West Coast Ventures Group Corp fka WCVC

[PennyHoper]

Assorted comments on website connects and disconnects ...

The headline story re websites so far is:
www.takiza.com - 'Now Open' (powered by BentoBox)
www.illegalburger.com - New look and feel (change: powered by POPMENU)
www.kalakamexicankitched.com - New look and feel (change: powered by POPMENU)

PROS & CONS

The PROS all fall under the general classification of 'things are moving forward'.

For the most part, I like the look of the POPMENU sites, but I think that the BentoBox pages seemed a little less ... cluttery. The BentoBox style is simpler in a good way (I think); less 'optical assault.' But still, the new stuff is OK enough.

I am curious to know a) why they changed to POPMENU, and b) why they are still using BentoBox for Takiza Taco, but we'll see what the future holds.

CONS (where that includes 'disCONnects' that will hopefully be fixed soon enough) --

If you use Google Search (using the quotes) in a wide-enough browser window:
"Takiza Taco & Tequila Bar"

you will see (or I see):
1) The first result is to the now open www.takiza.com site (with an assortment of sub-pages); and
2) The 'Google info/review' box on the right-hand side.

In the info/review box, if you click on "reviews" you can see 6 reviews (5 of which are post-opening; 1 was a pre-opening 'skirmish') in the review popup box.

You can also see, at the bottom of the info/review box links to Facebook and Instagram pages for Takiza Taco.

That is 'good' in that they exist, but 'bad' in that they aren't fully cross-connected with the www.takiza.com main webpage.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556416209999&mibextid=LQQJ4d
https://www.instagram.com/takizatacotequilabar/

If you have a Facebook account, you can see and post-to the page. That page does NOT yet contain references back to www.takiza.com (except in the one comment made by someone who discovered the page on Feb 20).

The Instagram page (with pictures):
https://www.instagram.com/takizatacotequilabar/

shows the building front (it used to be an Illegal Burger), plus the Takiza square graphic logo. As of this moment, it already has 64 followers. It has a reference to takiza.com.

The www.takiza.com site does NOT yet display any cross-links to the social media pages.

BUT, we already know that the takiza.com site is a work-in-progress because on-line ordering isn't set up yet. However, we know they are working on it because if you go here:
https://www.takiza.com/online-ordering/

it no longer shows the 'not set up go back to the main-page' page, but instead takes you here:
https://www.takiza.com/online-ordering/lodo/menu/order-settings

This has a pop-up disclaimer about not being ready yet, but you can a) see a menu with prices, and b) see the curious give-away that it says "lodo" in the string, which suggests that they are opening the LODO site (unless this is a goof, but that seems questionable).

--
The Kalaka main page:
https://www.kalakamexicankitchen.com/

seems more complete than the Illegal Burger page. It has social media links to Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (which is new!), and seems to have on-line ordering under control, with a single "ORDER NOW" button at the top which is all that is needed. [There is a non-scrollable set of spelled-out options at the top which I MUCH prefer than the mysterious three-dashed-lines on the old site that you had to know meant options if-you-click-here.]

The Kalaka Facebook page, however, still has not updated the links underlying the "Start Order" button to point to the order framework that the parent website supports. Instead it uses a now (apparently, or soon-to-be) defunct link to a "getbento.com" framework:
https://kalakamexicankitchen.getbento.com/online-ordering/

That might still work -- and maybe they are keeping it for a reason -- but it's an inconsistency. (It doesn't look bad, though.)

--
The Illegal Burger main page and Facebook page are more ... messy.

The main page shoves an "Order Now" popup box in your face when you go to it, as if that feature was new. When you X out of the popup box, you can scroll down the page, but in addition to providing a non-scrollable command bar with an "ORDER ONLINE" button, it then gives you two more opportunities to "ORDER NOW" and "ORDER" while scrolling.

Sure, the 'order online' function is important ... BUT it seems a bit desperate, plus visually messy (unlike the Kalaka page) to do that those two extra times.

I DO, however give them points for finally -- and I do mean FINALLY -- getting rid of that stupid "SHOP" option so that you could shop for hoodies and caps that sport the "Illegal Brands" logo. This is a good thing, I think, as it not only puts to bed a pointless product line, but perhaps indicates that they have 'given ground' to Ilegal Mezcal and their promotion of their mezcal as "the illegal brand" of mezcal.

I still give them thumbs down for:
1) the "Press" page that shows out-of-date 'press releases' and
2) the red "FRANCHISING INFO" button that goes to a non-existent page (franchise.illegalburger.com), and
3) the new-look main page has NO social media links (yet). That is a regression (except that not linking to Twitter probably doesn't matter).

There is also a 'glitch' in their non-scrollable top-of-page command bar. When I refresh the page, I briefly see a "More v" option that disappears once the page refresh is finished. Actually, this same glitch now happens with the Kalaka main page (I just noticed this -- it used to remain after the refresh). On the Kalaka page, the "More v" option let you buy gift-cards. Maybe that isn't ready on both sites, but you can still see the 'ghost' of its existence.

One final 'bug' to point out is that the "Start Order" button on the Illegal Burger Facebook page goes here:
https://www.illegalburger.com/order-online

which is no longer supported, so brings you to a "Sorry ..." page, which means the website framework knows you are in the parent domain, but doesn't know where to send you. It's a useless shrug -- it doesn't even take you to the main page in a few seconds -- that hopefully they will fix soon.
--
One last positive thing is that both sites (Illegal Burger and Kalaka) provide maps of where the locations are. No doubt that will cut down on 'oops I picked the wrong location' errors.

BUT, it limits the scope of both restaurants to the Denver area.

Maybe one day we will see a "select your state" option first. Wouldn't that be something!