Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to participate in a week-long sailing trip on the Adriatic – we visited Brač, Palmižana, Makarska, Split, and three towns on the Island of Hvar: Hvar Town, Stari Grad, and Jelsa. The only place I’d visited before was Hvar Town, so I was really looking forward to visiting the other two Hvar towns. Reality was even better than my expectations: charming island towns, where time goes by slower than anywhere on the mainland and where no one is ever in a hurry. I understand that that type of lifestyle might get tiring after a while, but as a one-time vacation thing, it was beyond perfect.
We reached Jelsa around 4 p.m. and as soon as we stepped off our boats, we were greeted with a delicious limoncello by a friendly waitress, even though we showed no intention of going there. It’s a Croat thing; unfortunately, we’re always suspicious of someone’s good intentions and are sure that there’s a hidden agenda behind every nice thing someone else does for us. As it turns out, as with everything else connected to Mr and Mrs Jones, it was just a nice gesture to show hospitality, which I believe should be a rule and not an exception.
Another thing I liked about Me and Mrs Jones, even though it was slightly confusing, is the fact that they kept the original name – Napoleon on the restaurant’s wall, adding Me and Mrs Jones signs to lamps. I loved how the past and the present merged and coexist peacefully without affecting the value of either.
The restaurant’s location is perfect – it’s located on the waterfront right in the marina. You can sit outside and enjoy the view of the boats and the sea, or enjoy the equally impressive interior, with stone walls and glistening lights.
The Amy Winehouse reference won all of us over and we headed there for dinner at 8.
It took ages for us to decide because everything looked delicious – homemade bread with garlic, fish soup, baked goat cheese, homemade ravioli and penne, beef tagliata – I’m getting hungry just remembering it.
As Hvar is famous for its wines, and Me and Mrs Jones is a restaurant AND wine bar, the wine list was very comprehensive (and not expensive), but we decided to try the table wine, and made the right choice – it was delicious and refreshing.
Josipa, the owner, was very welcoming and offered her suggestions, so I decided to start with fish soup,
the main course was beef tagliata, and it really was as good as it looks.
Josipa whipped up a dessert on the house, so we got chocolate cake and custard pie (krempita) and went back to our boats (some 10 steps) fed and happy, looking forward to coming back.
Take a look at what the atmosphere at the restaurant looked like on International Women’s Day and like Me and Mrs Jones on Facebook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2NJVAYuGtw
