Winter is over, Melbourne is thawing and Arbory Afloat is coming. Very soon. It’s opening on Wednesday September 21, just before our four-day long weekend.

The Yarra’s huge floating bar has a different theme every year – past ones have included Miami Vice, Palm Springs and the French Riviera. But in 2022, HQ Group (also behind (Arbory Bar & Eatery and Her) is transforming the 69-metre-long pontoon in the style of Spain’s Balearic Islands. The largest – and best-known – of them are Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera.

What inspired this year’s theme was a boozy research trip to Spain that involved stops in Barcelona, San Sebastian, Mallorca, Valencia and Peniscola.

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Over three action-packed weeks, the six-person team was among those littering their mates’ Instagram feeds with idyllic, fomo-inducing European-summer content. They hit dozens of restaurants, bars and beach clubs – and met just as many chefs, bar owners, vintners and artisan suppliers – to help their creativity run wild.

“It’s impossible to put your finger on what makes Spain so very special without immersing all five senses,” HQ Group COO and beverage director Tom Byrne tells Broadsheet. “When we’re on the ground, we always find elements you couldn’t possibly discover on Instagram or by reviewing a menu.”

According to culinary director Nick Bennett, “Barcelona was all about the small tapas bars and finding the best tinned produce. We ate at incredible bars, including Quimet y Quimet, which opened in 1914. With standing room only, we shouted our orders across the bar while crammed around tiny tables. We sipped on vermouth while nibbling on anchovies and a mixed seafood plate – made with produce sourced only from cans. A heightened appreciation for tinned produce definitely came home with us (along with a suitcase full of it) and has informed many menu items at Afloat this year.”

Moving into Basque Country, Bennett says, “in San Sebastian, Casa Julien – the well-known steak restaurant – was a highlight. Incredible quality beef, cooked over flame and rested in Mediterranean salt flakes. Simple but phenomenal. This meal inspired how we’ll be executing our main meat dishes for this year … No bells and whistles.”

Booze-wise, it was more about genuine immersion than bringing in preconceived ideas. “It’s not about finding the best sangria in town, the most complex cocktail or the most lauded producer of albariño,” Byrne says. “The most rewarding part is pulling up a seat at any random tapas bar in a back lane of Barcelona, or snagging a day bed overlooking the sea in Mallorca, and ordering whatever the table next to you is drinking.”

“For example, our new favourite tipple – Agua de Valencia – we experienced for the first time at a hole-in-the-wall bar in a courtyard outside the Valencia market. It’s a celebrated spritz in Valencia because of the incredible oranges. It’s simple, comprising merely gin, vodka, cava and fresh Valencian orange juice. We’ve brought this drink on board at Afloat in a pitcher, designed to share with friends in the sun, just as we did.”

There’s also a take on the Calimocho cocktail, “a classic across the Basque region of Spain – a simple blend of red wine and coke”, Byrne says. “On bringing it onboard at Afloat, we’ve given it a bit more depth and interest by incorporating vermouth and amaro, which adds herbaceous notes and flavours of richer cola and sarsaparilla.”

Arbory Afloat is opening on Wednesday September 21. Book online.

arboryafloat.com.au