December: time for taking stock and compiling lists. It’s also when Spotify presents users with a view of their annual activity on the platform, from their favourite genres to their most listened-to songs. Music is the essential soundtrack to our everyday lives, and the same is true of the restaurant: music contributes to creating the mood, atmosphere and vibes of an evening. In restaurants, some rely on the random selection of songs, perhaps selecting a style or theme, those who look for ad hoc lists (with titles like Michelin Star, all jazz, or Michelin Restaurants, a varied collection of tracks ranging from ambient to jazz), but also those who create personalized playlists, carefully choosing the songs and sounds that will accompany guests during the gastronomic experience. The beauty of it is being able to go home and listen to the songs we liked most and relive the emotions of our evening. Here is our selection of the restaurant playlists not to be missed.
Photo Sebastiaan Chia | Unsplash
9 of the best restaurant playlists on Spotify
For his first solo adventure, the brand new Patrizia restaurant, Tommaso Zoboli, a young chef from Modena, Italy with a history in starred brigades, opted for an auteur’s soundtrack. This is how the Patrizia 1/3 2023/2024 playlist was born, created by Dargen D'Amico, an artist who will participate in the Sanremo 2024 Festival in February and is among the judges of X Factor Italia. “The menu, a 75-page magazine, illustrated and hand-drawn by Illario Luigi Filippo, which will change every season, contains the QR code to directly access the playlist on Spotify,” says the chef. The sound? There is a good dose of hip-hop: it ranges from Cypress Hill to Busta Rhymes, from Fat Joe to LL Cool J.
Kulm Country Club
Let's go to St. Moritz, in the Swiss Alps, to the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz, which has just reopened with many new features on the food and beverage front. Mauro Colagreco has landed at the Kulm Country Club, where he offers simultaneously refined and informal cuisine, focused on ‘Mountain Terroir’. The musical selection signed by the ‘Directeur d'ambience’ Arman Naféei, a celebrity in the field of playlists created specifically for hospitality and fashion, helps create the right mood to savour the food, with different lists to reflect the culinary offerings and environments of all the Kulm restaurants (Amaru, Sunny Bar, Kulm Country Club and The Pizzeria). The soundtrack is not yet available on the platform, so how about popping over to St. Moritz to listen to it?
The French touch
Otto
The French touch can be felt in the world of Spotify playlists. Le Fooding, the famous French food guide, has even created a playlist on the platform. There is no shortage of restaurants with ad hoc soundtracks, such as that of Otto, a Parisian project dedicated to sharing, born from the collaboration between Meilleur Ouvrier de France chef Eric Trochon and friends Stéphane Offner and Tony Alvarez-Parage. In this space inspired by Japanese izakaya, the music is rhythmically pop and sounds French, with artists ranging from Clara Luciani to Juliette Armanet: for a complete listen, here is the OttoPop playlist.
Pantobaguette
What sound does the latest generation bistronomy make? To understand it, just tune in to the Pantobaguette channel on Spotify. Located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, this young address defines itself as ‘comptoir musical et culinaire’. A very fitting name, given that it was created by a group of friends – Paul, Anto, Tom, Barth and Gauthier – who founded the Animal Records & Kitchen label in 2015. Then, the decision was made to open a gastronomic space, after the team took part in events and festivals. Et voilà, the soundtrack, made up of a series of varied playlists ranging from Dancing Queen to the numbered series Panto#3, Panto#4 and Panto#5.
Customised playlists
Il Mannarino
At Il Mannarino, a butcher's shop and kitchen that has 13 locations in and around Milan, the table is conceived as a place to meet with friends and fully enjoy every moment, with the typical atmosphere of Sunday family lunches. To make the brand's premises even more welcoming, songs from the most iconic Italian singer-songwriters have been collected on a playlist, available on Spotify, curated by Gianmarco Venuto, co-founder of Il Mannarino and a great lover of Italian music. The list includes iconic Italian classics like ‘Mi Sono Innamorato di Te’ by Luigi Tenco, ‘Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu’ by Domenico Modugno, ‘La Mia Banda Suona il Rock’ by Ivano Fossati, ‘Svaluation’ by Adriano Celentano and, of course, ‘Me So 'Mbriacato’ by Mannarino, an artist who shares the name on the sign above the door.
Trattoria Contemporanea
At Trattoria Contemporanea, a Michelin star restaurant in Lomazzo, near Como, Italy, both the environment and the team are young, led by the talented Davide Marzullo (among the Italian finalists of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition 2019-21). The music leaves its mark throughout the gastronomic experience, with songs that young people of all generations have loved. “Our playlist is called ‘A Window on the World’ ('Una Finestra sul Mondo'), it was created by the team at A Window on the Lake, a guesthouse in our area: the staff came here to eat and decided to create an ad hoc soundtrack,” says the chef. This soundtrack includes The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony, as well as the atmospheric electronic music of Air with La Femme D'Argent, and the ambient trip hop of Massive Attack with Teardrop.
Cocktail music
Carico
In Milan, the Italian capital of fashion and design, where trends are born and evolve, is Carico, a cocktail bar founded by the champion of international mixology Domenico Carella together with Lorenzo Ferraboschi, with Leonardo D'Ingeo in the kitchen. They have left nothing to chance, not even the soundtrack. The staff of the venue has created a real channel on Spotify, with two personalized playlists: a list of songs for aperitivo, punctuated by pieces such as ‘C'era una Vodka’ by the Italian Willie Peyote and 21 Questions by 50 Cent, and a dinner list, with music ranging from the remix of Starry Night by Peggy Gou to Love Tonight by Shouse.
Gucci Giardino 25
Gucci Giardino 25 is the cocktail bar with Gucci cuisine, next to Michelin-starred Gucci Osteria in the heart of Florence. Here, as in all the Gucci Group boutiques around the world, there is only one soundtrack: Gucci Ancora. This is a playlist created to celebrate Sabato De Sarno's debut fashion show, created by Mark Ronson: a selection of songs inspired by new beginnings – timeless music and a homage to Italian culture. It includes Mina’s ‘Ancora’, Naid’s remix of Erase/Rewind by The Cardigans, and Confide in Me by Kylie Minogue.
Coming soon…
The Cocochine
In London, Larry Jayasekara has yet to inaugurate his own restaurant, but he has already decided on the atmosphere and sound he will offer. The Cocochine is scheduled to open in February 2024, in splendid Mayfair: a celebration of art and the joy of eating. Working in the kitchens of some of the most renowned restaurants in the UK and France, Larry met and built relationships with numerous talents, especially young and emerging ones. Some of these, upon hearing the news of the chef's solo venture, enthusiastically joined the gang. Among these, there is head chef Reece Kallah, who was entrusted with the playlist of the kitchen and private room, in preparation for the grand opening. The music included varies from pop to classic rock, moving through romantic and dance hits.
