“A good playlist enhances the mood of the evening,” says Raymond Brunyanszki, co-owner of the Camden Harbour Inn, a MICHELIN Guide Hotel, in Maine. Yet, the art of creating a “good” playlist is not as easy as it seems. Music is personal and thus the perfect playlist requires careful curation, knowledge of the group you're entertaining and variety.
In the season of entertaining, Brunyanszki, along with seven other MICHELIN Guide Hotels and restaurants offer up their favorite playlists to set a crowd pleasing tone for your next party.
And to find out the spots with tunes that impressed our Inspectors, click here.
Deep Cuts & Upbeat
At One MICHELIN Star Kali Restaurant in Los Angeles, the daily tunes are curated by co-owner and wine director, Drew Langley. Langley takes pride in his ever-changing playlist that he personally updates and tweaks often. The trained musician, DJ and fan of live music still attends many live shows and is inspired by the process of production. He shares that Kali’s playlist is inspired by “deep cuts of older bands and upbeat tracks – a read of our clientele.”
Classical Lounge
Raymond Brunyanszki, co-owner of Camden Harbour Inn a Relais & Châteaux property within MICHELIN Guide Hotels, spends anywhere from 20 to 40 hours creating different playlists for the Inn’s restaurant, Natalie’s. For the festive season, Brunyanszki says, “I try to stay away from the generic ‘department store’ holiday music,” offering up this playlist and explaining further: “When I do use more familiar songs they are in a less known arrangement or in a different language. I combine them with classical lounge music like Cafe Del Mar Aria, mixes from DU Raven known for his Buddha Bar albums, and for instance Enya and the album Winter Symphony by Sarah Brightman.” Brunyanszki times his playlist to match the restaurant’s service on a sold out night (about seven hours); his meticulous curation follows the energy of the restaurant – starting chilled, becoming more upbeat as energy in the restaurant is rising, before slowing down again with more romantic songs incorporated at the end of the night.
Global Tunes
“I like putting together playlists that feature non-American artists, across a variety of genres, so that every guest could be intrigued and potentially discover a new favorite artist or song,” says Tia Polite, sommelier at One MICHELIN Star Indienne in Chicago. She adds, “I find it important that the featured artists value the instrumentals of the song, because when you have a room full of people, it's likely that a lot of the vocals will fall into the background and the beat will remain.” Polite recently fashioned this playlist for the restaurant that she describes: “The playlist starts and ends with beautiful, soft songs and gets more high energy in the middle. I love the wide variety of artists we show on this playlist, and it is a playlist that is constantly evolving.”
Baroque
On the topic of international artists and diverse voices, at Cirqa, a MICHELIN Guide Hotel in Arequipa, Peru, CEO Ignacio Masías curated this Andean Baroque playlist with the holidays in mind. It can be heard in the early hours of the morning to honor its historical ties and origins as an ecclesiastical space of peace and reflection. As the day progresses, guests flock to the rooftop where a buzzy ambiance develops, therefore, Masías presents a change in beats. This playlist, he offers, “accompanies the moment where music and cocktails of diverse styles come together and are shared as one.”
Jazz
At prolific MICHELIN-star Chef Thomas Keller’s Regiis Ova Bar & Lounge in Yountville, California, live music is a priority, managed by Élan Artists. Every Thursday through Sunday, there’s a rotation of marquee Bay Area musicians who entertain guests with jazz piano, and the likes of compositions by Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin and Louis Armstrong. During live lulls, DJ JP Jones curates the playlist; a diverse, international range of highly soulful throwback gems punctuated with future classics from a range of artists from Grace Jones and Aretha Franklin, to Amy Winehouse and Leon Bridges. While they aren’t on spotify, we love this soulful playlist.
Versatile
“The most important factor when curating a music playlist is to understand your guest and the style of experience you are hoping to build for those joining you for the evening,” says Jeremy Cohn of Two MICHELIN Star Moody Tongue in Chicago. Though Cohn’s service team strays away from a specific, one-size-fits-all playlist, Moody Tongue does have a collaborative compilation of songs that team members have added to throughout the years. “It's filled with songs that the team enjoys, exemplifies the vibes of our restaurant, and songs that our team enjoy sharing with guests.”
A Little Bit Of Everything
“I think a playlist that mixes genres and eras is key,” says Genevieve Hardison, director of operations at One MICHELIN Orsa & Winston in Los Angeles. “In the same way that Josef's cooking is a blend of many different influences, so is his taste in music.” Hardison shares this playlist that’s a little bit of everything with Indie, classic, R&B, rap… “it runs gamut,” she says. “The playlist crosses genres, styles and time periods… just like Josef it is energetic while still being a little moody.”
