Tony D'Agostino
IT Ibiza’s way of welcoming guests has been perfected over the years by Tony D’Agostino, with the patience of one who knows that hospitality cannot be made up as you go along. This season, IT Ibiza is launching a new menu, a firm commitment to high-end cocktails, and a wine cellar stocked with reputable labels that has grown to a point where there is a worthwhile dialogue between the food and the wine.
Tony D’Agostino displays all the conviction of one who has learnt his craft in three different countries — making this a great restaurant that amounts to more than simply what comes out of the kitchen. For him, service (that Italian art of making people feel at ease while looking as if no one is making an effort) is a priority that ranks equally with the menu. IT Ibiza is one of those places that customers return to season after season, not only for the food, but because here people know them, have been expecting them, and see them as important. That warmth acquires great significance in the context of a restaurant of the calibre and the vibrancy of IT at the height of Ibiza’s holiday season.
This season, the menu has evolved while remaining faithful to the spirit of the project. At its heart is the same good, honest Italian cooking, but with a few well-judged new additions to broaden the offer without too much fanfare. And along with it, this year’s great promise: high-end cocktails. When discussing it, Tony is quite clear, and doesn’t hold back. IT Ibiza is the ideal place to enjoy a good cocktail, whether one of the classics or a signature drink, and this year the bar is endeavouring to live up to this description. The new cocktail menu is not merely an add-on to the gastronomic experience, but an inherent part of it, in a universe of its own with the same rigorous standard that applies to any dish served by the kitchen.
IT Ibiza is the ideal place to enjoy a good cocktail, whether one of the classics or a signature drink, and this year the bar is endeavouring to live up to this description
The wine cellar has taken the same path, with the high-end, reputable labels that have been introduced this season expanding an already solid range — and raising it to a level where the choice of wines can enter into a dialogue on equal terms with premium, haute cuisine dishes. Italy remains at the heart of the wine menu (how could it be otherwise with a project with IT’s DNA?), but the establishment is also raising its sights towards other appellations to complete a wine cellar designed so that every dish can find its liquid complement, and where no-one has to make do with second-best.
For years, IT Ibiza has been demonstrating that Italian haute cuisine and the spirit of Ibiza are concepts that have no need to haggle with one another: they can co-exist on the same table with a degree of naturalness achieved by few others. A menu that is evolving, a bar that takes itself seriously and a wine cellar that is growing judiciously.
Tony D’Agostino and his team are proving once again that they know exactly what they are doing.
