Pau, Alexandra and David
Casa Mamá is the brainchild of Catalan chef Pau Barba and his wife Alexandra. It’s an old-style eatery that is worlds apart from the glitz and glamour of Ibiza’s beach clubs and gourmet restaurants. What matters here is the food: classic homemade dishes. Barba, one of the strongmen of Ibiza’s food scene, former executive chef of Pacha Group, and owner and executive chef of emblematic Can Domo, has devised a simple concept that focuses on local customers, with an emphasis on soups and stews, classic food, the dishes your mother cooked.
Both Barba and his wife love eating – “more than a squirrel loves nuts,” jokes Barba. “Alexandra and I were always chatting about things we’d like to eat: stew, pork cheeks, soup, and in the end we said, ‘Why don’t we do it ourselves?’ Let’s make a place that’s like eating at mum’s house!” Barba says enthusiastically.
He explains that he’s really grateful to Ibiza for how well they’ve been treated on the island during the fifteen years they’ve been here: “We wanted to give back some of the good we’ve been given.” Everyone who knows us always used to ask us when we’d open something […] so we decided on this project. We wanted to open a place that wasn’t so luxurious, not so tourist-orientated. More for people from here,” Barba continues. He was aware that a change of demographic is happening in Ibiza and increasing numbers of people are choosing to spend the whole year here, without forgetting the huge number of workers required by the tourist sector on the island.
Dishes
A growing family
But it hasn’t been easy, Barba admits. “We were in a bubble (in Ibiza) where more and more money was being spent on restaurants, on decoration. We keep asking more of ourselves, and customers keep demanding more too. And that means lots of financial costs that don’t let you create menus at affordable prices.”
However, it looks like Barba has hit the bullseye with Casa Mamá. The concept is simple: breakfast and lunch. A welcoming atmosphere, friendly service and classic food, just like your mother and grandmother used to make. Lots of stews and soups. The concept has been so successful that in a few short months since it opened on Carretera del Aeropuerto, Carrer de Sant Jordi, 18, a second branch has opened on the Ibiza to Sant Antony road at km 3.3, just before you reach the Hipercentre. A third is also planned at a location that Barb doesn’t yet want to reveal.
The chef says he’s as happy as a “kid on Christmas Eve” and plans to open a further three or four Casa Mamás in other locations across Ibiza because, in his words, “we have new customers every day. And they come back the next day, and three or four new tables also turn up. And they all come back the following day too. It’s a snowball that keeps growing and growing. It just goes to show how much this concept was needed in Ibiza. […] Now customers are asking me when I’m going to open one in Santa Eulalia, or in San Antonio, etc.”.
