Local places with a tale

WHILE munching on some wonderful fish and chips at the Kimrick the table next to me enquired if I knew the history of the place.

Bet they were sorry they asked. Not only could I answer but it got me to thinking, the history of many of our most common and best liked establishments have some interesting tales about them.

When I arrived back in the late 60’s most of the land and old cortijos along the beach and up into the hills and down the road for a good two miles pertained to the Flores family.

Even if they didn’t have escrituras they had been settled there, the longest, and no one would challenge their claims. They were four brothers and sisters located next to each other, competing with each other, in what was then the ONLY restaurants on the beach from the crossroads leading to the village, with the exception of the Parador.

The Puntazo, Virgen del Mar, El Africano, and the Flamenco.

At that time my brother Paul had the ridiculous idea of buying land in the sun, building houses and selling them to foreigners. He purchased 8 acres then for about $4,000 to be paid over a couple of years. (Remember, this is where the current roundabout it is, the Red Cross on the beach and the large Farmacia of Paco’s).

The village was full of artists, poets, movie stars and a wide array of strange and unusual folk so this absurd decision to spend so much money for scrubland was deemed as close as possible to a mental illness.

He called the area ‘Lomos del Cantal’, which he got from an old military map, misspelling included. Paul then sold off sites to people he had met in the American embassy.

At those times you could buy a very large two bedroom home for $7,000. I recently resold for the fifth time one of these casas for €400,000. The land where the Kimerick is was first sold to an American bullfighter by the name of Mike Stumer for about $7,000, 3000 square meters.

He and his wife Judy I am still in touch with and they plan on returning this year. I sold the land of theirs to a Monsieur Sartori Clement, a Frenchman that lived in the circular house on the beach in front of the old Puntazo (Gatsby’s) for $14,000.

Sartori was an interesting man. He flew all over the world taking pictures with a large sized camera and getting post cards printed up.

If your grandfather bought a picture postcard of the Taj Mahal or Windsor Castle yonks ago, chances are that Sartori took it and made the profits.

Sartori never worked, lived off his earnings which didn’t make him loved by the locals. Furthermore, he was always driving about seeking a “good quick deal” and pestering everyone for information.

He wasn’t gracious, famed for never having bought anyone drink while asking his weaselling questions. I sold him the land and he had me to dinner at his house. It was that day I became a legend in my own lunchtime.

I have told that “dinner story” about a hundred times to all the then local residents and I must say, was most heralded for it, being such an unusual and miraculous occurrence.

Seven years later, following the land being reclassified as “zona urbana” I bought the land back paying Sartori five times what he had paid me. And I bought him a drink. Then I built apartments on it with a friend called Peter Gough.

Peter returned to England and I kept the last remaining structure, the half complete building at the bottom of the apartments. I desperately wanted to do a health club, or a Chinese restaurant – but no takers.

It sat there for years until early one Saturday morning John Mills, the present owner, popped in and did a deal with me totally on a hand shake.

He lived up to it to the letter and I have since tried to help him and whomever is running it. He named it after his daughter and son—KimRick.