We celebrated the launch of our latest print edition at The Giri Café but you don’t need a special occasion to enjoy the prettiest garden in the north.

I’ve been visiting The Giri Café in the north of the island since it first opened and it’s always felt like a second home to me. There’s something so special about stepping through those big wooden doors then walking down a corridor that unexpectedly reveals the incredibly beautiful secret garden restaurant space. It instantly takes me back to the dog-eared pages of one of my favourite childhood books, in addition the moment Dorothy steps out of her black and white home into technicolour Oz in my all-time favourite film (not to mention one of my favourite new Taylor Swift lyrics too). When it was time to celebrate the launch of our latest print edition (Issue 9, can you believe it?), we knew exactly which secret garden would make the ideal location for a little soirée.

We don’t host events very often at White Ibiza, and another invisible string tying us to The Giri Café is that it’s the place where we hosted our very first event, w-a-a-y back in 2011, and we felt drawn to come full circle. And so, we teamed up with the forever vivacious owner of The Giri Café, Rosa Hildebrandt, to co-host a SUMMER GARDEN PARTY, seeing it as the perfect excuse to bring some of our nearest and dearest together beneath the Balearic stars (and next to my favourite flock of sheep!), for a night of cocktails and canapés to celebrate the summer opening of the garden along with the launch of White Ibiza Magazine Issue 9 – The Lifestyle Edition.

When the day of the event rolled around, the sky above Dalt Vila was ominously black, and the old town was hit with an enormous muddy Sahara rainstorm. But it was not so in San Juan. That little pocket of paradise had been completely spared, Rosa assured me. The scene was set, the DJ booth had been set up by the best-in-the-biz, Brian Beezwax, cocktail and foodie stations placed around the venue and the kitchen had been a hive of activity all day, prepping the most delicious canapés you’ve ever seen (or eaten). With a car loaded with the first batch of hot-off-the-press mags – that had been jetted in especially from our printer in Madrid for the occasion – I drove up the San Juan road and as HUGE raindrops hit the windshield, I panicked, obviously. [As an aside – there were many people who attended the party that suggested that perhaps my personal obsession with rain brought this on. I mean, I do love rain, but I don’t want it on my parade. Anyway, spoiler alert: this story has a happy ending!]

Still, Rosa re-assured me, the sun was shining over The Giri Café. Everything was in place. It was going to be an amazing night. We’d had around 400 RSVPs from our list of friends, island family, clients, customers, connections, team, village locals and VIPS (hello Margarita de la farmacia and the head of the Guardia Civil) and we were hopeful that at least 100 would come through the door. That’s the event math you apply to guestlists – you presume 25% will show up, 25% are on the fence and will stay home, 25% have simply replied yes to be polite with no intention of coming and the other 25%, well, they’re your wild cards.

I pulled into the dusty San Juan car park and – yes, of course this would happen to me – the skies opened and then rain came down. Big splats of dirty rust-coloured water ruined my blow-dried hair and mud splashed all over the soles of my boots (at least I wasn’t wearing sandals). My thoughts were racing: no one is going to come, this is why we don’t throw parties, no one is going to come, what were we thinking, no one is going to come, oh dear universe please stop raining… and then, just as suddenly as it started, the storm blew over, the stars came out and the temps dropped to a balmy 25 degrees. It was like… the universe had listened! Before we’d even opened the doors, a throng of people were buzzing around the San Juan plaza, proving that Rosa (as always) was right and my fears (along with my guestlist math) were wrong, and that pesky Black Eyed Peas song got stuck in my head: tonight’s gonna be a good night!

Fortunately, Mark Broadbent, one half of The Brothers Grim (and the producer of our brand-new Soundscapeschannel) had curated a line-up of my very favourite island DJs to get some better music than BEP floating across the airways at The Giri Café. Joining Mark behind the decks over the course of the evening was his brother-from-the-same-mother (and the other half of The Brothers Grim), Andrew Livesey, plus Ibiza legend Willie Graff, and the DJ with the island’s most beautiful smile (and music to match), Milou, and their soundtrack couldn’t have been more… dare I say it, Balearic? Within minutes of opening the doors and welcoming our first guests, the ultra-friendly and always-smiling team from The Giri Café – led by the beaming and bubbly Rosa – ensured everyone had an icy cold drink in hand. The venue was teaming, full of beautiful smiling faces, and the energy was like an old-school Ibiza party from decades ago. Everyone knew everyone, and if they didn’t, they were about to become BFFs before long.

Our not-so-secret garden looked like a scene out of a beautiful movie, or perhaps a fashion shoot: The beautifully illuminated treetops were rustling in the post-rain breeze, while glamorous Ibiza friends dressed in long kaftans, sparkles, ruffles, linens, Indian block-printed cottons and all kinds of beautiful outfits lounged on the big daybeds, leaned against trees, perched up on tables and mixed and mingled among the pretty vegetable garden, the terraced walls and all around the restaurant. Some had their Tarot cards read, by the amazing Bamboo, who also lit up the beautiful ancient olive tree at The Giri Café with a projection of island goddess, Tanit. The turnout was truly astounding to us (oh you wildcards!), with a revolving door of restaurateurs, hoteliers, property agents, concierges, models, musicians, artists, jewellers, designers, writers, photographers, chefs, event planners, DJs, yogis, wellness experts, healers, hippies and just a true melting pot of so many well-known faces from the island community.

As anyone who regularly attends events will tell you, it’s the quality of the food that people remember long after they’ve gone home, and The Giri Café chefs and kitchen team put on a show that people are still talking about to this day! Plate after plate after plate (yes, seriously) of beautifully presented canapés were sent out into the crowds, showcasing the best of the restaurant’s earth-to-table, vibrant, crunchy, healthy and colourful menu in bite-sized versions. Shots of green jalapeño, tomato and avocado gazpacho with melon were like a summer dream, while the kimchi-marinated salmon tartar with apple, pickled cucumber, chives, wasabi mayo and crunchy rice paper had everyone asking for the recipe.

Trays of tasty tostadas topped with stracciatella, confit cherry tomatoes, homemade pesto and herbs plucked just hours earlier in the garden were light and fresh, and with the savoury focaccia toasts with anchovy, tomato and Parmesan were incredibly more-ish. And a very stylish jamónero was on-hand to slice silky acorn fed Jamón Iberico to order, all night long. Conveniently, might I add, he was stationed right next to the free-flowing Blacknose wine stall. We also tucked into veggie-friendly mini-croquettes of roasted celery root, cauliflower and truffle; grilled seitan with a ginger peanut sauce; and melt-in-your-mouth roasted sweet potato with green tahini dressing and pickled red onion.

Fresh off the grill was taste-sensational herb-marinated chicken with sweet potato, carrot and chipotle purée; along with the extremely popular mini-pitas stuffed with roasted spice lamb, harissa sauce and tzatziki; and the grilled croaker with tahini, lemon and chilli sauce, plus smoked aubergine with coriander, pistachio and pomegranate. My mouth is watering at the memory (mental note: book a table at The Giri Café asap!),and STILL, that wasn’t the end. Cacao and carob fudge cake with salted toffee and vanilla cream or carrot cake with orange-marscapone frosting? Why choose when you could have both?

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, please stop right now and let’s give The Giri Café team a thunderous round of applause. The fabulous food, the delicious drinks, the authentic, warm and welcoming hospitality and of course, the incredibly beautiful garden setting, was simply second to none. We mixed, mingled, talked, gossiped and laughed (and some of us even danced) until the clock struck 12 and as the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun because it felt like one minute, we were saying hello and the next, we were handing out our gorgeous magazine goodie bags and saying goodbye to our guests as they headed off into the Ibiza night. I find it hard to believe now that the event was over a month ago, because (and this really blows my mind!) people are still talking about it now.

We’ve been told by more than one guest (and I promise you that these are not my words, but I am so very proud to repeat them on behalf of our team) that it was the party of the summer. So then… what have we got to look forward to now it’s August? Rosa and team – should we do it all again? In the meantime, if you’ve read this far, first of all – thank you, and secondly, I do recommend booking a table in The Giri Café garden pronto, so you can experience its summer magic for yourself this season and finally, if you haven’t yet gotten a copy of White Ibiza Magazine Issue 9, you can order it at this link! Thank you again to everyone who came and made it such a special night and thank you again universe for turning off the rain for the occasion! Whatever I said I’d do in exchange for your benevolence, I’ll get right on it…