Real chalkboards are actually pretty rare in restaurants these days. Most of those menus are printed on chalkboard-pattern paper or vinyl, which is why the "chalk" letters look so crisp and fake. Actual chalk gets smudged, and nobody wants to rewrite the specials every morning. The light gray board with white text is just bad design though, that one isn't the font's fault.

Man, I read a thread on a chef forum about this exact thing and half the old heads were losing their minds over it. Grabbing as you go works until you get slammed on a Friday and then you're just standing there with your pants down.

Did your buddy have the same issue with vacuum kits?