About the Baratie Arc
The Straw Hat Pirates meet Johnny and Yosaku, old friends of Zoro, who direct them to the restaurant ship Baratie, a "floating oasis" in the middle of the ocean. There they meet chef Sanji, who Luffy wishes to recruit as his crew's cook. However, pirate admiral Don Krieg sets his sights on the Baratie as a replacement for his devastated fleet, and the restaurant soon comes under siege. As the battle breaks out, Zoro comes face to face with his ultimate rival, Dracule Mihawk, while Nami absconds with the Going Merry, forcing the crew to split up and take chase while Luffy protects the Baratie from Krieg.
The Straw Hat Pirates—Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and the newly-joined Usopp—checked out their new pirate ship, the Going Merry, as well as designed a Jolly Roger for it. As a test of the ship's capabilities, Luffy and Usopp tested out one of the cannons on board by shooting at a rock formation. However, unbeknownst to them, two pirate hunters happened to be on the rock, and one of them attacked the ship in retaliation. Luffy fought him, but Zoro pointed him out to be a friend of his. The two bounty hunters were Johnny and Yosaku. After the Straw Hats apologized and Nami cured Yosaku of his scurvy, the crew realized that they were going to need a cook for the ship to maintain the healthy quality of their food stores before they could go to the Grand Line. To repay the favor for helping them, Johnny and Yosaku told the crew of a floating restaurant in the middle of the ocean where they might find a cook, helpfully navigating the crew to the aforementioned restaurant, the Baratie.
Upon their arrival, the group ran into trouble with a Marine Lieutenant named Fullbody. In the scuffle between the two, Luffy accidentally redirected a cannonball into the Baratie's roof. Luffy tried to make a deal with the captain, head chef, and owner of the ship, Zeff, to pay for the damages caused to the roof. Meanwhile, the assistant chef, Sanji, had an encounter with Fullbody as well and almost killed Fullbody for insulting the Baratie's food. A pirate named Gin, a member of Don Krieg's armada who was being detained by Fullbody, came onto the ship demanding food. Although denied food, beaten, and thrown out of the restaurant by the crew, Sanji secretly served the man a savory meal, saving Gin from starvation. Despite this act of kindness, when Gin left and returned to his ship, he told Don Krieg about the Baratie. After hearing about the ship, Don Krieg came to believe that taking over the Baratie was a key step in resurrecting his fleet.
Eventually, Krieg came to the restaurant under the pretense that he would not hurt anyone if he received some food. Of course, once he had eaten, Krieg attacked the cooks onboard and claimed the Baratie as his own, since his original ship and his entire fleet were destroyed seven days into the Grand Line by a mysterious figure. Just as important, his crew was on the verge of death from starvation. Surprisingly, Zeff gave a sack of food to Krieg and warned his cooks about the upcoming battle.