Žbirac (Warty crab) the tastiest

Duško CIZMIC MAROVIC

Even the most ordinary tourists can afford lobsters and scampi, but Warty crab, the tastiest of all crabs, is exclusively destined to elite. Isn’t it strange that, unlike its expensive family members, Warty crab is equally common on the table of the upper class as well as on the table of populace? No: because the best things are available to everyone theoretically, still only the real connoisseurs will get it. Money never matters... What is said about Warty crab can completely be applied to the bar Žbirac which has become the most beautiful spot of the cultic Bacvice, the residential bay of Split, after the long rule of the hotel “Park”’s terrace. The main reason is not that the beautiful ”Park” terrace is ruined today, but the fact that Žbirac itself attracts people with taste. Location, designed according to men’s needs, natural materials, otherwise plain bushes against the tyranny of parasoles... this bar is a place for a pilgrimage. Besides, Žbirac is one of the most beautiful belvederes in Split, functional the whole day in the summer time; the sand on which the mothers can leave their children while they drink coffee, parking lot in the vicinity... Add to this obliging but unassertive personnel and a shocking circumstance that music does not obstruct the conversation at all.. But it is loud enough to neutralise the kakophony heard from “the building”on the west of the bay, in which about ten bars squeezed: too big to be intimate and to small to be able to dominate... I just wonder whether the mere capitalism will destroy the factory of noise, which-they complain-is less and less attended, or the quantity of the crowd who needs vulgar entertainment will rise in Split... As in Žbirac there is just enough room for about fifty people, it is not weird that some eminent visitors threatened to me – don’t write about Žbirac, everyone will find out! But, there was also Žarko Bubalo, and he said that I could....

Slobodna Dalmacija, ponedjeljak, 8.9.2003.