cafe beignet
“Our new signs make us a Canal Street landmark!”
— Cafe Beignet
channel letters • custom raceway
marquee style illumination • complex installation
the client
Café Beignet is a beloved New Orleans institution known for its classic French Quarter ambiance, live local music, and, of course, its powdered-sugar-dusted beignets and café au lait. Rooted in the city’s rich Creole and café culture traditions, it has become both a nostalgic nod to New Orleans’ history and a lively gathering place for visitors and locals alike.
the project
Café Beignet’s two Canal Street locations had to strike a careful balance: honoring old-world charm while commanding attention in one of the city’s busiest retail corridors. A slab serif, block-forward typeface paired with open-channel letter cans, exposing warm, glowing bulbs, delivers exactly that tension. The result is a nostalgic marquee aesthetic that feels rooted in historic New Orleans, yet bold enough to cut through the visual noise of the bustling shopping district.
With the concept in place, OPA needed to overcome a common complexity in New Orleans: architecture.
our challenge
Café Beignet’s newest location inside the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel presented a design and fabrication challenges that required technical precision and aesthetic restraint.
The first complexity involved a channel letter set spanning an angled frontage. To achieve a seamless appearance, OPA fabricated a hyper-custom curved raceway to hug the building’s primary entrance. Letter placement was manually adjusted for each letter to prevent awkward visual gaps caused by the unique curved layout. The signage also had to remain visually consistent with a second, traditional raceway-mounted letterset steps away, ensuring brand continuity from multiple vantage points.
The second challenge centered on dialing in the perfect scale for the primary letters above a custom-fabricated awning being designed simultaneously. Careful coordination between the awning fabrication and signage teams ensured that proportions felt intentional, balanced, and cohesive while also allowing critical installation tolerances and structural clearances.
solution
The finished installation elevates Café Beignet’s presence on Canal Street, transforming a complex architectural frontage into a confident, cohesive brand statement.
Precision fabrication, thoughtful spacing, and seamless integration with the custom awning ensure the signage performs beautifully from every approach.
With this project, OPA Signs & Graphics delivered a solution that feels effortless to the eye, yet reflects the deep technical expertise required to bring it to life.