Xuroy, tourism and gastronomy by the sea

Bep Al·lès/Alcaufar - A tourist poster from the 1950s takes us back to the beginnings of tourism in Menorca and to Hotel Xuroy in Alcalfar, a pioneer among the island’s beach hotels and the heir to a history in which accommodation, landscape and gastronomy have always gone hand in hand.

Some posters are much more than advertising. They are documents of an era. The one for Hotel Xuroy in Alcalfar, with Menorca promoted in French as “L’île blanche et bleue”, takes us back to the years when the island was beginning to discover international tourism. At the bottom, one gastronomic promise stood out above all others: “Préparation soignée de la typique Caldera de Langosta”. Menorca was already seducing visitors through its landscape, but also through its food.

The history of Xuroy had, in fact, begun before the arrival of the first foreign tourists. Research into the beginnings of tourism in Menorca places the opening of the Xuroy bar and restaurant in June 1947, promoted by Antoni Parpal, Rafael Roselló and Serafí Alzina. It was an establishment right by the beach, supplied with fish and shellfish from the surrounding coast: groupers, prawns, spider crabs, Norway lobsters and spiny lobsters helped to build its first gastronomic reputation. Josep Pla was already mentioning the restaurant and Alcalfar in his guide published in 1950.

The major step forward came in 1954. The establishment itself and Visit Menorca identify that year as the arrival of the first guests and consider Xuroy to have been the first beach hotel in Menorca. The first British tourists arrived on flights from London and were transferred from Sant Lluís airfield to Alcalfar, at a time when tourism in Menorca was still almost an exotic activity.

Seven decades later, Xuroy still looks out over the same cove of white houses, small jetties and sheltered waters. Today’s Hostal Xuroy retains its privileged location practically on the sand, with rooms, a swimming pool and a terrace that remains one of its defining features.

What is particularly interesting from the point of view of gastronomic tourism, however, is the continuity of the restaurant. Today, Xuroy states its commitment to fresh produce, local suppliers and Mediterranean cuisine, with a clear focus on rice dishes and fresh Menorcan fish. Its menu preserves this connection with the sea: Menorcan mussels and prawns, squid, monkfish, fried fresh fish, seafood rice dishes and, still today, Menorcan spiny lobster caldereta available to order in advance.

In this way, the lobster caldereta advertised to French visitors more than half a century ago creates an invisible thread connecting past and present. Xuroy shows how tourism in Menorca also grew around the table: a terrace facing the sea, freshly landed fish, a lobster simmering in the pot and a cove that, despite the passage of time, remains an essential part of the experience.

To go to Xuroy today is, in a way, to sit down and dine within the history of tourism in Menorca.