Bar Cristal in Palma's Plaça Espanya closed in summer 2017. One of the city's best-known and most iconic establishments, it had been run by the Ramis family for 62 years, but the rental agreement ran out in August 2017 and rents in Palma were going through the roof. Traditional bars couldn't afford them. Real estate agents reckoned that the Bar Cristal premises could command up to 25,000 euros a month; the Ramis family had been paying between 6,000 and 8,000 a month.
German businessman Helmut Clemens took Bar Cristal over and turned it into the third Es Rebost in the capital. The interior design was altered and given a minimalist style. However, he has decided to let it go. "I feel sorry about giving up this project, but Covid has been too much. We were offered a rent reduction, but even with this the figures didn't stack up." The Rebosts on Oms and Jaume III will continue, "and we are looking at other places in order to expand the brand".
Rubén Fernández, who runs the Museo de la Cerveza (Beer Museum) at the Son Pardo Hippodrome, is taking the establishment on. He says that he had been interested in 2017. He made an offer then but it wasn't accepted.
His son and daughter, Rubén and Patricia, will be in charge, and the aim will be for Bar Cristal to recover its traditional character.