✅ Rafa Martín & Brass Club
This time, we had to choose our new Hidden Icon of Mallorca. We were looking for an entrepreneurial person, with charisma and a great professional. And we decided that it had to be him, Rafa Martín, the soul of Brass Club and Coquetier.
▷ In a Snapshot
A great professional. He’s an “old school” bartender who reminds you of the art of good cocktails. And he’s managed to make the Brass Club a reference point for Bon Vivants. Going to have a cocktail or a combo in his space is synonymous with pure enjoyment.
If you want to know the essence of the creator of Brass Club, keep reading his interview.
#TALKING
1- CREATIVITY. What have you done to keep it active during confinement?
I rely on my family a lot. The good thing that we have all experienced in this confinement has been to be able to value what we have at home, we have been able to dedicate time to each other… and something as simple as looking for how to entertain ourselves, have fun and do new things with what we had at home, all this has allowed me to continue creating.
As for work, being at home creating with my family, has helped me on a creative level, to see how I was focusing the present and the future in Brass Club and Coquetier: what I could offer at the moment and what I could offer in the future without losing the identity and level of our brand.
My wife and children have been the ones who have helped me to overcome this situation. They know me on a daily basis, a little glimpse of an idea that came to them, and from this creative ideas have been born. Together with them, I have felt that we are a good team.
2. PLAYLIST. What music has accompanied you these days?
I’ve been accompanied by many songs. When I started to create the delivery service option that we have called “Brass Club at home”, I thought that I had to offer something that was fun, and that’s how the idea of bringing the Brass Club music to your home with your cocktails came about.
What people don’t know is that when they get our cocktail at home, they also get our music. And that’s because moments later, we sent them a message with a link to listen to our selection of jazz music that they would hear in our club. That way we really bring to our customers, the 100% essence of the “Brass Club at home”.
I have also been accompanied by the music of Mallorcan DJs whom I admire and with whom I have a very good relationship, from Kiko Navarro, Pepe Link, and Rafa de Siria, music that is more different to what is usually heard in Brass Club, but that is precisely why I choose it, it helps me to disconnect from the day to day and be able to connect again in other things, new projects…
3. DELIVERY. How did the idea come up?
In our case, it was born from the need and support of clients and friends during this confinement who, from the first day, sent us daily messages wishing us the best, supporting us, telling us that they were willing to come back to our place, to see us, to enjoy our cocktails again… So we thought it would be fun to bring our service directly to their home.
I was thinking about how to make them get our cocktails home, that they would be delicious, attractive, and at the same time, it wouldn’t be complicated to finish them at home.
The cocktails that are sent to your home are made by me, but without the complexity that I usually prepare them at Brass Club.
We presented it with a Thermo sealed bag, on the one hand the cocktail and on the other, the decoration all in packaging bags. Everything with high-quality presentations but simpler without missing our special touch, the crystalline ice that we serve in our place, which is special and takes a long time to melt, that all our customers appreciate and love, we also send it in a packed bag.
All of this arrives directly to the customer’s home, and we give them the gift of being able to feel like bartenders at home, without the complexity of having to do it themselves, because we understand that not everyone has a shaker and professional utensils as we do.
Therefore, when we deliver our clients their cocktail at home, we give them an experience to enjoy at home: opening the packaged cocktail, serving, stirring and decorating to be able to enjoy it.
They are cocktails created to last several days in the fridge -even four days- because they are designed for that, so they can be consumed on different days and enjoyed at home.
I wanted people to have the same experience when they call us as when they come to have a cocktail at our place: that’s why we decided to accompany it even with our own coaster and our classic, the curry popcorn.
We also give the client the possibility to choose elements to make his experience even more complete, such as tins of pickles and plates of cut ham, even the bottles of our friends from La Vermutera. Together with all this, we added the touch of the musical background that also came with our delivery service.
A service to enjoy alone or in the best company, with your favorite person – if you had been lucky enough to be with him/her during the confinement -, together with a good cocktail and good music. Enjoy Brass Club, all its essence, but from home.
4- RECOMMENDATION BRASS CLUB. What cocktail would you recommend us?
To recommend a cocktail depends on the time of day, the person, the mood … But there are two classics that are my favorites.
One is the classic Dry Martini, which you have to like it because it has high alcoholic strength, not for everyone, but our Dry Martini is made with Sipsmith Gin which has an elegant touch.
And the other cocktail, I would say, our Negroni. We make a classic Negroni in equal parts with Gin Sipsmith and Campari, a classic bitter and a selection of different vermouths that we put in a wooden barrel that has had Oloroso -a sherry- for 3 months -as if it was almost a baby- and then we take it out, that is why our Negroni, has that aromatic taste and these are the ones I personally like the most.
✨ Hidden Tips
The bartender Rafa Martín, tells us his recommendations to live the authenticity of the island: Mallorca Hidden.
Where to go: One thing I love, is the Barranc de Biniaraix, an excursion that starts from Biniaraix, I am lucky to have friends who have olive trees there, I enjoy it very much, it is a spectacular excursion, a great place, you walk about 45 minutes on a dry stone path, but it is a place that is like a retreat. Very few people know it, a real hidden tip.
What to do: One of the passions I have and that I will make possible immediately, to take a walk in a boat, to sail the sea, to enjoy the weather that we have in Majorca. Going out with my family, if it is with my son to fish and spend a fun morning, if it is with my family, with my wife, my children and my mother-in-law, going out to look for coves in the Bay of Palma, also in the area of La Rapita, Es Trenc, is something I am looking forward to do.
What to see: A place to see… I love Pollença and Puerto Pollença where “La Fortaleza” is located, where I have been lucky enough to work on some events and it is a place with spectacular views, with a sunset that you have to see sometime in your life. It is a Mallorca that few people know about, but it is the Mallorca that we all like.
≫ Rafa Martin, talent and creation in its purest form. We invite you to enjoy his cocktails at home or at the Brass Club.