While many spots rely on recorded playlists to help set the mood, live music is taking center stage at local bars and restaurants.

Venues with live music include Mount Vernon’s The Prime Rib (where a jazz trio or piano player perform American Songbook standards), Hampden’s The Duchess (with its rotating lineup of local bands), and Highlandtown’s Motte (frequent jazz nights).

At Atlas Restaurant Group, live music is featured at 28 of their 54 properties. In fact, the restaurant group’s music program is so extensive, there’s even a dedicated entertainment director who books more than two dozen bands across the company’s properties on a weekly basis.

“We all subscribe to that belief that a dining experience is, of course, about the food,” says entertainment director Barrett Johnson. “The food is the foundation. But it takes more than a foundation to build a house. Offering live music gives you a full sensory experience.”

“It’s a real testament to the music community because it’s so diverse. You never know if the guy who is ripping the guitar at Admiral’s Cup is also teaching high-school math.”

Johnson knows a thing or two about hitting the high notes. She majored in music at the University of Miami and is herself a professional vocalist.

The songstress, who occasionally performs at the properties in a pinch, has booked many an up-and-comer, including jazz-and-blues powerhouse Carly Harvey, who had a two-chair turn on NBC’s The Voice and performed at the restaurant group’s Monarque in Harbor East, and pianist Eli Staples, who played at former basketball star Michael Jordan’s wedding and tickled the ivories at their Order of the Ace, also in Harbor East.

In addition, there’s also a steady roster of “regular” folks who perform by night but hold day jobs to help make ends meet.

“We book a great mix of people who have day jobs, including doctors and lawyers and occasionally servers and bartenders from our own properties,” says Johnson. “It’s a real testament to the music community because it’s so diverse. You never know if the guy who is ripping the guitar at Admiral’s Cup is also teaching high-school math.”

“I lived in Nashville for a year and this is better.”

Johnson believes that Baltimore has an incredibly strong arts community—and she’s happy about being able to provide artists a platform for their talents.

“Baltimore has such a thriving arts community, especially the music community,” she says. “I lived in Nashville for a year and this is better. I am proud to be part of this community of musicians and so thankful to be able to literally invest in them.”

Unlike most speakeasys, Order of the Ace isn’t hard to find. Connected to The Ruxton, the Atlas Restaurant Group’s swanky new Harbor East steakhouse, it fancies itself a “secret society” where “mysteries unfold.” But it need not manufacture a backstory; it is without question a cocktail bar worth seeking out.

The intimate bar and lounge serves some of the most creatively conceived drinks in the city. The menu’s signature cocktails are divided into four categories based on price, ranging from $20 to $36 (with one outlier we’ll get to later).

The libations stem from the mind of Andrew Nichols, Atlas’ head of mixology. “A lot of cocktail bars nowadays focus on the flavors that they’re putting together in a drink first and then find spirits that will work well with those flavors,” he says. “We wanted to take the opposite approach, so we picked out the spirits, then designed around those.”

Among our favorites is the popular Eyes Wide Shut, Nichols’ riff on a paloma. Made with an additive-free Mexican tequila called El Tesoro blanco, grapefruit and lime juices, green peppercorn, Thai basil, and pandan, a plan native to Southeast Asia, it has a pleasingly earthy flavor.

Many Paths Up the Mountain is an incredible combination of Takamine koji-fermented whiskey, Mugi shochu, Madeira (a fortified wine), Wagyu, yuzu, ginger, and black garlic. The drink, which pairs well with Wagyu sliders, one of a few small bites on the menu, is served in a beautiful glass with an image of Mt. Fuji in the base that is handmade by Kimura, a Japanese company.

At the peak of the menu, both literally and figuratively, sits the Holy Grail, a $72 jewel made with 50-year-old Jacky Navarre cognac. Nichols worked on it for months.

“There’s a transformation that happens in really old cognac,” Nichols says. “[At first] you might get chocolatey notes.

As it progresses, you start to have flavors that are more complex. I get passion fruit in this particular bottle “We took the spirit and surrounded it by small measures of ingredients that shared those flavors,” he continues, “and combined it with an old oloroso sherry, lychee liqueur, and then two infusions, one of Osmanthus flowers as well as Lapsang souchong,” a Chinese black tea smoked with pine.

Two of us split one and we’re here to say that if any drink can be worth $72, this is it. The notes of tea are evident, as is the smooth warmness of the cognac. Each sip produces a different, subtle flavor.

There may not be a more stylish place to drink in the city. Designer Patrick Sutton created an alluring yet understated feel. Tables surround a piano in the middle of the room making watching, not just listening to the jazz that’s performed every night especially pleasurable. The highlights of the décor are large portraits of an eclectic mix of luminaries, including Billie Holiday, Albert Einstein, and Frank Sinatra painted by local artist Beth-Ann Wilson.

Their faces are vibrant, and they seem to be looking out of their frames as if to say, “Mind if I join you for a cocktail?”