The Soundtrack Behind Loreto Restaurant

Meet Loreto: A restaurant with flavor you can hear

In Los Angeles' Frogtown neighborhood, Loreto serves coastal Mexican cuisine in a space that shifts from sunlit, high-energy lunches to intimate evening service. The menu is bold, seafood-driven and shaped by tradition, and at the center of it all is Executive Chef Francisco "Paco" Moran.

Moran's path to Loreto reflects the ambition behind his cooking. He began as a dishwasher at 18, trained at Le Cordon Bleu and spent 13 years with Patina Restaurant Group. After time in a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Sebastián, he returned to Los Angeles to lead three restaurants — including Loreto — bringing together classical training and his Salvadorian roots.

The challenge: Breaking the silence

Moran was trained in environments where silence signaled discipline. "Old-school French style," he recalls, "where the only thing you hear are knives hitting the cutting boards."

As he began leading larger, more diverse teams, he realized that silence didn't reflect the culture he wanted to build. Loreto's staff is energetic, expressive and collaborative, and he wanted the kitchen to feel the same way.

The goal: a shared rhythm that connected the front and back of the house and made long services feel dynamic instead of rigid.

Shaping the sound with Soundtrack

Loreto naturally transforms from lunch to dinner. Moran needed more than a static playlist to keep the music in sync. Using Soundtrack's custom features and expansive music catalog, he was able to shape a sound that evolved from shift to shift. "We can really curate and customize our playlists, and the team can adjust the energy throughout the day," he says.

At lunch, much of the seating moves outdoors. The experience is casual and quick. "It's fast-paced cumbia, a little bit of corrido, faster hip-hop," Moran explains. "By dinner, the atmosphere softens to slower hip-hop or slower cumbia as guests move inside."

Deciding what songs play is a democratic process and everyone has a say. "We allow everybody — the servers, the bartenders, the cooks — to put a song into the playlist. We like that sense of individualism."

The result: Food and music, in sync

Today, music is central to Loreto's identity. "It's very liberating to play music in the kitchen," Moran says. "You feel like it's a part of our culture. Everything is a little bit more high energy, louder. It reflects in our food."

That energy doesn't stay in the kitchen. It carries into the dining room, shaping the pace of service and the way guests experience it. "Music has to match that feeling of, 'Man, that was good. I want another oyster.' Music puts you in that mood," he says.

It's moments like that — when everything clicks — that Loreto comes to life.

"Mexican cuisine is high salt, high acid, high spice," Moran adds. "That's exactly how we want our environment to be."

Find your soundtrack

Soundtrack gives restaurants like Loreto the tools to curate, control and evolve their sound throughout the day. Try it free for 14 days and discover how it can help your restaurant.