Option 1 · Lights On
The sign out front runs the page
Night-time neon. Whatever's happening right now glows: the open sign, tonight's act, the taps.
NeonDarkNight out
Proposal · November 2026
A new saltyrhinopub.com , and the tools to run the place.
Five finished design options to choose from, plus one admin app for booking bands, talking to them, and scheduling your staff. An agent handles the routine back-and-forth and only taps you on the shoulder when a decision is yours.
01Where the site is today
The brand is great. The website isn't doing it justice.
I ran the current Squarespace site through Google's PageSpeed test on a phone and went through it page by page. The rhino, the hand-lettered posters and the beer photos already have the personality award juries look for. The site buries them and gives visitors almost nothing to do.
69Google mobile performance scoreTarget 90+
11.1sfor the main image to load on a phoneTarget under 2.5s
5.4 MBdownloaded per visit, mostly photosTarget under 1.5 MB
0ways to book, buy or RSVP on the siteEverything goes to Gmail or Instagram DMs
What's missing
- No menu on phones. Sections are buried in one 13,700-pixel page.
- The events calendar is one picture, so Google can't read it and nobody can tap it.
- "Beers on Tap" has no beer list.
- Bands book by emailing a Gmail address next to a gear list.
- No page description for Google, missing photo descriptions, stale posts.
What the new site does
- Loads fast: under 2.5 seconds on a phone is the target.
- Every show gets its own page, with add-to-calendar and directions.
- A live tap list you update from your phone.
- A real artist page and a booking flow that fills your calendar and your schedule.
- Built to be submitted for web design awards.
02What's been built
One new website. One app to run it.
Everything below is live as a clickable prototype right now. The artists and staff in it are made up, and nothing gets sent to anyone yet.
5Design options
Each a full site: home, shows, drinks, play, visit and artists.
1Admin dashboardToday's crew, shows, money and anything that needs you.
32Booking messagesReady-to-send intros, offers, confirmations and follow-ups.
24/7Booking agentAnswers bands by email, text and phone. Pings you only for decisions.
6Staff toolsSchedule, time clock, timesheets, team, requests and a staff app.
03Design options
Five directions. Click through each one.
These aren't mockups. Each is a working site with every page, live open-or-closed status from your hours, and the real November lineup. Open any of them on your phone; the bar across the top lets you flip between designs and stay on the same page.
Option 2 · Set List
Your notebook poster, as the whole site
Lined paper, marker lettering and taped index cards, built from the hand-drawn event posters you already make. Tap shows to circle them and build a "My night" sticky note.
Keeps your lookHand-letteredLight and friendly
Option 3 · Trailhead
The last stop on the way down the mountain
Mount Hood, forests, rivers and campfires with layered scrolling motion. Tonight is drawn as a trail map, and a campfire grows as showtime gets closer.
PNW outdoorsMotion and photos
Option 4 · The Board
A flip-board for shows, games and the golf league
A departures-style board that flips to show what's on: live music, what's on the TVs, and league standings.
Sports barEasy to scan
Option 5 · Hood View
A screen-print poster whose sky follows the clock
An illustrated view of Mount Hood and the pub. The sky, sun, stars and the pub's windows change with the real time of day.
IllustratedPark-poster style
Every design includes
Show pages
One page per show with add-to-calendar, share and directions, so Google can list your events.
Live open or closed
Pulled from your hours, so it's always right. Tonight's act is shown up top.
Tap list and drinks
Taps, cocktails, wine and no-alcohol options that you update from your phone.
Play
Trivia Tuesdays, karaoke, sports on the TVs, the golf sim and league rules, with league sign-in.
For artists
Stage and gear list, how booking works, and a "get on our list" form.
Built for phones
A bottom menu on phones, fast loading, readable for everyone, and the real rhino logo throughout.
04Admin dashboard
Your whole night on one screen.
Open it on your phone or the bar's tablet. Bookings and staff live in the same app, so confirming a band automatically puts that night's shifts on the schedule.
- Needs youOnly what the agents couldn't handle: a booking to confirm, a pay counter, an open shift, a time-off request.
- Today's crewWho's on, who's clocked in, who's late.
- This weekHours scheduled, estimated wages and hours worked so far.
- Upcoming showsEvery show with its booking and staffing status.
- Message the teamPost an announcement and text everyone at once.
05Bookings and the communications hub
You offer the date. The band taps yes. Everything else follows.
An artist roster, 32 ready-to-send messages, and one inbox for email, texts and calls. Pick an artist, pick a message, choose email, text or both, and send.
- Offer a datePick an open Friday or Saturday and send the offer.
- Band repliesYes, a counter, or a question. The agent answers the questions.
- ConfirmOne tap in the inbox. The band gets load-in details automatically.
- Show goes liveIt's added to the calendar and a show page is created.
- Staff itThe sound and door shift is texted out; first to claim gets it.
- Artist rosterContact person, email, mobile, preferred channel, and whether they've agreed to get texts.
- 32 saved messagesFirst hellos, offers, follow-ups, confirmations, day-before reminders, thank-yous and polite no's. Names, dates, pay and load-in fill in automatically.
- One inboxRead and unread messages, filters for "Needs you", and a Confirm booking button right in the conversation.
- Booking calendarConfirmed, on hold and offered dates, with open nights you can offer in one tap.
The booking agent
It answers bands by email, text and phone, around the clock. You decide where the line is. Right now it's set to answer and hold dates, while you confirm.
Handles on its own
- Gear, stage, load-in, set times, parking and address
- Sends offers at your standard rate
- Holds a date when a band says yes
- Offers other dates and releases declined ones
- Answers the phone and writes up the call
- Stops texting anyone who replies STOP
Pings you when
- A booking is ready to confirm (it never confirms on its own)
- A band asks for more money
- Two acts want the same night
- A complaint, a cancellation, or anything upset
- It isn't sure. It asks instead of guessing.
Alerts come by text or email. During service hours they're held and sent as one summary.
06Staff management
The Homebase basics, connected to your bookings.
Scheduling, the time clock and timesheets live next to your show calendar, so show nights get staffed automatically. The full schedule grid works best on a laptop; on a phone it switches to a day-by-day list.
Schedule
A week at a glance, filled from templates, with show nights marked and conflicts flagged. Publish texts everyone their shifts.
Time clock
Clock in and out with breaks, on the bar's tablet with a PIN.
Timesheets
Scheduled vs. worked hours, overtime, late punches, estimated pay. Approve, then export for payroll.
Team
Roles, wages, contact details and each person's weekly availability.
Requests
Time off and shift covers. Approving one reopens the shift and offers it to whoever's free.
Staff app
Your crew sees their shifts, clocks in, picks up open shifts and asks for time off.
07What's been done
Built so far
- Site auditSpeed, what visitors can and can't do, design, usability and search.
- Award-ready planStructure based on what Awwwards, CSS Design Awards and the Webbys score, and on venue sites that won.
- Five full design optionsEvery page in every design, with a switcher bar across the top.
- Real content in placeYour logo, photos, hours, address, the November lineup, gear list and golf league rules.
- Admin dashboardToday, this week, upcoming shows, "Needs you", and team announcements.
- Booking and communications hubRoster, 32 messages, email/text/both, inbox, confirm, calendar.
- Booking agent (simulated)Answers, holds dates, escalates. Try it with the sample replies in any conversation.
- Staff managementSchedule, time clock, timesheets, team, requests and the staff app view.
- Hosting set upCode in a private GitHub repo, live on Vercel. Search engines are blocked while it's a preview.
- Tested on phones and desktopEvery page checked for errors, layout and broken links.
08Decisions needed
What I need from you
The first one unlocks everything else. The rest can come over the next week or two.
Which design?
Pick one of the five, or tell me what you like from two of them.
Once you choose, the other four come down and I build the real site on yours.
Replace Homebase, or run both for a while?
Switch over fully, or keep Homebase for payroll while the new scheduling settles in.
This decides whether we import your team and history from Homebase now or later.
Standard band pay and set length
The sample uses $350 flat plus a bar tab, 7 to 9pm.
The agent only offers this rate; anything above it comes to you.
Which number do bands text?
A new booking number, or move the pub's current line onto the system.
A new number is simpler and keeps your personal line separate.
Anything the agent must never say
Topics, promises or details to keep off-limits.
Written into its rules before it talks to anyone.
Placeholder copy
Cocktail names, show descriptions, "no cover", load-in times and patio notes are stand-ins.
Confirm or replace them before launch.
09Integration requirements
What it takes to go live
Costs are rough; at a pub's volume most services sit in their free tiers. Texting takes longest because the phone carriers require a business registration first.
| Piece | Service | What I need from you | Rough cost | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website hosting | Vercel, code on GitHub | Nothing; already running | Free to start | Done |
| Your domain | saltyrhinopub.com moves from Squarespace to Vercel | Login for wherever the domain is registered | No change | 1 day |
| Database | Postgres on Neon | Nothing | Free tier | Same day |
| Email in and out | Resend, with a booking@ address | DNS access for the domain | Free tier | 1 day |
| Texting | Twilio, with a local number | Legal business name and EIN for carrier registrationBands must opt in; STOP always works. | A few dollars a month plus about a cent per text | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Phone agent | Twilio Voice plus a voice agent | Choice of booking number | Pennies per minute | About 1 week |
| Booking agent brain | Claude (Anthropic) | Pay rate, set length, no-go topics | A few dollars a month | About 1 week |
| Staff data | Import from Homebase | An export of your team, availability and past timesheets | None | 1 day |
| Payroll | CSV export from approved timesheets | Which payroll provider you use | None | 1 day |
| Traffic numbers | Squarespace Analytics and Google Search Console | Access to both, to measure before and after | Free | Same day |
| Making changes yourself | Your own Claude project connected to GitHub and Vercel | A Claude account | Your Claude plan | 1 day |
Nothing here needs you to touch code. Day-to-day changes (a show, a tap, the schedule) happen in the admin app; anything bigger you can ask Claude to do, and you approve a preview before it goes live.
10Next steps
From your pick to launch
- Pick a designClick through all five on your phone and tell me which one.You
- Send the go-live detailsDomain login, business name and EIN, booking number choice, pay and set length, Homebase export.You
- Build the real site on your designReal database, your team and roster loaded, placeholder copy swapped for yours.Adam
- Turn on email, then the agentBooking emails go out for real; texting follows once the carrier registration clears.Adam
- Try it for a weekRun the admin alongside how you do things now, and fix anything that feels off.Both
- LaunchPoint saltyrhinopub.com at the new site, let Google index it, and submit it for design awards.Adam
11Future roadmap options
Where it can go next
None of these are needed for launch. Each one plugs into the same admin.
Golf sim booking and payment
Book Salty Swing hours online, pay up front, with league scores in the same place.
High valueTickets or RSVPs for big nights
Free RSVPs or paid tickets for headline shows and fundraisers, with a door check-in list.
High valueWeekly email newsletter
"This week at the Rhino" built automatically from the calendar and tap list.
Quick winTap list from your beer menu service
If you use a digital beer menu, taps update on the site the moment you change a keg.
Quick winTV board in the bar
Tonight's act, the tap list and league standings on a screen, straight from the admin.
FunPoint-of-sale connection
Connect your register to see wages as a share of sales by night, and schedule to match.
Bigger buildPrivate events and parties
An inquiry form, deposit, and the agent handling the back-and-forth.
High valueMerch and fundraiser store
Sell shirts and fundraiser items online instead of through Instagram DMs.
Quick winReviews and Google profile
A gentle review ask after events, and show listings pushed to your Google Business Profile.
Quick winPick the one that feels like the Rhino.
Open the designs on your phone, try the admin, and tell me which way you want to go.