A practical guide for cafe and restaurant owners. What your site needs, copy-ready prompts you can paste into Ullbek, and how everyday jobs — menus, PDFs, hours, reservations — stop being a developer ticket.
Why cafe websites are harder than they look
A cafe website isn't a one-and-done brochure. Your menu changes. Seasonal specials appear and disappear. Hours shift for holidays. A new latte photo lands on your phone at 7am. Traditionally, every one of those updates meant emailing a developer, waiting days, and hoping the PDF they uploaded still opened on someone's phone.
The old way
Email the PDF. Wait for a developer. Pay for a small change. Hope the menu button still works. Repeat next month when the specials change.
With Ullbek
Drag the PDF into chat. Say “put this on the menu page as a download and show the first page inline.” Done in one conversation — you own the update.
This guide does two jobs at once. It tells you what a strong cafe website includes, and it shows you how to get each piece built in Ullbek — using the product the way it's meant to be used: plain language, your own files, and copy-ready prompts.
How to use the prompts
Every prompt below uses a fictional cafe called Rosie & Bean. Swap the bold details for your name, neighbourhood, hours, and menu. Hit Copy, paste into the Ullbek chat, and adjust anything that doesn't fit.
What a great cafe website needs
You don't need twenty pages. You need the few things a hungry visitor looks for in under thirty seconds — and a way for you to keep them current without help.
Homepage with a clear first impression
Who you are, where you are, what makes you different, and a path to the menu or a reservation.
Menu — online and downloadable
Readable on a phone. Prefer a designed page plus a PDF for print/share. Easy to swap when the specials change.
Hours, address, and a map
Current opening times, parking/transit notes, and a map link or embed. This is the page people screenshot.
Photos that feel like your place
Food, interior, people — not generic stock if you can help it. Phone photos work when they're well placed.
A way to get in touch or book
Contact form, table enquiry, catering request, or newsletter — messages should land in your inbox.
About / story
Why you opened, who roasts the beans, what the neighbourhood means to you. Trust lives here.
Mobile-first layout
Most cafe traffic is someone standing outside, on a phone, deciding whether to walk in.
The prompt library
Work through these in order the first time you build. After launch, jump straight to the tier you need — menu update, new photos, holiday hours — and paste the matching prompt.
Tier 1Kick off the whole site
Start with one rich description. Ullbek will research nothing it shouldn't invent — give it the facts, and it builds a first draft you can steer.
Capability: full site from plain language
Kickoff — full cafe site
Build a website for my cafe, Rosie & Bean, a neighbourhood coffee shop in Brunswick, Melbourne. We roast our own beans, serve specialty coffee and house-baked pastries, and the vibe is warm, slightly industrial, and unfussy — timber, cream walls, lots of natural light. Audience: locals who work from laptops in the morning and weekend brunch crowds. Pages I need: Home, Menu, Visit (hours + map), About, and Contact. Include clear calls to action for “See the menu” and “Find us”. Use a warm colour palette (cream, deep espresso brown, soft terracotta accent) and type that feels editorial but readable. Don't invent reviews, awards, or menu items I haven't given you — leave the menu as a placeholder section I can fill next.
Tier 2Shape the pages
Once the shell exists, tighten structure. Ask for the sections a cafe visitor actually needs — not a generic “services” grid.
Capability: restructure layout by describing intent
Structure — homepage sections
Rebuild the homepage for Rosie & Bean with these sections in order: (1) a full-width hero with our name, a one-line promise (“Specialty coffee & house-baked pastries in Brunswick”), and two buttons — See menu and Visit us; (2) a short “Today at the cafe” strip with opening hours; (3) three photo cards for Coffee, Pastries, and Space; (4) a short story blurb that links to About; (5) a Visit block with address, hours, and a map link; (6) a simple footer with Instagram. Keep it calm and scannable on a phone — no long paragraphs above the fold.
Tier 3Add your menu PDF (the hard problem, solved)
This is where traditional websites fall over. You have a menu PDF from your designer or Canva. You need it on the site — maybe as a download, maybe previewed on the page. With Ullbek you don't email anyone. You drag the PDF into the chat window (or attach it to your message), then tell the AI what to do with it.
How to give Ullbek your PDF
Drag the file straight into the chat, or use the attach control on the message box. Once it appears in the conversation, reference it in your prompt (“this PDF”, “the menu I just uploaded”). Ullbek can place it as a download button, host it for sharing, and help you design a menu page around it. See also Working with assets.
Capability: drag-and-drop files + PDF download
Menu — PDF download + page
I've just uploaded our current menu PDF. On the Menu page: (1) create a clear “Download full menu (PDF)” button that uses this file; (2) design a clean on-page menu for the main categories — Coffee, Food, Pastries — using these items: [paste your items & prices]; (3) note at the bottom that prices may change and the PDF is always the latest version. Make the download button easy to find on mobile. If the PDF filename is ugly, rename it something like rosie-and-bean-menu.pdf.
Menu — swap PDF next month
I've uploaded the new seasonal menu PDF. Replace the existing menu download with this file, update the on-page specials section to match: [list new specials], and change any “last updated” note to March 2026. Keep the rest of the Menu page layout the same.
Tier 4Photos of your food and space
Phone photos of real flat whites beat perfect stock. Upload a handful, or ask Ullbek to pull royalty-free stock and generate supporting images in a consistent style.
Capability: your uploads · stock · AI images
Images — place your own photos
I've uploaded photos from the cafe. Use the best flat-white shot as the homepage hero. Put the interior shot on the Visit page. Use the pastry and latte-art photos in a 3-image gallery on the homepage under “From the counter”. Crop thoughtfully so faces and plates aren't cut off, optimise for the web, and keep a warm, slightly desaturated look that matches our cream-and-espresso palette. If any photo is the wrong shape for its slot, crop it to fit rather than stretching it.
Images — stock when you don't have photos yet
I don't have professional photos yet. Find warm, realistic stock photos for a specialty cafe — latte art, fresh croissants, sunlit cafe interior — that match a cream, espresso, and terracotta palette. Use them as temporary placeholders on Home and Menu, and label them in our working notes so I can replace them with real photos later. Prefer photographic over illustrated.
Tier 5Hours, address, and finding you
The Visit page is the one people open while walking. Make hours impossible to miss, and link out to maps.
Capability: structured content you can update anytime
Visit — hours & map
On the Visit page for Rosie & Bean, set address to 42 Lygon Street, Brunswick VIC 3056. Hours: Mon–Fri 7am–4pm, Sat–Sun 8am–3pm. Add a note: “Kitchen closes 30 minutes before close.” Include a prominent “Open in Google Maps” button using that address, a short parking/tram note (Tram 1 & 6 stop outside; limited street parking), and show today's hours in the site header or homepage strip too so people don't have to hunt.
Visit — holiday hours banner
Add a temporary banner across the top of the site: “Easter hours — closed Friday, open Sat–Mon 9am–2pm.” Also update the Visit page hours for that weekend only, and remind me in a week to remove the banner after Easter Monday.
Tier 6Reservations and contact (no third-party form tools)
Ullbek has a built-in form backend. You don't need Formspree, Google Forms, or a plugin. Ask for the fields you want — submissions are spam-checked and emailed to you.
Capability: built-in forms → your inbox
Contact — table enquiry form
On the Contact page, add a table enquiry form with fields: Name, Email, Phone, Preferred date, Preferred time, Party size, and a message box. Title it “Book a table or ask us anything.” Use Ullbek's built-in form handling so submissions email me automatically with spam filtering. Add a short note under the form: “We seat most walk-ins; large groups of 6+ please enquire at least a day ahead.” Also add our email hello@rosieandbean.example and Instagram handle as simple text alternatives.
Contact — catering request form
Add a second form on Contact (or a Catering section) for office coffee and pastry catering. Fields: Company name, Contact name, Email, Event date, Headcount, Delivery address, and notes. Label submissions clearly so I can tell catering enquiries apart from table bookings in my inbox.
Where submissions go
Form messages land in the email on your Ullbek account — no extra dashboard to learn. Full walkthrough: Contact forms & submissions.
Tier 7About, story, and trust
People buy coffee from people. A short, true story beats filler copy every time — and you should never invent reviews.
Capability: brand voice from your real story
About — real story only
Write the About page for Rosie & Bean from these facts only — don't invent history, awards, or staff: opened in 2022 by Rosie Chen after years as a barista in Melbourne; we roast small-batch beans in-house twice a week; the name comes from Rosie's dog Bean; we care about unhurried coffee and knowing regulars by name. Tone: warm, plain-spoken, no corporate fluff. Include a simple portrait slot for Rosie (I'll upload the photo) and a short “What we believe” list of three lines.
Trust — real quotes only
Add a testimonials strip on the homepage using only these real quotes (do not invent any): “Best flat white on Lygon — and they remember my order.” — Priya; “The morning bun is dangerous. In a good way.” — Marcus. If I don't have enough quotes yet, use a single quote and a button that says “Leave us a Google review” linking to [your Google Business profile URL]. Never fabricate star ratings.
Tier 8Specials, events, and weekly updates
This is the ongoing win. A new single-origin, a live jazz Saturday, a sold-out pastry — update it yourself in chat instead of waiting on a ticket queue.
Capability: ongoing edits without a developer
Specials — this week's board
Add or update a “This week” section on the homepage: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe pour-over — $6.5, Rhubarb danish (Fri–Sun only), and Saturday 10am cupping — free, no booking. Keep the design compact so it can change every week without redesigning the page. If a “This week” section already exists, replace the items rather than stacking old ones.
Tier 9Polish for phones and search
Most visitors are on a phone outside your door. A few targeted asks go a long way before you publish.
Capability: responsive design + on-page SEO
Polish — mobile & SEO basics
Review the whole Rosie & Bean site for mobile: make sure hours and the menu download are reachable within one scroll on the homepage, buttons are thumb-friendly, and images aren't cropping off plates or faces. Add a sensible page title and meta description to every page mentioning cafe Brunswick naturally where it fits. Add alt text to key images. Don't stuff keywords — keep it human.
Tier 10Publish and go live
When it looks right, publish. You get a free *.ullbek.site address immediately, with HTTPS. Connect your own domain when you're ready.
I'm ready to publish Rosie & Bean. Do a final pass: every page has a title and meta description, the menu PDF download works, the contact form is wired up, hours are correct, and there are no placeholder “lorem ipsum” or TODO notes left. Then walk me through publishing to a free Ullbek subdomain. After that, explain how I'd connect rosieandbean.com when I'm ready.
“The website isn't finished when it launches. For a cafe, launch is when the easy updates begin.”
After launch: the updates that used to be painful
The real product for a cafe owner isn't the first build — it's month two. Here's how common updates map to what you already learned:
Common cafe updates → what to do in Ullbek
New menu PDF
Drag the file into chat → use the Tier 3 update prompt. No developer email.
Holiday hours
Paste the holiday hours prompt. Banner + Visit page in one go.
New food photos
Upload from your phone → ask Ullbek to place and crop them (Tier 4).
Weekend special
Tier 8 specials prompt — swap items without redesigning the homepage.
Catering enquiry form
Tier 6 — built-in form, messages to your inbox. Details in Contact forms.
Neighbourhood, hours, what you serve, and the feeling of the room beat “make it modern and clean.” Ullbek handles the design system; you supply the truth.
Keep a current menu PDF on your phone
When something changes, export from Canva or your designer, drag into chat, done. That single habit replaces most “quick website update” invoices.
Never invent reviews or awards
Ask Ullbek to leave placeholders rather than fabricate social proof. Fake testimonials erode trust the moment a regular notices.
Update in small passes
One prompt for hours, one for photos, one for the form. Smaller asks are easier to review in the preview and cheaper in attention.
Republish after important changes
Edits in the builder aren't automatically live. When the menu or hours change, publish again so the public site matches what you just built.
Preview ≠ live
The left-hand preview shows your working site. Visitors only see what you've published. After a menu swap or hours change, publish again so the world sees it.
