Sa Ferreria

Sa Ferreria sits on a quiet side street in Campos, a few steps from the Plaça Major and the parish church of Sant Julià, and from the outside the house gives little away. The name says more: a ferreria is a smithy, and that is exactly what this building was — one of the old forges of the town, going back to the early twentieth century. The conversion did not paint that origin over, it left it standing. Terrazzo tables, exposed stone walls, a built-in bench and the original wooden beams above the dining room combine with the visible traces of the old trade to make a space that is rustic at its base and still clear and restrained. Beside the dining room a door leads out to a small terrace where only a few tables stand among the plants. The full name of the house is Sa Ferreria art i bar, and both halves are meant literally: this is a place that cooks, and a place that exhibits. The kitchen at Sa Ferreria The menu is deliberately short and dares to read recipes from here and from elsewhere through ingredients everyone on the island knows. The house describes its own cooking as a Mallorcan base that has travelled widely — and that is exactly right. Nowhere is it clearer than in the gyoza: steamed, taken with a little colour on one side, filled with pork loin, cabbage, sobrassada and raisins. Ingredient for ingredient that is a classic island recipe, simply given a Japanese shape. Alongside them come the house cocas of the day, with cherry tomatoes and cheese, say, or with sobrassada and onion, plus croquettes of beef and ginger, patatas bravas and lamb tacos with yoghurt sauce. Vegetables get more room than so short a menu would suggest: leeks with requesón, a fresh whey cheese, and almond, and artichokes with romesco. It turns richer with the beef carpaccio and blue cheese, lighter with the salmon tartare and wonton. The last savoury course to reach the table is a house-baked brioche with roast pork belly, red onion and cucumber. To finish, the carrot cake with orange cream is worth keeping room for. Mallorcan craft beer is a popular match, as is wine, which the staff will recommend if you ask. Exhibitions on the upper floor From the terrace a staircase leads up to a room that holds changing exhibitions and, now and then, workshops. This is not decoration at the margins: the house gives the space to artists from the island, including young and still unknown ones, and the local press has reported on shows held there more than once. Eating here means sitting in a restaurant that is also a small exhibition room — the reason Sa Ferreria is listed as a gallery as well as a kitchen. Who runs the house Sa Ferreria is run by the siblings Aina and Toni. The exhibitions are their way of keeping cultural life in the town moving, so the ambition reaches beyond the dining room. The place is small and demand is steady, which is why guests regularly advise booking ahead — the house takes reservations through a messaging service. The menu is written in Catalan and Spanish, but the staff take the time to talk you through it and to suggest a wine to go with it.