WHAT IS RAW?
It is Mono Charlie’s new culinary experience based on the elimination of human rules and social constructs, which animals lack completely. We want to take advantage of the already present animal branding and take it to its fullest potential.
Unlearn table etiquette and manners and just go for it. Let your gut guide you in how you want your journey in Mono Charlie to look and feel like. Raw is a judgment free zone where there is no right or wrong way to eat or do anything. Experience a jungle environment through the people around you, though you may find they don't resemble regular people anymore.
El Mono Charlie is a differential pizzeria that prides themselves on their food and community. The name of the restaurant comes from its namesake, the monkey Charlie, who lived in La Taconera park during the 80s. Once there, Charlie gained quite the reputation as a a rebellious and mischievous monkey. Pamplonicas would flock to go visit Charlie, where the monkey would steal anything he could. Even today, he hasn’t died in people’s memories. El Mono Charlie has become an emblematic icon of Pamplona, and an entire generation remembers this figure fondly.
However, the link between the restaurant’s name and the real monkey is almost coincidental. The main problem the restaurant has is with its customer traffic. Its younger target crowd is completely unfamiliar with the monkey's story, and the restaurant has absolutely no spark that makes it stand apart from the many bars and restaurants Mono Charlie's surrounded by.
After conducting several interviews with the restaurant's owner, staff, and other involved stakeholders like customers, local residents etc. my partner and I were able to fully understand all of the inner and outer workings of the restaurant and all of its operations. Through this extensive primary research, along with the previous desk secondary research, we were able to construct our four most important personas
Throughout the analysis conducted on the four selling avenues of Mono Charlie, as well as the primary research, we were able to identify a myriad of pain points, from which we extracted our three most relevant ones. However, the most important part of this process was the formulation of our insights and challenges, of which we focused on our core challenge and insight.
We conducted several co-design sessions to generate as wide of a variety of ideas as we could. We enlisted the help of different participants, whose different backgrounds brought together interesting discussions and ideas. The sessions were led by the challenge above, and through roleplaying games and crazy 8, all of the participants were able to meaningfully and quantitatively answer the prompt. Many answers had something to do with: games, senses & interactive elements. All three of these concepts deal with taking a break from our daily human worries & stresses.
Different profiles provide a more holistic view towards the challenge, and many ideas seemed to repeat, which indicated present latent needs.
For the prototyping phase we placed focus on testing the challenging touch points in order to observe how people reacted to them, and how they responded through instinct. The products present in the journey (deconstructed food, finger bowl, pictorial menu) were established as a means to an end. The focal point is not the food itself, how it tastes etc, but how the person eats the food and interacts with it. We want to challenge the way people behave in a restaurant and an eating environment (how they eat food, communicate, table manners & etiquette) in a meaningful way that adds value to El Mono Charlie and their customers.
Our first approach into creating Raw was to challenge people through deconstructing Mono Charlie’s main food item: pizza. The reasoning behind this was to take something we all know how to eat with hands and “flip it upside down” until we no longer immediately recognise it. The desired outcome was to trigger instinct and have people dig into their food messily without caring about anything else.
In terms of the initial hygiene approach for this journey, research was conducted into what is done in restaurants in countries where eating with hands is the norm. The initial approach was to hand out wet hand towels before and after the meal in order to wash your hands and mark the beginning and end of the journey in a clear cut way. This was a crucial starting point, however, the backstage logistics behind it was too complex for Mono Charlie’s understaffed capacity. Additionally, this did not convey the wild and messy identity of Raw, but rather delicacy and manners.
The next step in the prototyping journey led to a rethink of the hand towels. Looking at how real monkeys wash their hands using puddles, and how countries like India use finger bowls before and after meals to wash their hands, we decided to include this element into the Raw experience. Through prototyping it with different people, this generated a positive reaction as it was being used throughout our participant's meals as a cleaning measure, and all the while having fun with the splashing nature of the bowl.
Through this prototyping process, we concluded on “deconstructing” all of the menu items. How people eat and question their normal way of behaving at a restaurant became the center of our service. By doing this, one needs to decipher and rely on their gut feeling or instinct in order to consume the food they are about to eat properly. This deciphering process forces a break on your mind from routine overthinking and over self awareness. We live on automatic mode, and want you to switch to the present.
We need to connect with our intuition more often. Without rules, instinct is the one that guides us.
We all eat with our hands, we are all animals.
We often bounce around from one thought or place to the next without fully immersing ourselves in what’s happening around us. While being at Mono Charlie, the idea is to let go of any social anxieties. Your main priority should be having fun and connecting on a more primal level with those around you. The elimination of portions forces people to share their food, and decide how to divide it equally (or unequally). This deconstructed food tested our participants in how they behaved, however, the results were exactly as intended. They embodied our core values throughout their experience, validating our proposal.
MISSION
Create a judgment free environment, where you have to decipher through your instincts. Unlearn human “rules”, and socialise without pretence.
Share, get messy, have fun.
VISION
We firmly believe in giving your brain a break from social norms & helping you feel good “haciendo el mono”. The concept of our animal brand provides a fun end to end experience that prioritises connecting to your primal side.
