Espitas

01The project

ESPITAS is a restaurant group with locations in seven cities: Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, Chemnitz, Erfurt, Magdeburg and Zwickau. Its website has one main goal, help visitors find their nearest ESPITAS, browse the menu, and book a table as quickly as possible, usually from a phone.

The content already existed, but the technology behind it was limiting the experience. This project rebuilt the site from the ground up, moving it from WordPress and the elementor page builder to Next.js.

02The challenge

The previous website was built with WordPress and elementor. It worked, but it was slow, difficult to maintain, and no longer matched the quality of the brand.

1. 01~7sto load

   Slow by design

   Page builders generate large amounts of generic HTML, while plugins add extra JavaScript and CSS. On a first visit, the homepage took around seven seconds to become usable.

2. 02

   Content tied to the layout

   Text and design were mixed together inside Elementor widgets. Even a simple content update could accidentally affect the page layout.

3. 03

   Difficult to maintain

   WordPress core, the theme, and multiple plugins all needed regular updates. Every update risked introducing bugs, while every extra plugin increased the maintenance and security burden.

4. 04

   The brand had moved on

   The homepage relied on large promotional banners and was limited by the theme. There was little freedom to create an experience that reflected the restaurants themselves.

03Before and after

Before rebuilding the site, we crawled the live version so we could preserve the same content, branding, URLs, and page structure. Everything else was rebuilt from scratch.

WordPress

Next.js

The difference is more than a new design. Instead of depending on a page builder, ESPITAS now has a platform built specifically for its business, with complete control over every part of the experience.

04A design system built around the brand

The design started with the brand itself, not with a template. The result is a consistent design system inspired by ESPITAS:

• a warm colour palette based on the brand — chili red, agave green, golden sol, and a cream background;
• an combination of Fraunces and Plus Jakarta Sans;
• real food and restaurant photography;
• subtle animations that respect prefers-reduced-motion.

The finished site feels closer to the atmosphere of the restaurants representing ESPITAS.

05Built for speed

The site is built to be fast. Pages load almost instantly, navigation feels responsive, and visitors can get to the information they need without waiting.

Interactive features are powered by React, with the project built in strict TypeScript using Next.js.

The homepage of the app

06Content made simple

All content, locations, opening hours, menus, and events are stored as typed, version-controlled data, separate from the components that display it. Each restaurant record is written once and reused throughout the site.

1. 01

   Restaurant pages

   Every restaurant page is generated directly from its data.

2. 02

   City pages

   Each city page automatically lists its restaurants.

3. 03

   Structured data

   The same data also generates the JSON-LD used for rich search results.

There are no plugins to maintain and nothing to patch. Reservation, enquiry, and job application forms are already built and can be connected to a booking system or CRM whenever needed.

07A faster experience

The biggest improvement is speed. On a first visit, the old site took around seven seconds to load. The rebuilt site is ready in under one second.

Faster loading creates a better first impression and makes it easier for visitors to browse menus and book a table without unnecessary waiting.

08Search visibility

The site is built with search-engine-friendly pages, giving every restaurant a better chance of being found online.

Accessibility is included from the start rather than added later, with a skip-to-content link and full support for reduced-motion preferences and more.

09The outcome

The result is a website that clearly belongs to ESPITAS: a custom design system, professional photography, and layouts that work smoothly from large desktop screens to mobile devices.

Behind the design is a simpler platform that's easier to maintain and built to grow with the business.

Pages pre-rendered

29

Every route generated as static HTML during the build.

Plugins to maintain

0

No plugins to update, patch, or replace.

The rebuilt website adapting across the home, menu, and restaurant pages on a phone.