How bar Vetti in Louisville curates the perfect restaurant music playlist
Think about the last time you walked into your favorite restaurant. What was the vibe? Chill? High-energy? Romantic?
Now, what made it that way? The design, look and feel of the space? That has a lot to do with it, for sure. But no matter the design, if there's one key ingredient off (and we're not talking about food here), the whole thing just … falls flat.
The final piece of the puzzle, said Hap Cohan, general manager and partner of bar Vetti, 727 E. Market St., is music. And smart chefs and restaurateurs know that.
Science tells us there are strong ties between music and memories, with music packing the ability to evoke strong emotions. So it's one very powerful tool in setting the mood of a dining experience, and honestly, could make or break it. Am I the only person to have ever left a restaurant before ordering because bad or ill-fitting music killed the vibe?
Well, one place that won't happen is bar Vetti. Cohan, chef Andrew McCabe, and the team have a keen understanding of how music can shape an experience. They know it well enough to have incorporated music into the bar Vetti at-home dinner experiences they offered during those dark days of the early pandemic. I’ll never forget picking up our to-go order, my husband and I, and plating it nicely at home with candles, then loading the Spotify playlist created specifically for this purpose.
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Was it the same as dining in a restaurant? Of course not. But it hit all the senses and was as good as it got in those days.
Today, in its NuLu location, and celebrating five years in business, the team is tuned in (sorry, had to do it) at a serious level to the powerful connection between music and mood.
And not even just for the dining room and diners; it starts with pre-service in the kitchen, where they use music to rally staff for the evening ahead. And during service, their selections may be just as much about how it can affect staff as it can the folks sitting down to eat.
"Too high energy can make you anxious," Cohan said, and if it’s too slow, staff may not move as quickly.
"You can literally feel an energy when that vibe hits," he said. "…The staff is hitting on all cylinders and guests are having a good time. That’s something we do well at bar Vetti is keeping the energy high, but not too high."
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Music even went into plans for its NuLu location when they were making that move, McCabe said. Late at night at the previous location, after everyone had gone home, "I’d sit at the end of the bar and look through the drawings, like imagining the space, just kind of thinking about walking into the space where the bars is full, the tables are full, the restaurant’s like bumping."
Then imagining the soundtrack to that scene, "does this song make you feel cool?" he said.
They have a number of playlists because the music for brunch isn’t the same as what you want for early, straight-from-work-dinner, which isn't the same as what you want late when the sun's down and the neon is glowing, the duo explained.
Then there's music for weeks downtown is overflowing with business conventions versus music for, say, Kentucky Derby week.
But one giant playlist to sort of rule them all has been developed over their last five years, McCabe said. That's the list I spotted on his Instagram story recently, by chance the same week I was watching the Netflix series "Playlist," which tells the story of how the streaming music service got started and how the power of playlists helped them jump out of the pack of similar competitors.
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With well over 300 songs, it's quite the collection and is still a work in progress. (This may be a good time to note that they don't actually use Spotify in the restaurant; licensing rules are not to be toyed with if you saw the "Playlist" series. They use a paid service that ensures they’re following the rules. That tool can actually pull their list of music from the playlist and only include the ones they have rights to play in a commercial setting.)
What bar Vetti's master playlist is not, McCabe said, is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. They monitor the flow throughout the evening and are at the ready to switch it up if the environment needs a change.
While it hardly seems fair that someone so talented in the realm of cooking also has this talent of curating music to create an experience, it comes as no surprise when you consider McCabe was also in bands as early as 15 years old.
So what are some of his and Cohan’s top picks from the Bar Vetti playlists? Here are a few of their favorites. Happy listening!
Tell Dana! Send your restaurant “Dish” to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com and follow @bourbonbarbarella on Instagram.
bar Vetti's top recommendations for a dinner + music playlist
"C.R.E.A.M." by El Michels Affair (note: instrumental covers of Wu-Tang Clan songs are super fun, McCabe said.)
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: How Louisville's bar Vetti curates the perfect restaurant playlist
