r. bar
r.bar Baltimore - Brand Refresh + Menu Design
A Baltimore Staple Gets a Brand Refresh Rooted in Neighborhood Flavor
Services
- Branding
- Brand Messaging
- Menu Design
- Merchandise Design
- Content Creation
R. House and its in-house r.bar are Baltimore staples located in the central neighborhood of Remington. A food hall and event space opened in 2016 in an adaptively reused former auto body shop on Remington’s main street, R. House owner and developer Seawall is known for projects that are rooted in local communities and responsive to residents’ needs and wants. At the same time, they were a first mover in the emergence of food halls in Baltimore, and R. House is consistently ranked the best in the city - seeing more than a million visitors every year.
Cohere came on board in 2024 and 2025 to help the food hall’s r.bar complete a brand refresh, keeping core elements of the eight-year-old identity, but adding in new moments of playful illustration, brand copywriting, and a completely revamped menu and merchandise.
r.bar’s new menu system needed to be highly durable and endlessly changeable, a challenge we answered with clear plastic covers overlaid on custom designed menu pages and tabs.
We introduced a new mascot for r.bar - “Remi,” a lovable mutt always up for a drink and good time - capturing the approachable, fun-loving spirit of the food hall’s bar offering and management team. They wanted to show how r.bar often becomes an all day hangout spot, starting with coworking in the morning, then onto lunch, and finally for happy hour and dinner uses, so Remi is seen at work, in conversation, and finally at play across various branded materials and digital assets.
r.bar is a neighborhood favorite and Baltimore staple. Eight years in, Cohere helped the high volume bar refresh its brand and redesign core elements like menus and merchandise.
Illustrating Remi to be our scruffy, hometown hero with the dynamism of a fresh, contemporary design system accomplished the task of being familiar and new to the R.House regular, and opened the opportunity for unique brand touchpoints and new audiences. "
— Mo Grimes, Senior Designer
