Olivier Bon’s journey from Paris to Ibiza

… the French team behind the recently acquired iconic Montesol Experimental. This marks their second Experimental establishment in Ibiza, the first being the Experimental Beach Club in Cap des Falcò, which opened around ten years ago. Olivier Bon has a long-standing connection to Ibiza, and the group is eager to continue expanding in Spain.

For the third edition of TEDxDaltVila, Montesol Experimental has partnered with us by generously accommodating our non-Ibiza-based speakers during event preparations, as well as hosting all of us for a unique dinner on March 27th in collaboration with Hämbre and L’Officiel. This magical evening will bring together all the TEDxDaltVila 2025 speakers for the first time since the they began this journey. We will get the opportunity to dine on exquisite food and relax before the event takes off in full swing.

As a TEDxDaltVila volunteer, I feel both deeply moved and incredibly proud to see three impressive Ibiza-based establishments come together to support a cause we all believe in: promoting knowledge and sharing innovative ideas on the island.

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Olivier and I connected via video call. A smiley face popped up on the screen—Olivier was walking around Paris, busy sorting out the final details before the trial opening of their new hotel Experimental Marais and their restaurant Temple & Chapon in the Marais on the 3rd of March. The trial opening is for friends and family—what a treat! His friendly face bobbed around on my laptop screen as he moved to find a quieter spot to sit and chat. I could see the beautifully picturesque Parisian architecture in the background and hear the bustling sounds of the city. Quite the contrast to being at home in Ibiza on a quiet, sunny day.

Anna: Olivier, I would love to know a little bit more about yourself, is Paris your hometown?

Olivier: I'm from the south of France, a little city called Montpellier. But I have lived in Paris for around 20 to 25 years.

Anna: So, basically a Parisian! Tell me about your Experimental journey. I know it all started with the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris, right? And you were involved with the project alongside your two partners, is that correct?

Olivier: Yes, although it's actually a bit more complicated than that. In the beginning, it was just the three of us—my two business partners, Pierre Charles and Romée. Then, around 2010, Xavier Padovani, an English local business partner, also joined the team. He came on board when we opened the Experimental Cocktail Club in London.

Anna: Oh, I see. So there are four of you, then. How does the dynamic work with three French partners and one UK-based partner?

Olivier: Actually, Xavier is French as well, but it's a bit of a long story. We started in the cocktail industry in France, and he became a big fan of Experimental. At the time, he was working for Hendrick's Gin. We hosted a lot of really cool parties together—everyone was dressed up in fantastic costumes. One of the parties was called Unusual Monday of the Rose and Cucumber Society—a club full of pretty cool people. Xavier was already very familiar with the UK market, so we said, “Okay, if we ever open something in London, you have to be part of the project.” And it happened. London is still our second-biggest market because we have several establishments there—a hotel, a few cocktail bars, and a wine bar.

Anna: So France and Paris are still your main hub, and then London. What would you say is your third?

Olivier: It’s Spain. Specifically, Ibiza, where we have our beach club. Now, we also have the Montesol Experimental. From our base in Ibiza, we also manage Menorca, as our F&B director is from Ibiza and travels there to manage the restaurant and hotel. So yes, the third hub is definitely the Balearic Islands.

Anna: And why Ibiza? What brought you here?

Olivier: At the very beginning, when we started, we were only running cocktail bars in Paris and London, and the atmosphere was very wintery and dark. A lot of our places were in basements, and during the summer, some of our staff were completely pissed off because we were missing out on the summer. Many people wanted to leave the company because they were saying, “I’m not going to spend my entire summer in a basement.”

I laughed. I completely resonated with this feeling. The weather is a big factor in why so many people move to, or return to, Ibiza. Both my partner and I moved back home to Ibiza after spending a few years in Bristol, England, partly because of the weather and lifestyle.

Olivier: During the summer, our revenue was actually super low. We thought, “Maybe it's time to open something else, like a beach club,” and that’s when the idea blossomed. We already had some contacts in Ibiza, and we knew it was a place where a lot of our customers visited every season. Everybody was talking about Ibiza and its music scene, you know? Ten or twelve years ago, Experimental Beach Club was a restaurant owned by a Spanish family that not many people wanted to have.

The restaurant was previously El Boludo in Cap des Falcò, managed by Jorge Fiol.

It was in a very complicated location, in a natural park, and there were a lot of mosquitoes. It was also nearly impossible to park, so we said, “This is exactly the place we want.” We worked out a solution with the owner of the beach club, and we signed a deal during the winter. Nobody knew about it. It took a few years of work to figure out the parking situation and how to deal with the mosquitoes... it was crazy. And now, it’s one of the biggest venues in the Experimental group. From the very beginning, we did it with love and passion. We just wanted to have a summer venue. It was impossible for us to imagine that Experimental Beach would become one of our greatest successes. A ton of people don’t even link Experimental Beach with our brand, yet we host around 600 to 1,000 people a day at Experimental Beach in Ibiza, from all over the world.

Anna: Wow, what a journey. I actually hadn’t made that connection either until I started researching more into Experimental Club. I do have to ask, though—how did you deal with the mosquitoes? I think that would be some useful information for our Ibiza readers.

Olivier: Yes, well, we did some research and built a geologic wall made up of 30 or 40 pods, which act as mosquito traps. These pods release a fake human scent.

At this point, I was shocked and intrigued. I had never heard of something that could replicate human scent to attract mosquitoes. I knew we had veered off the aim of this interview, but I was too fascinated by this information to not ask more.

Olivier: No, no, I’m not joking. You burn a little candle. It’s all organic, and it smells like a human. The mosquito follows this scent and becomes trapped. We found this in Australia, and now there are plenty of places using this kind of system. For example, in the South of France, in Camargue, where there are a lot of mosquitoes, many restaurants use it. It doesn’t work perfectly, though. For instance, when it rains the next day, a billion mosquitoes will appear, and it becomes impossible to fight them.

Anna: Fascinating! I didn’t know about this system. It’s always a battle with the mosquitoes here in Ibiza.

Olivier: Yes, exactly. It’s particularly difficult because the beach club is located in a natural park. There are conservation officers who protect the area very strictly, which means everything is much more complicated and controlled. For example, if we leave a trash bag outside for just 10 minutes before taking it to the bins, someone will show up and fine us. We also host weddings during the off-season, and there’s a long list of rules about what guests can and can’t do. Some of our wedding guests will ask, “I want to come in a helicopter, I want fireworks,” and we have to tell them that they can’t. We’ve had instances in the past where someone lit fireworks without our permission, and the next day, we were on the front cover of the local newspaper with the headline “Experimental is burning down the natural park.” It’s a very touchy situation.

Anna: Moving onto the next big project, we have, of course, Montesol.

For those of you reading this who might not know, Montesol was actually the first-ever hotel built in Ibiza in 1933. It accommodated some of the first tourists of the 30s, and then surprisingly, between 1936 and 1945, during the Spanish Civil War, the hotel was used by the army.

Considering the rich cultural history of Montesol, how are you preserving this heritage into your plans for the hotel?

Olivier: When Montesol was previously up for sale, before COVID, we actually wanted to buy it, but it was too expensive for us. Someone else ended up buying it, and honestly, they transformed the hotel into something very international, which, in a way, destroyed the spirit of the old Montesol hotel. It was very difficult for us because people were saying things like, “Oh, Montesol isn’t what it used to be, it’s not as cool.”

So, the first thing we did was focus on the design and restore it to something that links back to the culture of Ibiza, something local to the artists of Ibiza. The food we serve is Spanish, and on the rooftop, we make cocktails with hierbas. We try to use everything we know about the island and give it back to our customers. We collaborate with local bars during the winter and always challenge ourselves to stay connected to the community. Montesol is a five-star hotel, but we want to stay connected to the real people of Ibiza and to the old island.

Anna: I saw on Instagram that you've collaborated with Bar 1805?

Olivier: Yeah exactly. We are also working to develop something with a cool pastry guy from Santa Gertrudis, but I can’t say too much yet.

This partnership is in the making, so do keep your eyes peeled for what Olivier and his team have lined up for us at Montesol, in collaboration with local artisans, artists and bakers.

Anna: My colleague Basma, who also volunteers at TEDxDaltVila, was invited to stay at Montesol, and in her posts, you can see the design really reflects the bohemian style of Ibiza. Looking into the future, is Experimental thinking of expanding further?

Olivier: Yes. Honestly, Spain is a fantastic market, and we love it so much. We’re looking for a new venue in Ibiza every month. It’s very difficult to find a new location on the island for various reasons. We can only find tiny hotels, with up to 20 rooms, or places with an outdated resort style. It’s very hard to find a great project, but we definitely want to continue. We’re super happy with Menorca. It’s one of our most popular hotels in the group, with lots of positive reviews, and Spanish people love it. So maybe a location in Mallorca one day. It would be the perfect triangle—super easy for us to manage between the islands.

Anna: You know, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I’m from Ibiza and I’ve never been to Menorca.

Olivier: I'm a big fan of Ibiza and have spent many summers there, but I love Menorca. It’s a completely different experience. Plenty of my friends tell me they want to go to Menorca to get some rest and leave Ibiza because there’s too much going on. I always respond saying, “Okay, but I’m telling you, it’s very relaxed.” In Menorca, there are no DJs on billboards. Instead, you have a nice dinner, drink some good wine, and get into bed by midnight. And that’s when my friends start calling me, asking, “Olivier, where can we get a good cocktail tonight? Where can we go out?” And I reply, “I told you so, go back to bed.”

Olivier smiles and explains how, for him, Ibiza offers a bit of everything—relaxing family time in the north and partying in the south. I find the north and south separation quite amusing because, geographically, Ibiza is a small island. The north and south are only 40 kilometers apart, yet somehow, they still feel so different.

Anna: That’s what I love about our Balearic islands—each one has its own unique personality and experience. And now you're supporting TEDxDaltVila, which is part of the global TED Talk brand but also a local event here in Ibiza. Do you support other local initiatives through Experimental?

Olivier: No, actually, it’s probably one of our first official partnerships. Loic, our PR Manager, told me about TEDxDaltVila, and since it’s important for us to engage with the local community and keep the hotel alive, as I mentioned before, we thought this would be a great way to do it.

Anna: I love that. The reason TEDxDaltVila takes place in March is to keep the momentum of Ibiza going throughout the entire year and to showcase Ibiza as a hub of innovation and inspiration during the quieter months. I see that Montesol Experimental incorporates a lot of eco-friendly practices. Our theme for TEDxDaltVila this year is Future Footsteps—looking at what we can do today that will impact our future. So, I’d love your thoughts on what we can do in this day and age, especially with your experience at Experimental, to create a positive impact.

Olivier: We started around four years ago, and a few of our places in Paris have the “Green Key” label. It’s a very cool and independent certification. Achieving Green Key is quite difficult, but it comes down to good practice. It’s more complicated than people think, but I see it as an important challenge to reduce our impact and stop wasting water, electricity, and energy. It’s not just about eating organic food—of course, it’s great to consume organic products, but that’s only one small part of the challenge. I began to understand this early on, and it became clear that it’s an ongoing journey. In our restaurants, we only use fresh products, and we rarely waste any food.

The real challenge, however, lies in energy use—especially in Ibiza with all the air conditioning units. As hotel owners, we don’t want to be pushy with our clients, but we do want to communicate that our conscious efforts are for their benefit. We’ve removed all plastic from our venues; in fact, Experimental Beach was one of the first plastic-free beaches—we removed plastics almost six years ago. Before, our staff used to drink water from plastic bottles, but now we use water fountains instead. We also try to guide our customers. For example, if a client wants to take a taxi from Montesol to Marina Botafoch, we can suggest it’s a nice walk instead. They’re of course free to do as they wish, but we try to advise them to be a little more conscious of their actions.

As Olivier was explaining all of this to me, it got me thinking about the efforts TEDxDaltVila makes to be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible. We partner with brands like Evodrop to provide our attendees, speakers, and team with filtered water and reusable water bottles. Olivier made an important point, highlighting that the impact Experimental can have lies in showing customers that there are plenty of solutions, and that together we can address the issue. Whether you're running events like TEDxDaltVila or own establishments like Montesol or Experimental Beach Club, you have the opportunity—and responsibility—to be transparent about the steps you’re taking toward being as zero waste and net zero as possible.

Olivier: We try to use as many local products as possible with the food we serve, but to be honest, after the end of June, it becomes impossible because there simply isn't enough local produce on the island to cater to so many people for lunch and dinner. That said, we still make sure not to use, for example, king crabs from Alaska. We choose to minimize our carbon impact with the ingredients we serve in our restaurant.

Anna: On the 27th of March there will be a collaborative dinner at Montesol with Hämbre and L’Officiel. I know that, for example, all of Hambre’s produce comes from local farmers, and I think that's such a beautiful way to bring everyone involved in TEDxDaltVila together and support each other in our shared values and efforts. To begin wrapping up, I want to ask you one more question: What memory brings a smile to your face when you think of Ibiza?

Olivier’s face immediately lights up with a smile—I can tell something popped into his mind.

Olivier: It's my son. I swam with him in the waters of Ibiza when he was only six months old at Es Xarco. It was a restaurant that is now closed, but it remains one of my best memories. It used to be my favourite beach restaurant before we opened Experimental Beach. It was almost like tradition–every season we’d go there, and I remember putting my son in the sea for the first time in his life there. He is now 10 years old.

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And with that, we said our goodbyes. It was nice to put a face to Olivier, the new Montesol owner. Ibiza is a unique place that attracts lots of eclectic people from abroad. There’s a sense of connection and understanding between those who are more experimental in their ways of life, and I believe Olivier, his stories and his work truly reflect that.