La Mallorquina, a pastry shop in Sol since 1894

On the corner of the Puerta del Sol and Calle Mayor stands La Mallorquina. It opened in 1894 and is one of the few historic establishments on the square still devoted to the same trade.

Its shop windows, its counter and the salon on the upper floor have accompanied several generations of Madrileños. Before the napolitanas became its best-known product, the house was famous for its ensaimadas and hot chocolate.

Three Mallorcan partners

The name comes from the Balearic origin of its founders: Coll, Ripoll and Balaguer.

The businessmen had previously run their trade on Calle de Jacometrezo. In 1894 they set up shop on the corner of Sol and Mayor, a far more visible and heavily trafficked location.

The spot was excellent. Past its doors streamed travelers, civil servants, shoppers, hotel guests and people heading to the cafés and theaters of the city center.

The business combined a pastry shop, a food store and a tearoom. It was not merely a place to buy and leave. Customers could sit down for coffee, beer, hot chocolate or sweets.

Ensaimadas and hot chocolate

The product most closely tied to the establishment’s origins was the ensaimada.

The pastry shop brought to Madrid a Mallorcan specialty still uncommon in the capital. The chocolate came from Matías López, one of Spain’s great manufacturers, whose company had been linked to the nearby Calle de la Montera.

The salon offered a place to gather and take an afternoon snack in a calmer atmosphere than that of the great political cafés. Families, couples and shoppers came to rest after browsing the stores of the city center.

Over time, other pastries from the Madrid and European repertoires joined the offering. The cream and chocolate napolitanas ended up becoming the house’s most popular emblem.

A shop in a changing square

La Mallorquina opened when streetcars crossed Sol and horse-drawn carriages waited in the square.

It has witnessed the arrival of the Metro, automobiles, buses, television, the Cercanías commuter rail and pedestrianization.

It has also seen nearly every historic business around it disappear. Hotels, cafés, department stores and shops that had given Sol its identity throughout the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth all closed their doors.

La Mallorquina survived by adapting its offerings, its premises and its hours, while keeping its name and its core trade.

Its corner position has contributed to that continuity. The shop is visible from the square and from the entrance to Mayor, one of the busiest passages between Sol and the Plaza Mayor.

The salon upstairs

One of its most fondly remembered features is the salon on the upper floor.

Going upstairs meant escaping the bustle of the square for a while and watching the street from the windows. The space preserved the tradition of the old pastry shops and tearooms, where a drink or a pastry became a pause rather than a quick purchase.

The ground floor, by contrast, has always moved at a much faster pace. Customers wait at the counter, choose their pastries and continue on their way.

These two ways of using the establishment — the quick purchase and the seated afternoon treat — explain much of its success.

A small historic landmark

La Mallorquina has neither the monumental scale of the Casa de Correos nor the symbolic pedigree of Kilometre Zero.

Its importance comes from continuity.

In a square where almost everything has changed its name, its owner or its use, the pastry shop still occupies the same corner and still sells sweets.

Travelers stepping out of an inn in 1894 could stop there before boarding a streetcar. Today’s visitors arrive by Metro, glance at their phones and buy a napolitana to eat as they walk.

The city surrounding the establishment is completely different.

The pause in front of the counter remains very much the same.