An arm and a leg. You go to a new place and think to yourself "jeez, how much have they spent on this?" Even some less plush restaurants and bars require the handing over of significant amounts of folded notes to get them to the state demanded, and these are on top of the costs that may have been occurred in paying for the traspaso. The Taste of India guy in Puerto Alcúdia, Sirajul (commonly known as Shearer), has dibbled up a cool amount to convert a shop on The Mile into a kebab place. I won't say how much, but it's a fair old wedge. And this is just a kebab cafeteria.
Down in the port, of Alcúdia, there is one newly made-over restaurant that has also had a fair amount lavished on altering the interior look and on the furniture and covers. This used at one time to be La Trattoria del Puerto before Mauricio upped and went to Alcanada and set up Momo. It's now Samira, which apparently is the name of an Egyptian goddess and comes with a logo of the eye of the goddess - her look. And yes, you might have guessed it, there's an "of the week" coming along, but before I get to that, it does make you realise just how much is involved in realising a particular style of restaurant - it's the look, the look not so much of love but of a labour of love to get it right and fork out accordingly. In addition to work on the interiors and so on, there is the making of the sign, the artwork to support this, the menus and cards and all the rest that are branded with the new artwork.
Sometimes of course, you can just turn the key and everything's as you might want it, and in the case of bars this can often be the case. But if a new name and image are wanted, the money involved mounts up.
The fairly constant turnover of ownership is a blessing for all the suppliers of this marketing. You begin to think that Mallorca's economy runs on this turnover. If ownership were stable over many years, the sign-makers, the decorators, the interior designers and all the others would be out of business.
It's not as if every restaurant or bar makes huge amounts in return for all this investment. Some, especially the longer-established places, do and may also benefit from old rental agreements that are less onerous than many to he had now. Reputation is of course essential. I was speaking with a restaurateur off The Mile yesterday. Very well-known. I was asking him about menus for special events, so he showed me them. They started at 25 euros a head and went up to 80 or 90, and he reeled off four separate such events he has booked in the next few weeks for anything up to 300. Even at 25 a pop, that's a very healthy return. For 300 people, it equates to 7500 euros - for one event, one event in the low season. There are restaurants that struggle to make this in a week in the season.
Money out, and money in, and hope to God or a goddess the latter is bountiful.
Anyway, here it is - Restaurant Of The Week. SAMIRA.
Where: C. Pins, Puerto Alcúdia, right by the main parking in the port.
What: Pastas, pizzas and tapas, all freshly made. In Spanish, they are referred to as "artesanal" which doesn't really translate. It is like the English "artisan" for skilled worker but is used to mean a kind of craft work. The best translation is probably hand-made but this sounds a bit daft in English. However, it is quite accurate, and I have watched the hand-making taking place.
When: Every day lunchtime and evenings.
Who: Javier and Nadia.
Why: Atmospheric place inside with three separate parts, pleasant smallish terrace onto the street. Nice young couple and I really hope they make a go of it. Try it out. If you like creative pastas and tapas, it's well worth a visit.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Bob Monkhouse. Today's title - Manchester, '60s, who?
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