D3

www.highstakesbarandgrill.com

The Story 

What started as a sandwich shop on a mission to honor its Philadelphia roots with an unmatched cheesesteak grew quickly into a Fenwick Island favorite. High Stakes Bar & Grill was never about gambling on anything other than high-quality, affordable food, and a fun, down-to-earth experience that anyone who walks through the door won’t soon forget. With live entertainment and a nearly all-day happy hour, the shop expanded into neighboring bars twice, needing to make room for everyone on a mission to visit this beachside mecca. 

When your dining room is always full of loyal patrons year-round, your digital presence needs to work just as hard as every server. High Stakes Bar & Grill’s ten-year old website was struggling to handle mobile traffic and could no longer demonstrate the quality of the in-house experience or match their booming popularity among locals and visitors. 

Plus, the website needed to keep up with the peak season and be built for the beach crowd wandering in from the sand. The most important details, like location, menu, and hours, needed to be ready for guests on the move. Mobile users made up the majority of site visitors, so the first step was readying it for handheld screens. The client knew it was time to make a move, so the team at High Stakes placed their bets on their longtime partners at D3 to create a better brand experience for their customers.  

Our Journey

D3’s goal was simple: raise the bar online the same way High Stakes does at the table. We know that diners and travelers expect to experience the restaurant online before ever setting foot in the door. Thankfully, the High Stakes team was all-in, providing a newly refreshed logo and photography for the website, letting guests practically taste the cheesesteak and feel the comfort of a bar stool.   

Our vision included bold visuals against the familiar dimness guests crave from a relaxed night out, portrayed by the dark background. Staying true to the logo’s playing-card theme, we created a full deck design in which each suit and number highlights a Happy Hour food or drink special. Shuffling up website norms like this invites guests to deal themselves into the daily discounts with a dose of Philly swagger.   

Still, every design decision was a deliberate move toward easy functionality, higher engagement, and demonstrating both High Stake’s personality and local character as a high-energy beach bar with the loyalty of a neighborhood favorite.  

High Stakes and the D3 development team prioritized the most pertinent information to guests making a decision on the fly—making the location, hours, and menu readily available. The navigation is simple and clear, directing visitors to call the restaurant directly or easily find tonight’s entertainment schedule. This redesign brought the pace, personality, and popularity of the High Stakes Bar & Grill online, keeping its booths full and positioning its brand with the familiarity of an urban hangout blended with a vacation-style atmosphere.