This is an ongoing series to highlight the playlists of all the things I love listening to. P.S. #np means now playing.

After dreams of hand-crafting my own restaurant playlists became a reality, I became acutely attuned to what does and doesn’t work in the chaotic dance that is a dining room at rush hour.

It all depends on the vibe of your place, but it doesn’t take many shifts to identify what’s too slow, too upbeat, too much beat, and so on.

Check out my ongoing restaurant playlists here.

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Some Restaurant-Playlist-Making Best Practices

• There’s a method to the madness behind the scenes, and a good playlist can make all the difference! 
  
• Protect the vibe, at all costs. (see below)
  
• First, establish the vibe. Get adamant about what does and doesn’t work. This requires extensive obsessing over whether or not every song you pick for the playlist (and are then forced to listen to every 6-12am block of the day) is perfect. This is more than what’s popular, or what the youngest folks on staff recommend. It’s a deliberate balance of how the environment feels, how you aspire it to feel, a little personality of the community who runs it - and the one that eats there…
  
• Sometimes, you must tune out the staff that doesn’t want to hear ‘No Scrubs’ at brunch and dinner shifts. You must, at times, make executive decisions to do whatever the f**k you want.
  
• As the final guests make their way out and servers are on the latter half of end-of-shift duties: To maximize morale, it’s imperative Closing Time makes an appearance - nightly if possible.