When In Romana

Another fabulous restaurant, another photo opp.

I have been going to Sa Romana to do photos for years. It hasn't really changed, and the photos tend to be similar, though one goes for new angles and perspectives. But it is one of those restaurants that is a dream, not just for the guest but also for the one behind the camera. I have certain establishments that are at the top of my list of favourites when it comes to taking some pix, and Sa Romana is one of them.

María, the matriarch of the family behind Sa Romana, is also one of my favourite people around Alcúdia. Months elapse when I do not see her, and when I do, the greeting is one like a long-lost son (her actual sons, Juan and Felix, look after, respectively, Cas Capella and Sa Romana, and María tends to boss things at Bar Mosquito). This is the María who once insisted I took a sample of the port from Mosquito, a sample that afforded a distinctly health-giving feeling of lead in the pencil (not that it is aphrodisiac, but it had a very warming effect).

Sa Romana is the jewel in the family's crown. Its one possible drawback is its location - on the road between the old town of Alcúdia and the port - though even that location, set back from the road, has a degree of tranquility. María has, in the past, waxed lyrically about the restaurant and in particular the smell of flowers, and when I was there last week the most obvious sensation, coming to the entrance, was that smell - carnations and roses.

You would think that a place of some opulence, like Sa Romana, would require a bank loan for some nosebag, But not so. Scanning the menu, the most expensive item was 27 euros; most items were within a 13 to 20 euro band, which is compatible with many a plain solely tourist place.

The one thing that I have got used to at Sa Romana is the sense of falling when going through the front door. The first few times it always had the same effect. The cause - the glassed-over excavations of Roman times that lend the restaurant its name.

Sa Romana is at Calle Pollentia 81, Alcúdia. There is a website - www.saromana.com.


QUIZ
Yesterday's chain - Eric Burdon had a band called "War" and Edwin Starr sang about it. Which leads to ... how does Haile Salasie fit in musically with "war"? Though not a question, yesterday's title had a connection - Marx, as in The Marx Brothers.

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