June 28, 2018 – A new addition to the increasingly diverse Hvar accommodation scene. Meet Hvar Art House.
In the beginning, when I first moved to Hvar in 2003, there was the Dalmatian Standard.
One menu, which differed little from restaurant to restaurant. So little, in fact, that one expat joked that there was a factory outside Zagreb which printed menus for all restaurants. All you had to do was insert your restaurant name and prices.
The wine came in litre bottles, Faros red or Faros white, and accommodation was strictly apartment only or the run-down hotels which had seen better times before the war.
Activities were restricted to the classics – walking tour, day trip to Bol, lacking in imagination.
And then something changed. That Dalmatian menu started to diversify. New concepts, experimental chefs, even an Asian restaurant on the main square in Hvar Town. Out with the litre table wines, and hello to Tomic, Zlatan Otok, Dubokovic, Caric and Ahearne – real wine quality of an international standard, bringing out the individuality of the indigenous grapes of Hvar. Out with the mass excursions and in with off-road Jeep safaris, cooking classes a whole raft of personalised and specialised tours.
And then there was accommodation.
Hotels got renovated. Boutique hotels began to appear. People invested more in apartments, to add luxury fittings, swimming pools and other mod cons to meet the changing needs of Hvar visitors.
And some were bold. Very bold. And they introduced new concepts and a new look.
Meet Hvar Art House, complete with Banksy reproductions on the inside and a fairly distinctive look on the outside, complete with low-maintenance artificial grass in the garden, overshadowed by street art murals on the walls. The overall motif that runs through the outside work will focusing on the contemplation of the passage of time / phases of our lives.
Some will love it, others less so, but the Dalmatian Standard is a thing of the past.
To learn more about Hvar Art House, follow them on Facebook.
