Two barbecue sites

This post concerns two Web sites devoted to a subject dear to my heart: barbecue.

First we have regional contender Sticky Fingers (http://www.stickyfingersonline.com/). The site, like the restaurant’s menu, is simple. It contrasts rich colors such as evergreen, gold and a mahogany-brown color I like to call “barbecue sauce” with generous uses of black and dark-gray, while most of the text appears in white. The logo on the main page appears just twice, once on each side, to nice effect. A theme of “stickiness” emerges from the text. The alignment is pleasantly askew, giving much-deserved emphasis to the picture of the ribs (mmmmmm … r-i-i-i-i-i-ibs -- sorry, Dr. Fishman; I know you don't concur). The page utilizes space well by offering broad categories in an uncrowded format. It is immediately clear where the links will take you, and the more detailed information is subcategorized for ease of use.

Regional rival Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q (www.sonnysbbq.com) also keeps its color scheme to a minimum, but with much less contrast, utilizing mainly flat brown colors and a small splash of red against a primarily white background. The main site is much busier than Sticky Fingers’. Sonny’s site also sports the company logo twice, once on each side, but the color contrast detracts from a sense of unity there. The theme this site conveys is that Sonny’s is “feel-good” barbecue – a slogan that fails to pack a punch, in my book. Generally speaking, all barbecue is “feel-good”! The alignment of the copy on this site is also askew, but in a much busier way, such that too many varying column widths causes a cluttered look. The text on the site is also much closer to all the other text, adding to the crowded look. As a final note, the photographs of the food on the Sonny’s site look flat and dull, lacking the richness and shine of the sticky, fantastic Sticky Fingers food.