Departures

BLACKBOOK THE AGENDA
hottest restaurant – a title it
shares with the downstairs bistro
at the Hotel Cort (hotelcort.com),
which opened last year with
interiors by Barcelona-based
design doyen Lázaro Rosa-
Violán. Another old-town palace
conversion, the Posada Terra
Santa (posadaterrasanta.com)
– “tucked away since 1576”
– only confirms the trend for
chic accommodation in fabled
buildings, another example
being the Cuba Colonial
(hotelhostalcuba.com), which
brings back to life a century-old
mariners’ lodging behind the
seafront in the buzzing barrio
of Santa Catalina. Beyond
Palma, meanwhile, the countryhouse
Castell Son Claret
(castellsonclaret.com), owned by
logistics tycoon Klaus-Michael
Kühne, has taken just a year to
become Mallorca’s most refined
rural getaway. The converted
country mansion is done up in a
time-honoured local vernacular
which Sa Cabana (hotelsacabana.
com), also new last year, pushes a
little further with its on-site spa,
housed in a circular stone
construction of impressive
design. With all these high-end
happenings, even the low-end
sector has had to smarten up.
Tongues are wagging locally
about Meliá Hotels’ radical
reconversion of the rock-bottom
package-tour resort Magaluf
into a sophisticated Miami
Beach-style “city resort”. This
season’s new ME Mallorca
(melia.com), a ten-storey 1970s
building cunningly made
over for the 21st century, rubs
shoulders with some pretty cool
neighbours – notably the lounge
club Nikki Beach, Ibiza offshoot
Café del Mar and trendy
twentysomething surf hotel
Wave House. ♦
HOME-GROWN CUISINE
the island’s hottest tables
A minor revolution is underway as a generation of foreign and off-island chefs gives way
to a new wave of fired-up young Mallorcans, who are taking cooking back to the roots. The
chefs of the moment are not only natives but fiercely loyal to island produce. Pioneering Santi
Taura (restaurantsantitaura.com) is booked up for months in his home town of Lloseta, while his
contemporaries Macarena de Castro at Jardín (restaurantejardin.com) and Tomeu Caldentey
of Es Molí d´en Bou ( esmolidenbou.es) – Mallorcans both – have each racked up a Michelin
star. Joan Marc Garcias (joanmarcrestaurant.com) has just opened a place on the square in
Inca where he grew up, wowing diners with island-inspired dishes like roast chicken with
esclatasang mushrooms and local botifarra sausage. But perhaps the brightest star is 31-yearold
Andreu Genestra ( andreugenestra.com), who after stages at El Bulli and the Kuwaiti royal
palace has returned to a farm-forward kitchen in rural Capdepera.
MARKET FINDS
Spain’s produce markets
have always had bars
where shoppers could
perch on a bar-stool
with a coffee, a beer or
a snack – but latterly Mallorca’s
mercados have taken the
custom a step further. At
Palma’s Mercat de l’Olivar
(mercatolivar.com), charcuterie
specialist Sebastià Rojas offers
tapas of ham and Spanish
sausages, while Toni and Tolo
Torrens run an oyster stall and
German chef Thomas Wilden
dishes out sushi and smoked
salmon. At the fashionable
food market in Santa Catalina
(mercatsantacatalina.com), Ca
S’Ostra (casostra.es), run by
Swiss-born Fabrizio Peroni, is a
great place to put down your
bags and refuel with a plate of
shellfish and a glass of cava.
PORT OF CALL Its clear waters, picturesque coastline and well-equipped harbours
make the island an increasingly attractive place to drop anchor, and the Spanish
government’s recent removal of the tax on chartered yachts is an added incentive.
Philippe Starck’s €90m Port Adriano (left, portadriano.com) now goes head-to-head
with nearby Puerto Portals (puertoportals.com), Mallorca’s classic high-end boat park.
Meanwhile the Moll Vell (mollvell.com), a newly revamped stretch of historic harbour
below Palma Cathedral, aims to bring the superyachts into the heart of the old city.
FROM TOP: © JOAN MARC, GERHARD WESTRICH/LAIF, © PORT ADRIANO
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