After settling up with Jorge, the enduring face of Mallorca’s dining rooms, we asked him to pass along our thanks to the owner. Instead, he pulled out his phone, dialed a number, and conjured her on the spot so that we could thank her ourselves.
Many operators like to describe their employees as family, but Laurie Torres has been proving it for nearly 30 years. Torres, who founded the restaurant with her Spanish ex-husband in 1997, has cultivated a culture of hospitality that is impossible to fake.
“Mallorca is the kind of place that if you don’t get a hug on the way in, you’re going to ask for one on the way out,” the owner says.
For decades, the close-knit staff at Mallorca have been making memories for guests celebrating special occasions. This is the place to come for large portions of colorful, comforting Spanish and Portuguese food, but also a theatrical experience where the coffee is set ablaze and the servers exchange in playful banter. But knowing when to turn it off is just as important as knowing how to ham it up, admits Torres.
“When people come to Mallorca, they are looking for a Spanish experience, they are looking for waiters that are overly enthusiastic,” says Torres. “But they also know how to read the room. That is not something that’s taught; it’s something that you learn from being in hospitality for so long.”
Last month, Torres received some long-overdue recognition for the talents of her staff when Mallorca was named as a semi-finalist in the Outstanding Hospitality category of the James Beard Awards. Unlike chef-driven medals, this nationwide distinction recognizes softer skills like reception, organization, timing, staff knowledge and customer engagement.
“I was getting all these calls and texts from people saying congratulations and I’m like, what are they talking about?” Torres recalls. But after the shock had faded, she wondered why it took so bloody long. “When it comes to hospitality, nobody has it over Cleveland.”
Mallorca is where to go for Spanish-style shrimp de ajo ($21.75), a traditional terra-cotta cazuela overflowing with plump, sweet seafood in a paprika-scented garlic sauce. Good servers know to keep the bread baskets full and ours was as bottomless as a magician’s top hat. Almejas rellenas ($16.75), Spanish stuffed clams, are fortified with chorizo and topped with bacon. Jorge suggested that we try a nightly special, the Portuguese chorizo ($19), which is flambéed at the table in the traditional manner. More than just show, the warm flames release the heady aromas of pork, garlic and paprika while melting the fat.
If you happened to have dined at Mallorca a decade or so ago, you might recall servers deftly working their way through a near-comical list of nightly specials. Those specials, along with many time-honored preparations, have disappeared, victims of shifting dining trends, Torres explains.
“Our paella originally had rabbit in it, because that’s how it’s done in Spain,” she says. “We had to take the bones out of the chicken. We used to serve fish with the head on. But now, people don’t want to even eat fish with bones in it.”
Even without the rabbit, the paella Valencia ($58) is a beautiful sight to behold. A wide, shallow pan is filled with saffron-scented rice and packed with Spanish sausage, shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops, chicken and lobster tails. Tack on orders of patatas bravas ($8), crispy spuds with a peppery kick. Meals are rounded out by simple but fresh house salads and platters of steamed vegetables.
Step into Mallorca and you’ll be immersed in the aroma of coffee, cinnamon and burnt sugar. The famous flaming Spanish coffee service here ($30 for two) is more contagious than the flu; when one table requests it, the orders spread across the dining room like a brush fire.
“Flames sell,” jokes Torres, who says that items such as that dramatic coffee service and the flambéed sausage help the restaurant remain relevant in today’s social media-obsessed times.
Torres will have to wait until April to see if Mallorca advances to the finals round in the James Beard Awards, but she’s already reaping the rewards of the nomination.
“Anytime you’re in the press for anything, it sparks interest, but that was a particularly big thing,” she states. “Literally within two days of the James Beard announcement we went from 120 reservations to 250.”
While it’s a clichéd custom to bestow all credit to the hard-working staff, it’s difficult not to fully believe Torres when she does precisely that.
“I don’t anticipate or expect it to go any further; this is a blessing in and of itself,” she says. “And if we do have any kind of award, it is 100 percent because of the staff, because they are beautiful people who love that house.”
Mallorca
1390 West 9th St., Cleveland
216-687-9494
mallorcacle.com