Badlands

I was reminded recently that the antagonism towards Grupo Boulevard and specifically the company's Dakota Tex-Mex restaurants rumbles on, especially in Puerto Pollensa.

Let me explain for those who may as yet not be up to speed on this one. Boulevard is one of the most significant players locally; it is HQ-ed in the dark glass-fronted building in Playa de Muro. Its operations cover: in Puerto Pollensa, three Dakota Tex-Mex restaurants, Café L'Algar, Gran Café 1919, a tabacos, O'Hara's pub and the curious Australia Boulevard place; in Puerto Alcúdia, a Dakota and a supermarket/tabacos; in Playa de Muro, the Shopping Centre in Las Gaviotas, another Dakota, a Gran Café-ette, a shop, a tabacos and a supermarket (misleadingly termed a hypermarket). Perhaps there are more. Doubtless you'll tell me if there are.

It is the Dakotas that have caused most of the opprobrium to be levelled at Boulevard, much of it emanating from the expat community. There are, it seems, plenty with an "agenda" against the company. A while back there was an anonymous comment sent for a piece I did ages ago about the Dakotas; it was unflattering to say the least. I ignored it. Someone had to have gone to some trouble to have unearthed an old blog item in order to indulge in some slagging-off.

Quite what is the problem? Much of it, one fancies, stems from the conversion of the old fisherman's cottage at the start of the pinewalk and its reincarnation as a Dakota. The tex-mex "chain" has become, for some, the Devil incarnate. And it is in Puerto Pollensa that the Boulevard and Dakota horns have reached out more obviously than anywhere else, thus generating reactions of takeover and perhaps not even a little envy. One is not sure whether it is the strength of Boulevard that is objected to or its brashness; both probably. Boulevard is a successful business, or at least it would appear to be. Success is not always greeted with acclaim, especially if it seems to in some way undermine a particular image of a place; in this case Puerto Pollensa.

Boulevard probably doesn't help itself. Rather like the hotels, as I spoke about in a previous piece, one doesn't really know a great deal about the company. It doesn't engage in community or public relations, or at least none that I am aware of. That HQ building with its dark glass perhaps says something; it wants awareness but to be unknown and unseen. Boulevard is, one concludes, a hard-nosed business, doing what hard-nosed businesses do, making money, hence the Dakota-isation of Puerto Pollensa where few can understand the sense of three of the same restaurants being in close proximity. But as I pointed out some time before, the model is hardly unique; McDonald's perfected it.

The Dakotas, however, say an awful lot about shifts in local "Spanish" attitudes as well as about matching tourist demand and wants and about some expats. To take the Spanish angle first. Recently, there was an article in "The Bulletin" which highlighted the closure or sale of the more typical Mallorcan restaurant in Palma. It pointed out that the new types of restaurants - pizza joints for instance, to which one could add the likes of tex-mex establishments - were doing well by comparison. There are different reasons for this, of which one is the growth in popularity of fast-food and the newer style of restaurant among the indigenous population. Some while back there was a report that pointed to the decline in the consumption of typical local cuisine in favour of what one might term imported dining experiences. The Mallorcan is, therefore, the beneficiary of greater consumer choice; thus is the nature of free (or free-ish) markets anywhere. Don't think that it is only tourists who frequent the Dakotas, because it isn't, though clearly the restaurants fulfil, if not a tourist requirement, then at least the creation of tourist demand. Not all tourists want the quaint Mallorcan restaurant, especially those tourists with demanding kids' mouths to fill. And don't underestimate the power of the child dining-out lobby; the kids are frequently the fulcrum of the family purchasing process. Someone said to me not so long ago that the Dakotas don't go far enough and that there is scope for more razzamatazz of an Americana style; this could well be right.

There exists among some of the expat community and also visitors a sort of reactionary militant tendency that would have places like Puerto Pollensa stuck in a timewarp of what might be dubbed "Mallorcana". They want it both ways. The influx of expats is a facet of change; they are a facet of change. Yet they wish all around to remain unaltered. The Dakotas reflect a change that does not fit with the romantic image of Puerto Pollensa. But the place has undergone a change in its tourist demographic alongside the change in its physical appearance. Tourism is business, Puerto Pollensa is tourism business, and the Dakotas are business.


PUERTO POLLENSA FRONTLINE CLOSURE
There has been a plan to pedestrianise more of Puerto Pollensa's frontline for some while. How sensible this would be is another matter. But with the new road open, along comes this plan or at least a trial. And trial may well be what it is if one wants access. In the next ten days or so, the road will be closed to non-essential traffic or so I am led to believe. This will be, apparently, from the Galéon down into the port. Which raises the question - what will happen to all that parking by the beach? Chaos beckons.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Man On The Moon", REM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4pTCqhTfY). Today's title - this was a film; what's the connection with today's piece?

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