Turn It Up (or down)!

Music sets the tone and every restaurant has two decisions to make: what to play, and how loud to play it?

Volume is a moving target. Early in the evening, the first few tables need something to warm the room up…music that's present enough to be welcoming but not so loud you feel like you're shouting across the table. Once the room has filled up, the volume increases…louder music encourages louder chatter, which helps build that layered, buzzy energy we love. Towards the end of the evening as things wind down and the dining room empties out we gradually turn it back down…

As for what to play, well, that says something about the kind of place you want to be. We’ve eaten in restaurants with everything from tranquil classical to full-blown punk and plenty in between. For us, the vibe we wanted at Wilson’s has always been clear: high-energy, bistro-ish, and a little nostalgic.

Nostalgia plays a big part in selecting the music and curating the playlists. The music should feel familiar, but not so much that you want to sing along. Maybe it’s something our parents had on in the kitchen, or perhaps it was the soundtrack to a particular era of our youth…and everyone’s got their own version of both!

We’ve got a few stock playlists we keep coming back to; Joel’s Grandad’s car cassettes being one of the originals, and the evolving 90s indie list is a team favourite…Edie campaigned hard for Incubus! We’ve also put together a few special ones for big nights…our Valentine's playlist featured 70+ songs, all with"love" in the title…it was fun to compile and even more fun to play on the night!

Fancy a listen? Our playlists live over on our Spotify page…

Wilson's Spotify