The Formentera restaurant that invites us to vacation

Es Pujols (Formentera)On the north coast of Formentera, in the center of the island, we find es Pujols. It is a tourist center, with a long beach and a promenade lined with small wooden boats and restaurants. The first of them all, located in a privileged corner spot, is called Fandango and today we will stop there.

There are many words whose origin and learning time we don't know, but in the case of fandango I remember it perfectly. One Sunday, at home, after lunch, my grandmother made a dramatic pause, looked at the horizon, and blurted out as a philosophical reflection: “Life is a fandango”. That moment, which for her likely had no significance, has stuck with me. So, because of this personal and very subjective anecdote, the place already appealed to me. There are several interpretations, but the one with the most consensus is that the expression means that life is best taken dancing and with good humor. How fitting, then, to give this name to a restaurant clearly designed for those on vacation, when life becomes a little less burdensome and obstacles seem easier to overcome.

El Fandango is the project of a company dedicated to wine. They call themselves Vintae and they come from La Rioja. In fact, their roots in Formentera are so deep that they have now also acquired one of the two wineries on the island, Terramoll. Located in the Mola area, it is the first place where the harvest begins, before reaching Catalonia. The production is small but excellent, and it can be found in various restaurants in Formentera. They are very proud of Es monestir, the ungrafted monastrell varietal they have. But I also recommend tasting the Rosa de Mar rosé and the vermouth they produce.

We return to Fandango, to one of the tables that allows you to have your feet buried in the sand. They have very fresh fish there that they present to you on a platter. And also lobsters and crawfish, which they cook in various ways. We can order them from grilled to with sobrassada, fried eggs, potatoes and padrón peppers. But you don't necessarily have to go for the most expensive, because among the fresh fish we can find some humble and extraordinary raors –or loritos, as we would call them elsewhere– which they fry and are a delight.

Rice, mandatory

One of the unmissable stops is rice. It's one of their strengths, and it's championed by a chef from Borriana, Vicente Monfort, who, although he knows that the most popular are the "txuletón" and fish ones, also recommends a Valencian paella with chicken and rabbit. They bring it to the table and if you want they will plate it for you, but they offer the option of putting it in the middle and provide you with wooden spoons – which you can keep afterwards – to eat it. They have small touches that make the restaurant excel. Other examples include the bread with tomato, which they serve with garlic, hanging tomato, and alioli. Or the know-how of Manuel, a waiter with a lot of experience. The menu design is the work of Luis Arrufat, who came from El Bulli and who has also built the gastronomic proposal of the restaurant they have in Baqueira.

Richi Arambarri, CEO of Vintae, and Isabel García Castellanos, director of marketing and communication, wanted to open restaurants in their locations. In Logroño; in Baqueira, where they spend their winter holidays, and in Formentera, where they spend their summer ones. “This is an island that either rejects you or embraces you, and when the latter happens, you can do nothing but surrender to it. El Fandango is our small grain of sand so that the island continues to have that special magic that once embraced us,” says García Castellanos. Needless to say, El Fandango's wine list is extraordinary, and a considerable amount of money has been spent on making it beautiful and pleasant. Because once there, we only worry about not worrying.