Tag: The Shift List

BGS Podcast Network: Weekly Roundup // March 27

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Well, it looks like some of you folks might be finding yourself with a bit more time on your hands! And in the age of podcasts, this situation presents a wonderful opportunity. Thankfully, here at BGS we’ve had a steady stream of episodes flowing each week, and have no intention to stem that flow any time soon.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee, settle in, and tune in to our roundup of this week’s podcast releases. And make sure to follow along on our social media [Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram] and right here, where we’ll round up our new releases each week, as well as some past favorites:

The String – Ron Pope

Ron Pope is a case study in good indie art and commerce. He’s an admired songwriter with an avid following for his cathartic, detail-laden songs and his wide-ranging command of roots and rock and roll genres. A Georgia native, he got his career moving in New York and then moved to Nashville, where he’s raising a daughter and keeping the songs flowing.

Craig Havighurst meets with Pope in this latest episode of The String, and takes a radio field trip to Nashville’s shrine of analog recording, Welcome To 1979.

The Show On the Road – The Wood Brothers

Just before our world as we know it shut down, putting a halt to The Wood Brothers’ West Coast tour – along with the entire live music scene – Oliver and Chris Wood spoke with host Zach Lupetin about their renewed musical bond, their brand new album Kingdom in My Mind, the East Nashville tornado, and much more.

Give this episode a listen and then give the album a spin to help you groove through the lockdown.

The Breakdown – The Seldom Scene, “Live at the Cellar Door”

If ever there was a party of a bluegrass album, the Seldom Scene’s classic 1975 release, Live at the Cellar Door, is it.

Hosts Patrick M’Gonigle and Emma John interview original band members Tom Gray and Ben Eldridge to find out what was really going down on that mad and marvelous night.

The Shift List – Restaurant Workers Relief Program

This week on the Shift List, a replay of our conversation with Chef Edward Lee, recorded back in 2018.

Chef Lee is helping to lead the way in bringing restaurant workers relief with his Restaurant Workers Relief Program through The Lee Initiative. Due to the closure of restaurant and worker across America, thousands of restaurant workers have an urgent need for assistance, and they need our help now more than ever.

In partnership with Makers Mark Bourbon, Chef Lee is transforming restaurants across the country into relief centers for any restaurant worker who has been laid off or has had a significant reduction in hours and/or pay. The Lee Initiative, in conjunction with local chefs in every majorly affected community across the country, is offering help for those in need of food and supplies, and each night, they’re packing hundreds of to-go meals that people can come to pick up and take home.

For more information and to donate, visit leeinitiative.org, and in the meantime, while we’re all trapped indoors, continue to support your local community by ordering takeout and pickup.

 

The Shift List – Arthurs Nosh Bar – Montreal

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, our first of three episodes from the great and wintry city of Montreal with Arthurs Nosh Bar, a cozy breakfast and lunch spot serving Jewish classics, including menu standouts like crispy schnitzel served on thick-cut challah or a latke smorgasbord featuring organic gravlax, fluffy scrambled eggs, and caviar.

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Opened in 2016, Arthurs has garnered praise from Bon Appetit, Goop, and Canada’s Globe and Mail, and it all started with owners Raegan Steinberg and her husband, Alex Cohen.

The pair sat down with The Shift List amidst the hustle of Arthurs staff wrapping up service in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon to talk about everything from the playlist they prepared for the birth of their daughter Freia to the personal and professional journey that led them to open Arthurs Nosh Bar.

Celebrate Black History Month with These 15 Artists

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

American roots music wouldn’t exist if not for the voices, stories, and musical traditions of Black Americans. Full stop. Celebrating the Black forebears of Americana, bluegrass, country, and string band music, pointing out their importance and their essential contributions to these genres we all know and love today needs to happen year-round, not just February. 

The BGS editorial team believes strongly in this idea, and though readers will be able to find several Black History Month features and articles in the coming weeks, we encourage you all to also take a dive back into our archives for stories that highlight Black creators and artists from all points across the last year. 

Mavis Staples on Live From Here

Ceaselessly relevant, Mavis Staples recently gave a keynote presentation at Folk Alliance International in New Orleans where she once again gleefully assured the audience she wouldn’t be done singing ‘til she didn’t have anything else to say. And she has plenty left to say! Watch Mavis Staples on Live From Here with Chris Thile. 

Yola’s Year of Debuts

Yola’s debut album, Walk Through Fire, landed on our BGS Class of 2019 lists for Top Albums and Top Songs — and nearly every other year-end list across the industry, too. Naturally she popped up a few times in our pages: In our in-depth interview, when she made her Opry debut, and when she dropped an blazing Elton John cover.

Liz Vice on The Show On The Road

Liz Vice is a Portland born, Brooklyn-based gospel/folk firebrand who is bringing her own vision of social justice and the powerful, playful bounce of soul back to modern religious music. She is following a rich tradition that goes back generations to powerful advocates like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke, the Staples Singers, the Ward Sisters, Aretha Franklin, and especially Mahalia Jackson, who was the soundtrack to the civil rights movement. Listen to the Liz Vice episode of The Show On The Road.

Brittany Howard, Artist of the Month and More

Our November 2019 Artist of the Month stunned in a stripped down duet with Alicia Keys at the Grammy Awards last weekend, her well-earned musical stardom solidified by her debut solo album, Jaime. Our Artist of the Month interview anchored our coverage of Howard’s new music, but her Tiny Desk Concert really captured readers’ attention!

Steep Canyon Rangers with Boyz II Men

Yes, you read that correctly. A combination none of us knew we needed that now we can never go without. The Asheville Symphony backs up the two groups collaboration on “Be Still Moses,” a moment transcending different musical worlds and genre designations. You can watch that performance here.

Rhiannon Giddens: Booked, Busy, and Blessed

How much can an artist really accomplish in a year? A quick scroll through the BGS halls shows a Grammy-nominated album, being named Artist of the Month, scoring a ballet, playing the Tiny Desk, debuting a supergroup, and oh so much more. We are more than happy trying to keep up with Rhiannon Giddens’ prolificacy.

Ashleigh Shanti on The Shift List

The Shift List is a podcast about chefs, their kitchens, their food, and the music that powers all of it. On an episode from September we interviewed Chef Ashleigh Shanti of Benne on Eagle, an Appalachian soul food restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. Her Shift List includes Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone, and more.

Grammy Winners, Ranky Tanky! 

 

We spoke to Ranky Tanky about their album Good Time in August, less than six months before it would win the Grammy for Best Regional Roots Album. If you aren’t familiar with Gullah music, our interview will help you out.

Americana’s Sweethearts, The War and Treaty

Rapidly-rising folk/soul duo of  husband and wife Michael and Tanya Trotter, The War and Treaty have had a year chocked full of smashing successes. Of course the best way to catch up with them was on the road, so Z. Lupetin set up the mics for an episode of The Show On The Road.

Tui’s Old-time Tunes

Jake Blount, one half of old-time duo Tui with fiddler Libby Weitnauer, is a scholar of Black, Indigenous, and otherwise forgotten, erased, or marginalized American fiddlers in old-time and string band music. His work specifically spotlights the source musicians whenever possible, undoing generations of revisionist history in roots music. Tui’s recording of “Cookhouse Joe” was featured in Tunesday Tuesday.

A Sitch Session with Birds of Chicago

A song with a message well-timed for almost any era, “Try a Little Harder” seems especially perfect for this very moment. Birds of Chicago do an excellent job bringing that message to the world. A suitably stunning Sitch Session.

Dom Flemons Talks Black Cowboys

If you haven’t heard Dom Flemons talk about his album, Black Cowboys, and the narratives and traditions that inspired it, this episode of The Show On The Road is essential. The music is captivating on its own, a perfect demonstration of Flemons’ uncanny ability to capture timelessness and raw authenticity, but with his scholarly takes and his depth of knowledge the songs take on even more meaning and power. It’s worth a deep dive — check out our print interview, too.

Gangstagrass Set the Standard

When you read Gangstagrass’s Mixtape of standard setters the parallels that emerge between foundational bluegrass and hip-hop are certainly surprising, but they also make perfect sense. It speaks to the longevity of this boundary-pushing, genre-defying group — that has been setting their own standard as they go.

Jontavious Willis Goes Back to the Country

“Take Me to the Country” is Willis’ paean to his homeland: “No matter where I go in the world, I can’t wait to go back to the country,” He told BGS in April of last year. “For me, that special place is a rural southern town in Georgia where I grew up. It’s such a quiet and calm place, and somewhere I crave when I’m far from it.” You can hear that truth woven into the music.

Octogenarian Bluesman, Bobby Rush

At 85 years old, Bobby Rush has been playing his brand of lovably raunchy, acoustically crunchy, and soulfully rowdy blues for over six decades. After winning his first Grammy at the humble age of 83, he has no plans of slowing down. We caught up with Rush on The Show On The Road.

Photo of Yola: Daniel Jackson 

The Shift List – Justin Cucci (Root Down, Linger, Ophelia’s) – Denver, CO

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Justin Cucci sits down with The Shift List. A mainstay of the Denver food scene, Cucci tends an ever-growing list of both homegrown and high concept restaurants, including Root Down, Linger, Ophelia’s, El Five, and more.

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A New York city native, Cucci grew up revering the chefs and culture at the Waverly Inn — a West Village dining institution that was owned and operated by his grandparents as a kid.

About the same time, Cucci started playing in bands, and continues to do so to this day. He opened Root Down, his first restaurant in Denver, over a decade ago, transforming the building from a gas station into a neighborhood restaurant with a cult following that serves globally-influenced seasonal cuisine with a focus on organic, natural, and locally-sourced ingredients. Root Down features two onsite gardens, which not only provide seasonal vegetables for the restaurant, but for its sister restaurants, Linger and Ophelia’s. There’s even a Root Down at Denver International Airport, one reason to book a long layover in the city.

Cucci has infused music into the culture and business of all of his restaurants — each one of their business entities is named after a Steely Dan song, for example, and you’ll find out what each of them are soon. This episode has plenty of Steely Dan, so yacht rockers rejoice.

The Shift List – Duncan Holmes, Allison Anderson (Beckon | Call) – Denver

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, Chef Duncan Holmes and Allison Anderson, Director of Experience, at Beckon | Call in Denver, Colorado.

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Chef Duncan Holmes and Allison Anderson have incorporated music and a guest’s entire experience at Beckon | Call in a way that is completely holistic and natural. Perhaps it’s because it’s baked into Anderson’s title — as the Director Of Experience, she takes the role of what would normally be considered General Manager and elevates it to a master class in hospitality.

Consider the music at Beckon – the evening’s answer to their popular all-day dining option over at Call. Beckon is a ticketed chef’s table dining experience with ever-changing, seasonal menus. It seats 34 people in a U-shape with Chef Duncan and his team serving you from the center of the intimate dining room, and the entire meal takes about two and half hours. Because the meal happens in phases, each evening’s soundtrack is a hand-picked selection of albums played in their entirety, allowing the staff at Beckon to play through about three records of their choosing over the course of a meal. In the age of playlists and streaming, the decision to play through albums at Beckon is an extension of the meal itself, forcing you to slow down and pay closer attention to each of your senses throughout the experience.

Call was named one of Bon Appetit’s Hot Ten Best New Restaurants of 2018, described as an all-day hang where you may arrive at 10am and end up staying until 2pm — with all of the spritzes and endless selection of unique items to snack on, like their smoked salmon tartine, roasted carrot salad with peas, and Scandinavian-inspired bites.

Call is now on a brief hiatus as Holmes, Anderson, and the team complete some renovations, but Beckon is now a year in and has topped multiple must-eat lists in Denver and beyond.

The Shift List – Jonathan Whitener (Here’s Looking At You) – Los Angeles

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on the Shift List, Jonathan Whitener — chef and co-owner of Here’s Looking At You in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. Similar to his cooking, Jonathan’s musical tastes are a reflection of his family and surrounding environment. Outlaw country from his father, ’80s metal from his brothers, and a love for Glenn Danzig that continues to this day.

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Since it opened in 2016, Here’s Looking at You has appeared on almost every ‘best of’ restaurant list around LA — and that’s due to a number of factors: Co-owner Lien Ta’s laser focus on service and comforting hospitality; top-notch tiki-adjacent bar service; the evolving playlists blending old school hip-hop and post-punk; but it’s anchored by Whitener’s anything goes approach to cooking.

Whitener grew up in Huntington Beach, CA the son of a Mexican mother and a German father. Growing up near Orange County’s thriving Vietnamese and Japanese communities, he pulls all of these influences into his “SoCal tapas-style” menu with standout dishes like the shishito peppers accompanied with an tonnato sauce — the Italian answer to hummus — sprinkled with Huamei, a preserved Chinese plum. Or for another example, frogs legs seasoned like Nashville hot chicken with a salsa negra, scallion, and lime.

Whitener cut his teeth for three years as the chef de cuisine for Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo’s restaurant Animal in Los Angeles before opening Here’s Looking At You with Lien Ta, who he met while she was serving as front-of-house manager at Animal.

Jonathan Whitener’s Shift List
Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
Waylon Jennings – “I’m A Ramblin’ Man”
Waylon Jennings – “Rainy Day Women”
Danzig – “Am I A Demon”
Metallica – “Ride The Lightning”
Nick Waterhouse (Feat. Leon Bridges) – “Katchi”
Tupac (Feat. Syke) – “All Eyes On Me”

The Shift List – Katie Button (Cúrate) – Asheville, N.C.

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Katie Button is at the helm of two restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina: the lively and authentic Spanish experience at the acclaimed tapas restaurant Cúrate, as well as Button & Co. Bagels, influenced by Katie’s upbringing in New Jersey.

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Chef Katie Button took a winding road to open her restaurants in Asheville, first pursuing science degrees at Cornell and earning her master’s degree in biomedical engineering in Paris. Realizing that a life in science wasn’t for her, she changed course to the culinary field, starting as a server at one of José Andrés’ restaurants in Washington, D.C. She volunteered on her days off to work at his avant-garde restaurant minibar to help prep in the kitchen, since she didn’t have any professional cooking experience.

Being in the kitchen made her realize that it was the place she wanted to be most, so from there, she got a position as an intern in the pastry kitchen at New York’s Jean-Georges. After that, she moved to LA to work at The Bazaar by José Andrés, and that following summer, she landed a position in the pastry kitchen at El Bulli, Chef Ferran and Albert Adria’s legendary three-Michelin star restaurant in Spain.

It was there that she met her husband Felix, and together they moved to Asheville to open a restaurant with her parents, where they eventually opened Cúrate in 2011. The classic Spanish tapas restaurant received instant attention and accolades, from mentions in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times t0 earning status as a nominee for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef award in 2014, a semi-finalist for Best Chefs in America in 2015, and a nominee for Best Chef Southeast 2018 and 2019.

In this episode, Chef Katie admits that when she’s expediting dishes, she really doesn’t hear much going on around her, underscoring her intense focus while working the line. But when she’s prepping for a shift, her staff has been surprised to learn that underground indie rock from the mid to late 90s is her go too – think “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse, Archers of Loaf, and Built to Spill.

Katie Button’s Shift List 
Jason Durulo – “Want To Want Me”
Beyoncé – “Run The World”
Wilson Phillips – “Hold On”
Soul Coughing – “Super Bon Bon”
Modest Mouse – “Trailer Trash”
The Rolling Stones – “Honky Tonk Women”

Must-See Food and Drink Events at Bourbon & Beyond 2019

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Yes, bourbon and great music (and, in our case, bluegrass!) are all givens at Bourbon & Beyond this weekend in Louisville, Kentucky, but the culinary and libations programming might be somewhat unexpected to even the most seasoned festival goers. Do yourself a favor and make a point to consume — literally and figuratively — some of the incredible gourmet talent that makes Bourbon & Beyond truly an event that goes above… and beyond. Here are our top picks for must-see food and drink events for B&B 2019:

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
1:30 p.m: Jose Salazar & Matt Abdoo

Jose Salazar is a chef and restaurateur based in Cincinnati, Ohio, so it’s a quick jaunt down to Louisville to be a part of Bourbon & Beyond. Originally from Queens, he got his start in restaurants around New York City, most notably working with Chef Thomas Keller for a four-year stint at Per Se and as the Executive Sous-Chef at Bouchon Bakery when it first opened its doors in 2006. 

This will be the third year in a row that Jose hosts a cooking demo at Bourbon & Beyond (we even interviewed him at last year’s festival for an episode of The Shift List), so the B&B veteran will be mixing things up by inviting the award-winning pitmaster Matt Abdoo to join him on stage. Matt’s BBQ joint Pig Beach is a staple in Gowanus, Brooklyn, so it’ll be fun to see how Chef Salazar incorporates Abdoo’s pit techniques into his demo. 

4:30 p.m: Justin Sutherland & Ben Jaffe 

Chef Justin Sutherland hails from St. Paul, Minnesota, where he’s the owner and executive chef of two restaurants, “Handsome Hog” and “Pearl & The Thief” – both contemporary Southern restaurants. He gained national attention by competing on last year’s season of Top Chef, which just so happened to take place in Louisville,  and recently competed and won on Iron Chef America. 

This will be his first appearance at Bourbon & Beyond, and he’ll be joined onstage throughout his demo by Ben Jaffe, the creative director of Preservation Hall in New Orleans, who also plays tuba and double bass with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and will be performing a set of their own earlier in the day at noon over on the Oak Stage.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
2:30 p.m.: Tiffani Thiessen

Yes – this is the same Tiffani Thiessen that spent her teenage years playing Zach Morris’s on-again/off-again high school sweetheart Kelly Kapowski on Saved By The Bell (now sans her middle name ‘Amber’). That said, over the past few years, she has remade herself as a cookbook author and host of the Cooking Channel series ‘Dinner at Tiffani’s’. 

Making her debut appearance at Bourbon and Beyond, her cooking demo is sure to attract die hard SBTB fans and home cooking aficionados alike.

5:30 p.m: Kelsey Barnard Clark and Sara Bradley

Even though Chefs Kelsey Barnard Clark and Sara Bradley made their television debuts on Top Chef: Louisville, the two Southern chefs had worked and known each other around kitchens for over a decade. 

Barnard Clark, an Alabama native who went on to win the competition, and Louisville hometown hero Bradley, who placed second, are taking their longtime friendship to the stage for their Saturday evening cooking demo. After watching them compete against one another for an entire season of television, it will be fun to see them working together. 

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
12:05 p.m.: Manhattan Vs. The Old Fashioned

Sunday’s the final day of Bourbon & Beyond, so it might as well be spent in the pursuit of enjoying as much Bourbon as possible. Over at the Kentucky Gold stage, Beth Burrows, a brand ambassador for Jim Beam, and ‘master taster’ for Old Forester Jackie Zakan will be debating which classic bourbon cocktail reigns supreme. The Manhattan and Old Fashioned will face off for cocktail supremacy, although we’re pretty sure it’s just a good excuse to sample both in one sitting. 

 6:15 p.m: Slavery In American Whiskey

Enslaved people helped build the foundation of American whiskey, and a panel of historians and experts will be gathering to tell some of their stories. Led by renowned whiskey connoisseur Fred Minnick, the panel will include Clay Risen, a food editor for the New York Times, and Bourbon Hall of Famer Freddie Johnson.

 

Full Food and Bourbon Panel Lineup:

Friday, September 20 

Better In The Bluegrass Stage (Culinary Demos and Presentations) 

  • Noon: Edward Lee
  • 1:30 p.m.: Jose Salazar & Matt Abdoo
  • 3 p.m.: Michael Voltaggio & Adam Sobel
  • 4:30 p.m.: Justin Sutherland & Ben Jaffe (Preservation Hall Jazz Band)

Kentucky Gold Stage (Bourbon Demos and Presentations) 

  • 11:35 a.m.: Welcome
  • 12:40 p.m.: Beer Drinker’s Bourbon
  • 2:05 p.m.: How Highball Can You Go?
  • 3:50 p.m.: Whiskey Women
  • 5:05 p.m.: Bourbon Disrupters 
  • 6:05 p.m.: What Is A Master Distiller

Saturday, September 21 

Better In The Bluegrass Stage (Culinary Demos and Presentations) 

  • 1:05 p.m.: Graham Elliot
  • 2:30 p.m.: Tiffani Thiessen
  • 4 p.m.: Brooke Williamson
  • 5:30 p.m.: Kelsey Barnard Clark & Sara Bradley

Kentucky Gold Stage (Bourbon Demos and Presentations) 

  • 11:25 a.m.: Bourbon Storytime
  • 12:25 p.m.: Barrel Finish Vs. Traditional Bourbon
  • 1:35 p.m.: Whiskey’s Dark Past
  • 3 p.m.: The Barrel
  • 4:45 p.m.: The Van Winkle Family

Sunday, September 22

Better In The Bluegrass Stage (Culinary Demos and Presentations) 

  • 12:45 p.m.: Ouita Michel
  • 2:05 p.m.: Rusty Hamlin & Coy Bowles (Zac Brown Band)
  • 3:35 p.m.: Amanda Freitag & Tierinii Jackson (Southern Avenue)
  • 4:15 p.m.: Jamie Bissonnette

Kentucky Gold Stage (Bourbon Demos and Presentations) 

  • 11:15 a.m.: Welcome
  • 12:05 p.m.: Manhattan Vs. The Old Fashioned
  • 1:15 p.m.: Sweet Mash: The Whiskey Revolution
  • 2:35 p.m.: Master Taster: How To Taste Like A Pro
  • 4:15 p.m.: Executive Round Table
  • 6:15 p.m.: Slavery In American Whiskey History

 

The Shift List – Ashleigh Shanti (Benne on Eagle) – Asheville, N.C.

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, our guest is Ashleigh Shanti, Chef de Cuisine of Benne on Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina.

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Benne on Eagle is located on Eagle Street in a historic Asheville neighborhood called The Block. Shanti describes Benne on Eagle’s fare as Appalachian soul food. She works closely with Chef John Fleer, who’s best known around Asheville for his acclaimed restaurant Rhubarb and its sister cafe/bakery, The Rhu. The menu at Benne on Eagle pays homage to the rich African American culinary traditions that once thrived in The Block, as well as honoring Shanti’s own history as a Southern, African American woman.

The restaurant opened in late 2018, and it’s captured the attention of numerous media outlets, landing an Shanti-centered feature in the New York Times as one of the 16 black chefs changing food in America. Benne on Eagle has also been listed on Bon Appetit’s the Hot 10: America’s Best New Restaurants 2019.

Now 29 years old, Shanti traveled across the US on a six-month sabbatical before landing in Asheville after being tapped by John Fleer, and as that story in the Times reported, she decided that her next step as a chef needed to fulfill a critical desire to “[cook] food that celebrated her heritage as a black woman from the South and rebuffed assumptions about what that food could be.”

And if she wasn’t running the kitchen at Benne On Eagle or didn’t have any culinary skills, Ashleigh professes that being a rapper would be her dream job. She even writes a bit here and there, like the time Chef Carla Hall stopped by the restaurant for a visit and Ashleigh presented an original rap in her honor.

Ashleigh Shanti’s Shift List
A Tribe Called Quest – “Check The Rhime”
Nina Simone – “My Baby Just Cares For Me”
Megan Thee Stalion – “Big Drank”
Wynton Marsalis – “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South”
ODESZA – “Late Night”
Kendrick Lamar – “DNA”
Lauren Hill – “Doo Wop (That Thing)”
The Neptunes – “Frontin’ (Feat. Jay Z)”

Heading to Asheville, NC? Reserve a Table at Benne On Eagle here.

The Shift List – AL’s Place, San Francisco

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Jenn Dowdy, Music Director at AL’s Place in San Francisco, tells us how to create the perfect playlist for any kind of shift.

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This is a special episode, because of all the restaurants featured on this little podcast, AL’s Place is the only one that has a Musical Director. It’s just one reason that this intimate neighborhood restaurant in the Mission District stands out amongst the plethora of dining options and Michelin establishments dotted around the Bay Area.

AL’s place is the vision of Chef / Owner Aaron London – he being the AL that the restaurant is named after (initals A.L), but almost five years in, with a Michelin Star under its belt, and many other accolades to its name — including the title of Bon Appetit’s New Restaurant of the Year in 2015 — AL’s Place is a true team effort.

The space only has 46 seats and finding an empty one is rare, so a shift requires everyone to be on their A-game the entire time.

While Chef Aaron London’s seasonal, ingredient-driven menu highlighting Northern California produce is the foundation, the service, vibe, and music are essential elements to the dining experience.

Jenn Dowdy started as a server at AL’s and after a few months of getting to know the space intimately, she asked AL’s GM Kimberly Litchfield if she could take over the restaurant’s playlist. The role of Musical Director, previously held by a part time staff member, was bestowed upon her.

22 public playlists later, with many more waiting in the wings, Dowdy weaves together 7-8 hour playlists that are highly curated for AL’s, never repeating a song, and compensating for the turns that happen throughout a night’s service.

Jenn Dowdy’s Shift List
BANKS – Bedroom Wall
Cashmere Cat – Miss You
DRAMA – Forever’s Gone
St. Beauty – Holographic Lover
Frank Ocean – Swim Good
ABRA – Pull Up
Erykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know
Jill Scott – It’s Love
Beyoncé – Partition
Rae Sremmurd – Guatemala
Masego & Tiffany Gouche – Queen Tings
SZA (Feat. Travis Scott) – Love Gallore
Nitty Scott – Pxssy Powah!
Frank Ocean – Nikes
Rihanna – Sex With Me
6LACK – East Atlanta Love Letter
Robyn – Stars 4-Ever
Mobb Deep – Shook Ones, Pt II