Industry Notes: Thank God for the DJ's

Better living through music

May 08, 2023

I hate to knock Blues Traveler right out the gate, but I remember the time I walked into a well loved Charleston restaurant and their hit song “Run Around” was playing. Mind you, this was around 2020. Perhaps I’m a snob, but my gut reaction was to turn around and walk out the door.

Not that there is anything wrong with Blues Traveler, per se, but I just got these sense that if that song was playing, someone probably wasn’t paying attention to the details. Maybe you catch my drift.

I grew up with a constant stream of music. At the house, in the car, weekend mornings - my dad’s robust collection of vinyl was always in use, providing an early education in great music; a lifelong love affair had begun.

In our own home, we very much practice the same approach. Music is as important to the tenor of our home as the lightbulbs we use and the level to which they are dimmed. It sets a cinematic mood, lending an otherwise typical day just a bit of energy, or verve.

The moment I wake up in the morning, in tandem with the coffee being brewed, music is playing. Usually a gentle, drippy jazz - something like Bill Evans, or the beautiful, spare piano of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. And when we return home in the afternoon, as the day fades into evening, the soundtrack changes, lending our moments a sense of occasion.

I can appreciate silence, certainly, but I prefer a little soundtrack to the day if given the choice. And fortunately, there has never been a better time to discover new music. Thanks to a slew of services, DJ’s, and tastemakers, restaurants and hotels now have some of the best music, if you know where to go, and you pay attention.

When we open our restaurants, I program the music for the first year. The lead up, creating countless playlists for different services and varying energy levels, is one of my favorite parts. It helps me make the place real in my mind - by building out playlists I’m able to fully inhabit the place, mentally.

Usually my musical knowledge is exhausted, or I get too busy to continue to build these lists. Or I lose interest. Years ago I learned about a group of DJ’s and music enthusiasts who started a company called Gray-V. They curate playlists for a variety of incredible venues from Edition Hotels to Auberge Hotels to Sweetgreen. I hired them to start to build out a selection of music for my first restaurant, Leon’s, building from the extensive collection of New Orleans jazz and soul that we played.

I did the same thing at Little Jack’s, moving from my own playlists (included below) into their ever-changing selection of music that augments the vibe in the exact way I wanted.

Outside of my own restaurants, I’ve had a few impactful recent experiences with music in hospitality venues. At Scribe Winery, one of the owners wives, a musician herself, creates incredible playlists that lend a visit to the winery a syrupy, dreamy backdrop. They’re available on Spotify, and the playlist below is one of my most played for a chill lunch or dinner gathering, or an easy Sunday at home.

And during my most recent stay at Nine Orchard (which I wrote about here), the music in the rooms was so good I spent two hours on Shazam one evening, getting song after song onto my phone. The next morning I went straight to the front desk to find out who had created the in-room playlists. They told me it was the iconic NY DJ Stretch Armstrong, but considering his hip hop lineage, it just didn’t seem right. The music was too varied, the selections too deep.

I did some digging and found some of the playlists from Devon Turnbull, the same audiophile behind the amazing Ojas speakers that you see throughout Nine Orchard, and in the living rooms of the global cognoscenti.

While the music in the rooms wasn’t suitable for a busy Friday evening at a restaurant, I found the vibes to be absolutely stellar for a chill evening at home, or as a soundtrack to a day spent drawing, writing, creating.