Menu del Dia with Lucy: Luca from Anima e Farina
Lucy Hawkins, our Food & Drinks Columnist, is back with her Menu del Dia series of interviews of different people who have settled here. Join her and get to know how other people enjoy life in the North of Mallorca.
This week, Lucy talks to Luca of the very popular wine bar, Anima e Farina in Pollensa.
Where did you grow up?
I’m from Rome originally, Lazio. I left Italy quite a while ago. I lived in Madrid for a while and then Dublin and then the United States for 14 years. I go back and forth between here and Boston. My ex-wife is from there.
I’m Italian, of course food was a big part of my childhood. My grandmothers were very present in my life growing up. 15 years ago we created a family cook book with my grandmother before she passed away, we wrote down her recipes.
My grandfather and all our family friends had small family vineyards. The wine was bad because it’s not a famous region for grapes, we grew mostly white wine. I remember harvesting the grapes when I was 13 or 14, making the wine with my grandfather. I started drinking it when I was that age, mixing it with water. We start early but, for my experience, we drink less than say Dublin and London. It’s a different approach, it becomes an enjoyment of the grape.
Can you tell me about your career?
I studied marketing and communications and from there I worked in advertising agencies in Madrid and then I moved to digital commerce, websites. When I moved to Boston I started to work on the product side, digital products, software. I’ve always been interested in the design side, that’s why I moved to Dublin for the passion of designing packaging.
Then I had my own software agency in Boston working with start-ups. I was involved in the incubators over there, raising money for start-ups. I progressed from designer to an entrepreneur. Some ideas went well, some didn’t. I’m still a consultant mainly for corporations in Boston and New York.
And now I’m in a phase of my life where I want to do other things away from technology, which is why I started a restaurant in Tulum, Mexico, and this one in Pollenca.
When did you come to Mallorca?
I was going between Madrid and Boston since 2018 and then Covid came. My girlfriend and I used to come here for holidays so we decided on a change of life and to try Mallorca. Now we’ve been here for 3 years.
We opened Anima e Farina in May. I’m an entrepreneur so I started to diversify and this opportunity came along by meeting people here and, sometimes things happen. I had the chance to open this with my two Italian business partners who share my passion for food and wine.
Can you describe Anima e Farina, is it a bar, café or restaurant?
It’s a gathering place.
We are basically a focaccia place and a wine shop. We focus on wine because we have that passion, but also it’s a focaccia place – that easy way of eating. Ideas are always big but yeah I see this one expanding into a chain and being on all the (Balearic) islands and the Peninsula, and to Europe and to the United States. Ideally. We will see. I am happy with what we have created here. We’re doing good.
There’s an expression, minimal viable product, it’s a guinea pig where you begin to understand the market, fine tuning it. That’s what we’re doing with Anima e Farina. If it was a digital product we would say, what feature is it? For me it’s not too different than a start-up. With technology and a restaurant, customer care is always important.
What are your favourite meals on your menu?
The SPQR Focaccia. I like porchetta and friarielli (a bitter green extensively grown in Campania, usually served sauteed in olive oil and garlic). I love it because it has that very earthy flavour and it works well with porchetta. For me… I grew up with fraschettas. They’re places to eat close to Rome. They’re very small, very authentic, you go to have a sandwich with porchetta, very basic, and a glass of wine. Again not a good wine (Luca laughs). Food is an experience it’s not just food, its people.
(I tell Luca I had the SPQR focaccia last week, that it was excellent and incredibly oily.) It has to be oily! If your hands don’t get dirty isn’t not good focaccia.
Will you close for winter?
This is the first season so we’ll see how the locals respond, but we aim to stay open.
What did you eat yesterday and where?
I don’t do breakfast, I do coffee.
Both of my partners at Anima e Farina have a very good relationship with the local providers and we knew that illy caffe, for us it’s the best, we got connected with them and we’re very happy with the coffee we make. I don’t want to say we make the best coffee in Pollenca, but we’re close (laughs).
I had lunch at Club Pollenca, I’m a socio (member) there. One thing I love about Spain in general is menu del dia, it’s a nice touch.
Last night I made dinner at home, I live in a finca outside Pollenca. I made squash lasagne – squash, prosciutto, seasoning. The beauty is there’s no pasta, it’s just layering of cheese and ham. And I drank wine from Pecat, a small winery in Alcudia. It’s one of my favourites.
What does Mallorca do really well?
We have very good wine here, before opening Anima e Farina I was disappointed but now we’ve opened I’m learning (about Mallorquin wines), because I have a great relationship with local producers. My partner has a lot of knowledge in wine but we found out that small wineries here, their product can definitely be considered equal or even better than bigger brands on the island. That said, because of the small production they have to increase the price, and often the quality is not matching the price. Mallorquins can’t afford local wine, a lot of things on the island have become not for Mallorquins.
A dish I love here is sobrasada with eggs and honey, I eat it at Ca’n Moixet. It’s very basic but delicious. They have one of my favourite sweets there also called Cardenal de Lloseta. Lloseta is a small town near Inca and the dessert is made with meringue and cream.
Tell me about the wine you’ve chosen for Anima e Farina
We have wine tastings every night except Mondays. 2 or 3 times a week we’re booked out. You can normally only taste wines going to the winery and they’re not near each other, I believe we are one of the few options where you can go and taste a selection all under one roof. We love to do those, Luciano hosts them. He’s the manager.
For the wine shop we mostly focus on Italian and Spanish wines. We have some French wine and some from Mallorca. I mostly leave it to Luciano who I trust. I have some that I want in the shop that I love, but they’re my personal tastes, I’m more into developing the brand of the company.
You can find Anima e Farina in Carrer Alcudia in Pollensa.
Check out the Instagram page here.
Lucy Hawkins is a writer and artist who lives in Mallorca with her husband and two young daughters. She studied Journalism at the University of the Arts in London and worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine and The London Paper in the UK as well as newspapers and magazines around the world. Her original artwork, prints and homewares are sold in stores across Australia and her children’s book, The Salvager’s Quest, is available through online book retailers worldwide.
