La Molienda

La Molienda - Good coffee and a lot more

La Molienda has both a relaxing atmosphere and a very friendly service. It makes you feel as if you were at home drinking a cup of coffee that, in fact, you can grind here and take with you to enjoy wherever you want.

Author: Aina Coll

Photographer: Jaume Oliver

It may be that stopping for breakfast or brunch - what time does one end and the other begin? - on a weekday and with all the peace and quiet in the world is a privilege that, although scarce, cannot be missed. We, who share this popular belief, act accordingly whenever the opportunity comes up.

With the arrival of autumn -still warm- and the desire to enjoy the city, we take a break from our daily routine and go to the heart of Palma to taste the proposal of a place that has established itself (and rightly so) in the daily life of coffee lovers: La Molienda, on Bisbe Campins street, very close to Passeig Mallorca.

The first establishment of these experts in the art of roasting coffee (the second is on Arxiduc Lluís Salvador) is small but cozy; its atmosphere, relaxed and informal, and its charismatic terrace - easy to recognize for its wooden tables and green director's chairs - is usually crowded at any time between eight in the morning, when the aroma of its coffee begins to spread around, and five in the afternoon, when the shutters come down until the following morning.

After taking a look at their specialty coffee - which you can buy in the coffee shop itself - and salivating at their display case full of sweet temptations (delicious biscuits, crunchy cookies and seductive cinnamon rolls kneaded and baked in-house), we settled inside. To sit on the terrace, we'll have to wait for our next visit.

Although the sweet proposal is hard to refuse, the clock shows that it is noon and we sense that the brunch time has begun. We attentively explore a savory menu that bets on local and organic products: sourdough toast with tomato and avocado, with Mahon cheese, with egg or goat cheese, pistachio and grapes -all with the option of xeixa flour- and brioche sandwich, scrambled egg toast, Menorcan cheese pa amb oli, vegan burger of chickpeas and corn, and the already mythical llonguet La Molienda: A sandwich of the quintessential local bread, raw milk cheese, caramelized onion, roasted eggplant and lamb's lettuce.

Although coffee here is the lord and master of the house, the beverage options go beyond our favorite bean and include teas, infusions, matchas, natural juices, kombucha, Puig soft drinks and smoothies, so we betrayed -just for today- our coffee habit and bet on a green smoothie with orange, banana, spinach and ginger (a rich shot of vitamins) and a natural orange juice with a spicy touch of ginger. The taste of each sip forgives our disloyalty.

The dishes - filled with vibrant colors - soon arrive at our marble table and confirm that our brunch today, indeed, had to be savory: the brioche sandwich with tomato, avocado and a poached egg with chili is simply perfect, and the toast of scrambled eggs with organic yogurt, turmeric, spinach on a slice of sourdough bread strikes the exact and desired balance between the juiciness of the egg and the crunchiness of the bread.

In the imagination of La Molienda's loyal customers, its name is synonymous with specialty coffee, but everyone knows that its concept goes beyond that. La Molienda is a good product cooked and served with taste, it is a pause and a conversation at mid-morning, it is a place with relaxed atmosphere and friendly service, it is that feeling as if you were at home drinking a cup of coffee that, in fact, you can grind here and take with you to enjoy wherever you want. On second thought and with your stomach satisfied, a stop at La Molienda is, after all, that mundane privilege of stopping everything that neither we (nor now you) want to skip.