How many coffees has Eva made on this machine during the 22 years she has been working at the bar Flotante? Hundreds of thousands? A million? How high would they go if you stacked them on top of each other? Eva only has one thing on her mind: this Sunday bar Flotante, in Talamanca, closes its doors and she loses her job. It could be said that an institution on the island is closing, the last beach bar ‘of yesteryear’, a piece of the sentimental history of thousands of Ibizans. But it also closes the place where Eva has spent almost half of her life.
“The only thing I know is that I’m going on vacation and in March I hope to work somewhere else,” she says, but even if she finds a job, it won’t be the same: “I’m sad,” she admits.
Poster announcing the closing of bar Flotante on Sunday 23rd.J.A.Riera
Also teary-eyed Jenny, who after three years as a waitress at the bar Flotante, confesses that this place is already part of her life: “You meet the regulars and you know what they’re going to ask for. We’ve seen customers go through their pregnancies and then they’ve brought us their babies, and we’ve even took care of some ducks,” says the waitress, “we used to help the mother duck and her chicks cross the street every day at 8am and 5pm, and now they’re huge.
“I wouldn’t change the five years I’ve spent here for anything,” says Ana, another waitress, “I’ve met a lot of people here, some of them very good. The people of Ibiza, in short, the hard-working Ibiza”. Unlike her colleagues, Ana maintains an upbeat mood although she admits that this Sunday will be a special day: “I’ve been in the hotel business for 35 years, but this place is like a little hole through which you see all the diversity of people on the island. It’s been awesome”.
Javier Serapio, Nieves Prats, Carmen Maseda and José.marÃa Maseda, in one of his last breakfasts at the bar Flotante. J.A.Riera
A colleague of hers, who does not want to reveal her name, admits that the summer has been very hard, as the difficulty in finding trained, professional staff has meant that the bulk of the work has had to be carried out by the small nucleus of veteran employees: “It’s been a very complicated summer, but we’ve come together to overcome the adversities”. Is she sad about losing her job? She smiles and shows the tattoo she has on her forearm that reads ‘Start again’: “Nevermind. We’ll start again. Life goes on.”
Jenny, Joan, Ana and Merche pose behind the bar of bar Flotante. J.A.Riera
The big bar Flotante family
Jean Pierre Vivares has run the bar Flotante for the last fifteen years and explains that on November 1st he has to hand over the keys and the empty premises to the owners of the business. Two years ago, the owners informed him that they were not renewing his lease. Vivares tried to negotiate with the property and offered an economic counteroffer, but the decision was already taken: “They didn’t give me a single chance. It’s clear that they’ve been offered a lot of money for this.” “I don’t know what will be here, but this has been everybody’s bar. It was the bar Flotante family,” he sums up.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.