Yes, They’re Absolutely, Positively Fedex Envelopes

It’s classy, it’s cool, it’s . . . a menu made of recycled FedEx envelopes. You’ll find it at Linq, the trendy new 3rd Street restaurant near the Beverly Center, next time you order your organic baby greens or lobster ravioli. Designers Dodd Mitchell (who also did Linq’s interior) and Leslie Kale had so many used FedEx envelopes in their offices that they decided to take an “unusual approach” in handcrafting the menu covers.

They treat the FedEx paper, dye it a charcoal color and then “it’s like arts and crafts time in my office,” says Mitchell, who uses two envelopes per wine/dessert menu and four envelopes for the larger starters/entrees menus. Each menu cover requires about four hours to make--probably less time than needed to construct sliding paper doors in Japan or Prada’s spring 1999 treated cotton “paper” skirts. But for Mitchell, there are greater concerns: “The menus have a very sensual feel, and everyone’s feeling them. The joke is for diners to try to tell what it is.”