Photography by Annie Peel
You know, the more I go to Café Mambo over the years, the more I fall in love with it. When I was a little Ibiza whippersnapper, I harboured dreams of working there (which never came true) and as I grew older, I became obsessed with watching famous DJs and street parades at pre-parties (still a bit of a guilty pleasure). Today, it’s more about the social aspect of the world famous sunset bar and restaurant for me – Café Mambo is a bit like Ibiza’s version of Cheers… where everyone knows your name (not that they’ll tell you mine of course!).
As always, the familiar faces began arriving predictably around a half an hour before sunset, including the most familiar of them all, owner Javier Anadon, who must have, as always, been the most popular man on campus this evening, closely followed by sons Christian and Alan, who were keeping the well-oiled Mambo machine in check as if it had open all year!
Photography by Annie Peel
Due to the fact every single table at Mambo was full well before sunset, Miss W and the White-ettes (who felt pretty silly when they realised they’d forgotten to book ahead – everyone might know my name but it was so busy I couldn’t call in any favours!) snuck next door to Mambo’s sister restaurant Mint Lounge for a pizza – an amazing pizza, might I add – when hunger pangs began to strike, but thankfully, we could still hear the tunes from resident DJs Jason Bye and Andy Baxter from our balmy terrace seats.
But it wasn’t long before we were back on the strip, with Miss W recruiting stylish girls for our all-new street style blog (keep your eyes peeled as we’ll be publishing the results all week) as if it were Ibiza’s next top model while the island’s movers, shakers and wannabes schmoozed their way up and down the strip.
If I was a fruit fly on the wall of the Café Mambo bar, I’d love to tell you just how many bottles of hierbas were consumed on Friday night… given the amount of shot glasses I saw whizzing back and forth over the bar, out to tables, into the DJ booth, and onto the terrace I wouldn’t even hazard a guess… any anonymous bar staff want to let us in on that little secret?
Photography by Annie Peel
THE LOWDOWN
THE GOOD: With a horrible forecast all week long, Miss W had been almost certain there would be no sunset to speak of this evening, however for a change this month, the weather man couldn’t have been more wrong – woop woop! It was a picture perfect sunset, applauded by the crowd as usual as it sank into the Med to an overly dramatic film score track… three cheers to the first of many!
THE BAD: Was it a case of too many photographers spoil the sunset vibe? Miss W heard a whisper from someone behind the scenes that there were way too many intrusive cameras and flashes in the house on this occasion, one in fact, who insisted on muscling his way in amongst crowds, bars and DJ booths far too many times. It seems sometimes, certain snappers forget other people are there to actually work… not strike a pose.
THE GOSSIP: There seemed to be an extra large group of little ones (or mini-mes, when you saw all the parents) at Café Mambo this year… and all of those of a female persuasion seemed to have developed a crush on the Mambo resident DJs! While Mambo has always been a family-friendly establishment, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the booth full of girls under four feet tall! But that’s what you get when your old school crowd goes and grows up!
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