Partner Site of the Month: Cru Uncorked, by Ed Meehan

Cru Uncorked, a French restaurant near Cleveland, Ohio, already had a beautifully designed static website. It loaded very quickly for its users, with no server processing, but it lacked one thing: an easy way for staff to update their menu, list upcoming events, and edit the site’s content. That’s when Chris Oppewall, the President of Cru Uncorked, got in touch with developer and CloudCannon Partner Ed Meehan.

The problem

Cru Uncorked update their menu seasonally, and also host events such as wine tastings and live music performances throughout the year. Wanting to keep their customers up to date, they tried several avenues — managing websites updates through an agency, which made for a lot of back-and-forth communication, and even bringing the task in-house, which required a restaurant employee who also had web development skills. Ultimately, neither approach was suitable for the restaurant, who simply needed an easy method to update their content, while maintaining the performance benefits of their existing static site.

Visual editing and fast builds

Ed’s solution was straightforward: find and implement a content management system with an intuitive visual interface for non-technical editors, and add a static site generator as a build framework.

After testing and evaluating a range of content management systems, Ed decided that CloudCannon offered everything that Cru Uncorked needed: a way for editors to make their changes with live previews of the site’s pages; built-in static site hosting to reduce their reliance on external services; and support for a wide range of static site generators (SSGs). When it came to the SSG itself, Ed selected Eleventy for its flexibility, fast builds, and compatibility with CloudCannon’s component-based page building — meaning that any Cru Uncorked staff member, regardless of their technical knowledge, could update the restaurant’s menu, add news items and event listings, and even build entirely new pages.

Together, CloudCannon and Eleventy are an efficient solution to Cru Uncorked’s initial content publishing problem, thanks to Ed’s planning and foresight.

Painless publishing

After the site relaunched, Cru Uncorked staff could easily and confidently update their site. The team have since refreshed their menu multiple times, and have published dozens of new event pages.

Chris Oppewall, who had first approached Ed, now finds the website easy to update — and he’s personally confident that he can make changes himself. CloudCannon has unlocked a lot of potential for Cru Uncorked, a small business without dedicated IT staff, to keep its customers up to date, increase their engagement, and promote the restaurant.

I feel confident I have what I need to change the website without assistance. It was a very easy process — thanks for making it so painless.

— Chris Oppewall

About Cru Uncorked

Cru Uncorked offers patrons a fine dining experience, featuring French New American cuisine set in a country château. Located near Cleveland, Ohio, the restaurant has a welcoming atmosphere featuring four themed dining areas, private banquet room, plush furnishings, and period antiques.

About Ed Meehan

Ed Meehan, a CloudCannon Partner, develops and delivers websites built on the latest web technology, with a focus on modern frameworks and tools. For his clients that means faster page speeds, superior security, and the ability to handle high demand through scalability.