service as a theatrical production. Every aspect of the guest's journey is considered to ensure comfort, starting with a stand for umbrellas at the entrance. The restaurant serves as a gallery of dishes: lighting focuses on the plate, elevating food to an art form. The cuisine is on a pedestal, reflecting respect for what we consume—favoring quality over quantity.
Brand Personality
Values: dignity, quality, comfort, order, respect, law, freedom, balance, aesthetics. Willing to invest in all these.
Character: conservative, responsible, fair, authoritative.

If the brand were a person, it would be an English or French gentleman from the mid-20th century, conservative, honoring traditions and history.

Marketing Strategy
The restaurant’s marketing strategy emphasizes exclusivity and word-of-mouth. Instead of large-scale advertising campaigns, the focus is on building personal relationships with guests. Events such as private tastings, chef’s table evenings, and collaborations with local artists foster a loyal and engaged community.
Social media presence is carefully curated to showcase the aesthetics of the dishes and the atmosphere of the space. Photography and videography highlight not just the food but the emotional experience of dining at Owl’s Nest, making the audience feel as if they are already part of the story.
Design Audit
Building upon existing elements: interior design, the building itself, and the owner's personality. The interior is fancy and chic, without a specific style but very fashionable and expensive.
Visual Concept
The venue exudes a "fairy-tale" ambiance: gold, greenery, and the owl. An enchanted forest where miracles occur, blending history, legends, and fashion. The visual identity combines textures and colors from the interior, creating a composite image between a fashion magazine and a culinary or old apothecary book with history. No illustrations or decorative elements are added to the brand style, as the focus should be on the dishes, which are masterpieces themselves. Instead of a minimalist logo and separate brand illustrations, there's a unified decorative composition. The restaurant's name was conceived during Rosh Hashanah—the Jewish New Year—hence the logo features the year 5872.
The decorative logo references the brand's historical roots, conveying the establishment's theatricality. A vintage collage technique was used for the logo. The owl in the logo is whimsical, with a sense of inner dignity. The illustrative logo not only nods to the past but also looks to the future. The trend of illustrative logos is returning, though it doesn't suit every brand.
Color
In search of the right hue, various dusty shades of green were considered. The chosen brand color is noble and restrained, imparting a "patina" of history. Green also serves as an alternative to black or gray—with a green undertone—since a prominent green would be too attention-grabbing and unsuitable as a neutral background.
Typography
For large headings: SAONARA; for body text: GEOMETRIA; for accents (e.g., "read more" links or dish ingredients): GARAMOND Italic. Regular GARAMOND is used when there's already a large heading and a secondary level is needed.
Photography Style
All photos should tell a story, capturing movement—the viewer should anticipate what will happen next. For instance, a waiter placing a dish before us, grating cheese, or pouring sauce over a cutlet. Action, setting, scene—a theatrical act with a single actor: the specific dish. Each dish should have a crafted story and a relevant stage setting.
menu
The texture of the menu cover, checkbook, and similar items is crumpled velvet—a material borrowed from the world of theater. Velvet echoes many textures throughout the space, like the luxurious carpet in the hallway, for instance. The menu itself is designed to resemble an old book, but with a modern twist—subtle and tasteful. For example, the cover might simply say "Part 1." The key is not to go overboard with theatrics; everything is refined and detailed.
Every dish has a story behind it
The OWL’S NEST menu isn’t just a showcase of plates and food—it’s an invitation to dive into the narrative of each dish. On every page, there should be a spotlight on a unique ingredient or an extraordinary cooking technique.
Black-and-white photos might not sell the dish itself, but they can create a striking contrast to highlight other menu items. And no glossy pages here! All the sheets are matte, rough-textured, and feel like recycled paper, adding authenticity to the experience.
In the corner of the menu, small QR codes can be placed. Scan one, and a short 15-30 second video opens up—a cinematic glimpse into the dish’s creation. Picture this: the freezer door opening with a swirl of steam, leading to the chef placing a delicate flower on top as the final touch. The camera pans around the dish, giving it the same grandeur as a luxury car ad—pure cinematic magic.
The author’s touch?
Imagine pages styled like a "chef’s notebook," complete with handwritten notes. But it’s never too heavy-handed—just a hint of personal flair. A reference for inspiration: a page from an Italian culinary magazine with a handwritten note from a nonna suggesting sun-dried tomatoes instead of fresh ones.
Facade
The logo stands on its own—complete, self-sufficient, and full of meaning. It doesn’t need any embellishments; it carries the entire atmosphere effortlessly.
There are two ways the logo can seamlessly integrate into a simple sign:
  1. It could be painted directly onto a solid-colored wall or another uniform surface.
  2. Climbing plants could surround and frame the logo, adding a natural, organic complement to its design.
Uniform
High-quality fabrics meet simple, modern cuts with a twist—a single detail that subtly nods to the fashion of mid-20th-century ladies and gentlemen.
Colors: White, beige, gray, and brown—all drawn from the interior palette. Everything but green.
The outfit: A non-white shirt paired with black bottoms (trousers and apron), accented by a decorative belt detail. The design ensures that the waitstaff remain understated—serving as a quiet backdrop while the interior takes center stage.
As for the host at the front desk, their look is a sleek, modern black pencil skirt made with contemporary materials and tailoring—timeless yet undeniably fresh.
Investor Website
To bring the vision to life at the highest level, funding is essential. The founder firmly believes in hiring people smarter than himself and paying them well.
An idea was born: to crowdfund the project, tapping into the local community. The neighborhood is home to many affluent residents who would likely be interested in supporting the restaurant’s opening. To sweeten the deal, a dividend program was designed for those contributing to the launch.
All the benefits of investing, along with the project’s unique concept, were showcased on a dedicated landing page created specifically for potential investors.
website structure and the sense of each section
competitive advantages
The key section that influences the investor's decision was created as a gallery, where each point is thoroughly detailed, highlighting the strengths.
The menu is designed to be interactive, allowing users to click and open it, flipping through the pages directly on the website.
Launch in 2024
While the restaurant was preparing to open, the first to launch was the cigar bar, which was actually the reason the space was purchased in the first place.
The head chef couldn’t be relocated, so the concept shifted to a barbecue restaurant instead.
Product quality isn’t just a slogan: there’s now a dedicated garden on the property, with plans to grow their own vegetables.
Thanks to focused efforts in creating the right atmosphere, offering high-quality products, and effective promotion, the restaurant has already been featured for free in local magazines.
https://owlsnest.restaurant/
5 Stars from Guests
Opening a restaurant in the U.S. is no small feat—it’s a journey through fire and water. Securing licenses and permits to renovate a space you already own can take years.
Despite the challenges, the restaurant successfully opened its doors in 2024. It launched without the envisioned interior design, without a liquor license, and with a replacement chef after the original one couldn’t relocate. Yet, none of this stopped the restaurant from earning its first 60 reviews and an honest 5-star rating on Google Maps—an achievement nearly unheard of in the hospitality industry.
Identity

The company brand is an extension of the founder's own identity. During the creation of the Owl's Nest restaurant brand, Kirill had the idea to also design a family crest.
We brought together everything we know about the Faerovitch family: the yellow honeysuckle, references to the places where the couple was born, and the bridges of Pittsburgh—the city where they met and built their family nest.
The style has a nod to Harry Potter, the family’s favorite book, with an owl finding its place as a central symbol in this key family emblem.