Getting Angry In Puerto Pollensa

People have been getting angry in Puerto Pollensa. People are signing petitions, people are falling out, people are arranging demonstrations. It seems like 2010 all over again, when the people took to the streets and when the then mayor, Joan Cerdà, was all but barricaded inside the one-time municipal building.

The hopeless pedestrianisation pilot scheme of the Cerdà administration - abandoned by the time the 2010 protest took place at the start of June that year - was just one ingredient that went into a whole menu of complaints directed at the town hall. The actual scheme, the one being worked on at present, has once more put the town hall in the firing line but it has also, as has been revealed on social media, driven something of a wedge between people.

Then there are the charges that the town hall has had to respond to that the new pavements do not permit accessibility for wheelchairs (or indeed baby buggies and any other form of wheeled device). A levelling-off that will allow smooth accessibility will not be done until the second phase this winter. In the meantime, says the town hall, temporary solutions will be adopted that allow for wheelchair use.

Anyway, at 11am on Monday there is to be a form of protest to highlight the difficulties posed at present for wheelchair, mobility and buggy users.

Slightly ironic in light of the other reason for anger is the meeting place for this protest. It will be in front of Gran Café 1919, the establishment by the yacht club roundabout that found itself at the centre of the most colossal row that broke out last weekend. While the falling-out over the pedestrianisation might have appeared somewhat personal at times, that was nothing compared to this controversy. It is highly personal.

To cut to the chase, this involves the ice-cream kiosk of Gelats Valls in front of Gran Café 1919. The kiosk has been there and been operated by the Valls family since the 1960s. It is, say many, emblematic, a part of the Puerto Pollensa furniture. However, a 2015 town hall decision made it clear that as the kiosk is on the public way there has to be a tender for its operation. The Valls family were informed of this and told that the kiosk could not re-open this year, subject to the tender process being initiated and completed. It has re-opened.

The family says that there was once an award for the kiosk for a period of 99 years or until such a time as the families (Valls and Martorells) ceased to be involved in the ice-cream business. A problem with this is that no one can find the documentary evidence.

The town hall had been going through a process of annual reconfirmation of the kiosk's activities, but in September 2014 it received a communication from Café Capuchino 1919 SL, the company under which Gran Café 1919 trades. This was essentially a request for the town hall to consider the occupation of the public way by the kiosk. The communication also suggested that the kiosk represented an invasion of space authorised or authorisable for use by the cafe. It would appear that it was this which resulted in the town hall decision of May 2015 that the authorisation to Valls would cease at the end of the year and that the space would revert to the town hall, which would place the kiosk up for tender.

The story of this is, on the one hand, a story of nostalgia and of the rights of the small, family business. Everyone, tourist and resident alike, seems to have their own story and recollection of the kiosk, the ice-cream and the founders. On the other, it is a story of what can only be described as resentment directed at a bigger business concern. Gran Café 1919 is just one establishment which ultimately belongs to Grupo Boulevard.

There is a good deal of history in Puerto Pollensa concerning Boulevard, and all this old resentment burst out because of the Valls affair. Some of what has been expressed on social media, directed at Boulevard and at its owner, borders on the libellous, as do some observations made about the town hall. In some ways, it has become a story of classic smalltown politics and business, replete with rivalries and hostilities. In others, it is just about people, some with long memories of holidays and residence, sticking up for a well-loved ice-cream kiosk which seems to be a victim.

Emotions have been allowed to run high. Rather too high. The pedestrianisation works, admittedly a less than satisfactorily managed project, will cease soon enough, and hopefully the ill-feeling will cease as well. As for the ice-cream kiosk, perhaps a hope that the town hall had expressed for a "satisfactory and amicable solution" prior to the kiosk having re-opened might yet be found.

Back Home

"Home-made. 100%."

I was parked by the Dakota Tex-Mex van. Home-made and 100% it said. I thought about asking the bloke who got out of the van about it; not that it would have got me very far. Which home do you suppose it's being made in? Are there kitchens in houses across Alcudia, Playa de Muro and Puerto Pollensa pumping out burgers and so on? No, I guess not. But were there to be, then they might well all be hooked up to a central database system. On a site operated by a software company called Cuiner is a notice about the migration of Grupo Boulevard's applications to the Cuiner Central Base (Boulevard operates the Dakotas and Café 1919, among other things), to allow for analyses of information from the establishments. Technology and home-made; the two don't really stand together somehow.

I only know about this application because I did a quick google. I wanted to know if maybe there was some substance to the "since 1965" that is also to be seen on the van and at the restaurants. Maybe there was or is some brand going back till then. Not that I found one. Or perhaps I should have gone past page four. Somewhere lurking in the Badlands may well be a Dakota Tex-Mex that is some 40-odd years old. But even were there to be, why I wonder would it be a Dakota Tex-Mex? Dakota is neither Tex nor Mex; indeed, the Dakotas are quite some way north of both Texas and Mexico. Mind you, the name "Dakota" has a certain cowboyish feel to it, but then again so do El Paso and Rio Grande, and they would be more Tex and Mex.

This home-made thing is not a promotional technique reserved to the Dakotas. Many places claim it. The word has, in a sense, acquired a new meaning. Strictly, one should say "made like in the home", but that would never do in terms of the marketing lexicon, rather like "British-style" bar wouldn't do either, even if it would be more accurate in many cases. But actually in the home? No.

It is, though, precisely the sophistication of advanced software that helps to get the goat of the radical Luddite foodist tendency; one that would rather be eating the goat, preferably to the accompaniment of a bunch of old Mallorcans shouting at each other. Not for them the branding of a Dakota or the debatable 100 per-cent-ness of made in the home. Not for them the professionalism of business success. This sits uneasily with a mythical Mallorca of Francoist backwardness. But let it not be forgotten that the Generalisimo's urgent need for foreign currency and for building something resembling an economy was what opened the floodgates to all that has followed, and that includes businesses which offer restaurants that might just chime with a contemporary tourist. That "since 1965"? Maybe it refers to when it all started.


Spud u like in Sa Pobla
Rather more rural in culinary terms, Sa Pobla will this Saturday be putting on its first gastronomy event dedicated to the potato, a staple not only of the local diet but also the local agriculture. Perhaps it was the success of last year's potato-themed autumn fair (21 November: Potato Head) that inspired this gastronomic extravaganza. Whatever. But if you want, there will be 23 restaurants participating in serving up potato dishes from as little as one euro. Could it be, therefore, that you can get a plate of chips? Tell you what, throw in a burger or some tex-mex, and that will do nicely. But that would never do.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "French Kissin' in the USA", Debbie Harry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze4-M9wAqPg. Today's title - and this was? Don't all snigger at once.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

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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Eye, Eye

I'm not bothered by most things. Indeed, I am not bothered - personally - by what follows. There again, I am not a British-tourist family unit. I do, however, get bothered by what others might think, as in that British-tourist family unit.

Cultural differences. Cultural differences in respect of things that the Brits (and mainly the Brits) have a bit of a problem with and with which much of Europe doesn't. It came to mind in the tabacos, the tabacos that is the Grupo Boulevard's tabacos in their DIY centre in Playa de Muro.

I was not attracted, honest. It was the natural movement of the eye. There is, especially in publishing, an appreciation of the natural movement of the Western eye. It differs to, for instance, that in Arabic cultures. All to do with social conditioning, and reading most obviously. The Western eye tracks left to right. Normal. Maybe Boulevard know this, though if brain-eye theory and retail practice were really at the top of their list then you wouldn't have to turn away from the counter having already made the purchase. It would confront you as you enter the store. But the eye did move. And the display was only waist high. Not top shelf.

DVDs. DVDs of a certain type. On a display in the middle of a shop. Doesn't bother me. But it just might bother some. That British-tourist family unit. Your Brit doesn't like this sort of thing at the eye-line height of a young member of his family. In the middle of a shop.


QUIZ
And something of a change. The quiz idea was, whenever it started, meant to have aped the Radcliffe-Maconie "chain" idea, but somehow that got lost on the way. Anyway, I have decided to get back to that idea. Therefore, as from now, the title will not be the question. The question will be here. Yesterday was Limahl. And so the chain asks: what group was Limahl in?

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Like Common People

And while I'm at it .... Partly because I have to thank Seamus for his observations yesterday and partly because there is a whole lot more to be said, this is by way of a follow-up to yesterday's piece. Furniture, that was one thing Seamus mentioned, so it's a reasonable starting-point. You see, you get these owners of restaurants (and bars, and indeed other places) who have these "visions". Visions of style very often before substance. Now there is nothing wrong with these visions per se. It is only right to have an idea of the sort of restaurant it will be, and the furniture is all part of the marketing and the overall image in any event; having shoddy seats or peeling paint is not a great "advert" for a restaurant after all. But one does wonder at times if not too much attention, time and indeed money is not lavished on a look, when the investment might be better made on more nitty-gritty things, like getting the food right. Moreover, these "visions" - how do the restaurant owners who have them know that these visions will work? They don't is probably the answer. There is in all this too much of being product-led, rather than maybe concentrating on what the great unwashed really want and are prepared to pay hard cash for - restaurant fanfare for the common man.

Want to know the most successful restaurant, bar, shop business in the northern area of Mallorca? Take a guess. The answer will have some reaching for the garlic and a cross. Grupo Boulevard. They of the Dakota Tex-Mex restaurants, Gran Cafés and O'Hara's Irish Bar. Ok, we know they're not short of a euro or two, but where has that euro or two come from? Blue-sky visions of some heavenly restaurant and one chef tortuously slaving over every dish made by hand? I don't think so.

I do wonder a bit if three Dakotas in Puerto Pollensa are really needed, the latest being the conversion of Mestral, barely the throw of a bowl of chili sauce from the other one on the prom. But there again what the Dakotas are about is branding. I have a sneaking suspicion they have been learning from the book of McDonald's. One of the reasons for McDonald's success was the sheer number of the outlets, not necessarily in different towns or in different streets, but in the same street in the same town. Another, and I don't know that Boulevard adhere to this principle, but my guess is that they are not a million miles away from it, was the very standardisation of the McDonald's offer. This afforded lower costs of production.

That some people might hate Boulevard and hate what they're doing is frankly irrelevant. They have worked out a formula that strikes a chord with the punter, and - I am guessing but suspect I'm not far wrong - have supported this with a business system that keeps costs down. Let's stress that. Business system. It's like football. Some bemoan the fact that it is now a business, but the Uniteds of this world coin the rewards of sound business, while there is still a yearning for the old days of the local patron and the cloth cap - and not a lot of money.

Of course there is room for the individual restaurant, the style restaurant, but even with these there is hard-nosed business practice at play. One of the most interesting and intelligent people I know in Alcúdia runs a restaurant in the port. He was telling me how he hedges purchases, how he made a killing on pineapples bought at an agreed (lower) price a year ahead, how he handles his meat buying. Fascinating stuff. His restaurant is nothing fancy but by God it works. And he knows about marketing.

It's the whole nine yards when it comes to the restaurant or bar (or any other) business here. Production systems, purchasing, marketing, the whole lot. You don't have to have been to business school to run a restaurant, so long as sense comes before style and so long as the restaurant or bar is what the common man really wants - oh, and spending a shedload on fancy seating that no one puts their bum on.


QUIZ: Yesterday - "The Logical Song", Supertramp. Today's title - who?

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