It doesn’t seem all that long ago when Café Del Mar was sat lonely on the rocks just outside of the main San Antonio town. The Café’s original philosophy was to create tranquility by fusing a unique soundtrack to a breathtaking backdrop. Café Del Mar is quietly confident. It’s not brash or in your face, and to the outsider observer they may not think Café Del Mar is much different from the thousands of Mediterranean bars decorating the Spanish coastlines. And it is possible that if you stumble across this café at 11am that is all you would take away from the Café Del Mar experience.
However had you been there at around 8pm you would have experienced something that thousands of holidaymakers do each year, yet an experience that is completely personal. It is no understatement to say Café Del Mar created the atmospheric sunset. The sun provided the backdrop, Café del mar the soundtrack and the setting.
It became something of a global phenomenon from its compilation series that really inspired the chill out genre. It’s hard to imagine the world without the term Chill Out to describe a musical sound, but it didn’t really exist before Café Del Mar bottled the sounds from their shores on CD in 1993. There have been a million imitations since but those early Café Del Mar albums still sound as relevant and thought provoking today as when first sampled.
Today Café Del Mar is anything but lonely. To its right is the renowned Café Mambo and to its left the sprawling Savannah, both owned by Javier Anadon. Many more bars have joined the area too (Coastline, Kanya) to create what is today referred too as the sunset strip.
But for all the new kids on the block there is still something completely unique and special about Café Del Mar. It’s one of those Ibiza landmarks that has inspired so much in popular culture and provided the setting for many holiday memories
The famous DJ residents may have moved on, but the music policy remains unrepentant to the latest trends, staying true to its roots. In 2010 Café del mar would have been there 30 years, in Ibiza terms that is a lifetime. Next time you are in Ibiza make sure you go and visit the Café by the ocean and remember why it has the reputation it has, because it’s very easy to forget.
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