Loar, the taste of traditional Menorcan cuisine

CM/Ferrieries - Life-long lovers of traditional Menorcan cuisine must stop at the restaurant, hotel and aparthotel Loar, in Ferreries, run today by the third generation of the Al·lès-Pons family. A line of hard-working men and women and entrepreneurs who have made good taste, friendly treatment and the desire to serve customers a religion.

In the gastronomic section, Loar has an extensive menu of homemade and international cuisine, with dishes suitable for celiacs and vegetarians, ideal for all kinds of events and celebrations. It's a safe bet: well-cooked, tasty dishes with an unbeatable value for money.

The Bar-Salón OAR opened as a bar and guest house on February 8, 1961, thanks to the push of the family patriarch, Desiderio Al·lès, and his wife, Margarita Pons. During the first year of the business, the couple rented the casino to the Catholic Action. The place took the name of OAR, an acronym for Organización Artística Recreativa, which has accompanied the building throughout its 63 years of life.

Just above the bar, a first floor was built in 1963 and was used as an inn or guest house.

Sixty years ago, the building was not surrounded by houses, as it is today. It was reduced to little more than Plaça de l'Ajuntament, Carrer de Sant Bartomeu and two or three other streets. It can be said, without exaggeration, that the property was in the middle of a field. Because of all this, Desiderio's idea of ??opening the bar after exchanging a plot with his brother-in-law had all the appearance of being nonsense. But Desiderio knew very well what he had in hand. Where others saw only a fence, he knew how to glimpse, with more clairvoyance and determination than anyone else, the future.

THE RESTAURANT

The current restaurant would not function as such until 1965, because from the very beginning the bar had a dining room, where lunches were served. The one behind the stove was the matriarch of the family, Margarita Pons. They cooked chickpeas, meat, loin, chicken, meat with sauce... the usual cuisine. When weddings were held there, the guests were served ensaimada with chocolate, as a first course, and chicken or tenderloin with potatoes, as a second course. The cuisine of the time.

Soon, Desiderio was interested in expanding the business and buying more square meters from his father-in-law. Quietly and without making a fuss, he had been saving a small fortune. He works like farmer at Son Martorell and two or three other places. On Saturdays and Sundays, he would take the cart and the mule and go to the Binicalsitx quarry to look for the marès stones that he would then take to the mason to raise the bar.

The seven children of the Desiderio Al·lès-Margarita Pons marriage would take good note of their father's entrepreneurial spirit, more than just four of them -Pepe (70), Nito (69), Deri (65) and Jandro (61)- they would continue the business. Today, representatives of the third generation of the family have also been added to the management team: Pepe's daughter, Maria Àngels Al·lès, manager of the Hotel&Apartaments Loar; Deri Al·lès, who takes care of the reservations; and Jandro's daughter, Rosanna Al·lès, who runs the kitchen.
But let's go back a little. When Pepe, Nito, Deri and Jandro had already joined the business together with their respective wives -Maria Janer, Mercedes Janer, Marianna Capó and Margarita Torrent-, they decided in 1988 to build a restaurant and an aparthotel right next to it . Thus, the old Bar-Salón became the first aparthotel and restaurant establishment in Ferreries, with 30 apartments (12 apartments and 18 studio apartments).

HOME COOKING

Since its early years, the bar had offered lunches in the dining room with one hundred percent home cooking, and sandwiches and tapas of a lifetime: meatballs, tripe, liver, kidneys. The restaurant would never cheapen its philosophy, offering, even today, the most famous dishes of Menorcan cuisine, such as oliaigua (menorca vegetable soup) with figs, courgettes, aubergines or stuffed squid. Over time, typical dishes from international cuisine were introduced, but the restaurant did not cheapen the essence, including traditional references such as broth or courgettes, and creations such as aubergines with anglerfish, which earned the restaurant a lot of fame.

Deri, who is retiring this year, had entered the restaurant's kitchen in 1982, bringing his knowledge and experience to the stove. Thanks to his expert hand, the cuisine of Loar entered a new dimension.

THE HOTEL

In 2006, the building was rebuilt from top to bottom with the intention of offering customers a more spacious and modern bar and a comfortable three-storey hotel located in the middle of the town, with fifteen double rooms and nine suites. In this way, the Hotel&Apartaments Loar now has 54 rooms.

Actually, the restaurant, with an elegant and spacious room, can accommodate 140 people. It has been tiled again, the furniture has been cheapened and the windows have been changed so that it looks immaculate. The place offers a daily menu from Monday to Friday for 12.80 euros with a quality-price ratio almost impossible to find in any other establishment in all of Menorca. You can find chickpeas, beans... The customer can choose between two first and two second courses. Everything, cooked impeccably. At the old way.

At the weekends, Loar offers a special menu for 21.90 euros, and this is when the room is most crowded. Customers can choose between three first and five seconds here. On Saturdays and Sundays, more than a hundred of these menus can be offered.

In recent years, Imserso excursions have represented a good opportunity for business, as many of these tourists stay for lunch at the restaurant. And they have no reason to complain. They prepare a stew fish and seafood rice, a second course, dessert, water, wine and soda. Almost 100% of customers walk out the door happy.

The formula for success is clear: offer a good product at a good price. And in this, in Loar, they are the first.