Es Mercadal, a foodie route through its emblematic shops

Es Mercadal is one of those Menorcan towns where traditional gastronomy remains closely linked to local commerce. Its streets are home to businesses that tell the story of a way of making, buying and preparing food that forms part of Menorca’s culinary identity.

Of the seven businesses in Es Mercadal currently included in the “Emblemàtics Balears” programme, three are directly linked to gastronomy: Pastisseria Can Pons, Carnisseria i Menjars Febrer and Cas Sucrer. Three very different stops that allow visitors to discover bread and pastries, cured meats and traditional dishes, and one of the great historic names in Menorcan pastry-making.

It is a short route that can easily be explored on foot and offers another way of getting to know Es Mercadal through its flavours.

Pastisseria Can Pons, almost a century between flour and sugar

The first stop takes us to Pastisseria Can Pons, on Carrer de Baix, a business whose roots go back to 1931. The story began with the Pons Mascaró family, who, after setting up a mill to grind wheat, took up the baking trade and began making bread in the town of Es Mercadal.

The business passed from parents to children for three generations until, in 2000, Pedro Pons Florit and Esperança Pons Pons handed the bakery over to Tolo Pons Salord and Maria José Vinent Millán, the current owners, who share a surname with the founding family but are not directly related to them.

Today, Can Pons is an artisan bakery and pastry workshop devoted to bread, pastries and traditional Menorcan and Balearic specialities. Tolo Pons is accredited as a master artisan pastry chef, nougat maker and chocolatier, while the business holds artisan qualification status and is part of the “Pa d’aquí, forn i tradició” brand.

Among its specialities are its ensaimadas, which in 2020 received recognition as the Best Ensaimada in the World. The bakery also offers artisan bread, traditional Menorcan sweet and savoury pastries and a wide range of pastry creations.

The business also combines tradition with professional training. Tolo Pons studied at the Escola de Pastisseria del Gremi de Barcelona between 1994 and 1997 and has received several awards in national pastry competitions.

Another feature that makes Can Pons particularly worth visiting is the bakery building itself, which dates from 1896. Inside, the old counter is still preserved, along with different tools and machines linked to the bakery’s history, one of which is still in use.

Foodies recommends: the ensaimadas are one of the house specialities, but it is also worth asking which traditional Menorcan sweet and savoury pastries have been made that day. It is an ideal place to discover how traditional baking and contemporary artisan pastry-making can coexist.

Carrer de Baix, 8 · Es Mercadal
Tel. 971 154 423
Web: www.can-pons.com

Carnisseria i Menjars Febrer, from the countryside to the counter

Our second stop takes us to another fundamental aspect of Menorcan gastronomy: meat, cured meats and home-style cooking.

The story of Carnisseria i Menjars Febrer began in 1970, when Bartomeu Febrer and Joana Pons, both from a farming background, decided to open a traditional butcher’s shop. From the very beginning, they made some of Menorca’s characteristic cured meats, such as sobrassada, carn-i-xulla and camot.

That previous connection with rural life is especially significant on an island where, for many generations, livestock farming, pig slaughtering and the preparation of cured meats formed part of household economy and family food traditions.

When Bartomeu and Joana retired in 1998, their son Joan took over the business. He had started working with his parents from a very young age and is now a master artisan butcher and artisan cured-meat producer. The business also holds the official Artisan Qualification Document.

With the arrival of his wife, Isabel Reurer, in 2000, the business expanded its activity by adding a section of prepared home-cooked dishes.

Today they continue to work with local produce and make their own traditional products, among which sobrassada and carn-i-xulla stand out. These are joined by fresh products such as burgers, sausages and skewers, as well as a range of house-made prepared dishes.

Foodies recommends: taking the opportunity to discover their own Menorcan cured meats, especially sobrassada and carn-i-xulla, and also asking about the home-cooked dishes of the day. It is a good way to approach Menorcan domestic cuisine through a business that was born directly from the island’s farming culture.

Avinguda del Doctor Llansó, 11 · Es Mercadal
Tel. 971 154 163

Cas Sucrer, Menorcan sweets since 1884

If there is one stop that tells much of the sweet history of Es Mercadal, it is Cas Sucrer.

Founded in 1884, this business is one of the historic institutions of Menorcan pastry-making and has maintained a close connection with the island’s culinary culture for more than a century. For four generations, the Villalonga family preserved and passed down recipes and methods of preparation that have helped keep an important gastronomic heritage alive.

Today the business is run by Joan Antoni Gomila, who, although not related to the family by blood, had worked with the Villalonga family for many years. This continuity has made it possible to pass on the business while preserving the spirit and legacy of the house.

Since its beginnings, Cas Sucrer has occupied a characteristic corner of Plaça de la Constitució, in the centre of Es Mercadal.

Its workshop produces a wide variety of artisan pastries every day. Ensaimadas, amargos, carquinyols, pastissets, Swiss rolls, cakes and miniature pastries form part of a repertoire that provides a broad journey through Menorca’s sweet tradition.

It is precisely this continuity between generations, recipes and products that makes Cas Sucrer much more than a pastry shop. It is also a place of gastronomic memory, where many of the specialities that once accompanied festivals, family celebrations and important dates continue to be displayed on the counter.

Foodies recommends: not stopping at the ensaimada alone. Amargos, carquinyols and pastissets offer different expressions of traditional Menorcan pastry-making. The best option is to ask what has come fresh from the workshop that day and put together a small selection to taste.

Plaça de la Constitució, 11 · Es Mercadal
Tel. 971 375 175
Web: cassucrermenorca.com

Three shops in which to taste the history of Es Mercadal

Pastisseria Can Pons, Carnisseria i Menjars Febrer and Cas Sucrer create a route that is short in distance but extraordinarily rich in gastronomic history.

A bakery founded in 1931, a family of butchers from a farming background who started their business in 1970, and a pastry shop that has been operating since 1884 reveal three different sides of Menorcan food culture.

Bread and ensaimadas, sobrassada and carn-i-xulla, amargos, carquinyols and pastissets. Products that form part of Menorca’s gastronomy, but also families, trades and businesses that have helped preserve them.

For the foodie traveller, visiting these shops is a way of discovering Es Mercadal beyond its restaurants. Because an essential part of a town’s gastronomy continues to live behind its counters, inside its workshops and in the hands of the people who keep these trades alive.