During our vacation to the Gulf Coast of Alabama, my wife and I had come out of our flu (or food poisoning) episode sort of wobbly and still a bit queasy in our stomachs. We had a little bit to eat during the day after we had the stomach ailments, but we were looking for something substantial to put in our guts. My wife ruled out seafood as she thinks she got sick from the oysters a couple nights before. I said that I needed something sort of like a good ol' greasy cheeseburger to put something substantial in my stomach. Somewhat to my surprise, she agreed.
We were seated at the bar at the area's only craft brewery - Big Beach Brewing Company - and I asked one of the bartenders where the locals would go for a good ol' cheeseburger in the area. They mentioned a couple places - one was literally around the corner from our hotel - and then one of them mentioned the Anchor Bar & Grill. "It's not anything fancy, but they have deck seating and great view of the back bay," one of the bartenders said. After finishing our beers, we headed over to the Anchor Bar & Grill.
Jonathon Kastner was a Louisiana native who ended up going to Chicago for culinary school. After getting his degree from Kendall College - one of the more premier culinary and hospitality schools in the U.S. - Kastner moved back to Louisiana in 2007 where he was worked as a chef for the City Club, a private restaurant in Lafayette. Kastner also worked at Bella Figura, a now-closed upscale Italian restaurant, as well as at the upscale Cafe Vermillionville in Lafayette. Kastner also worked as a culinary life coach coming up with low-carb/low-fat/gluten-free meal plans for people who wanted to lose weight and get healthy using primarily locally-grown and organic ingredients.
Pictured right - Jonathon Kastner. Photo courtesy AL.com
Two friends of Kastner's - Bryan Jewell and Ryan Trahan - knew of his penchant for looking for locally-grown foods and came to him with a business plan for a restaurant they wanted to open in Lafayette and beyond. The restaurant - Brick and Spoon - was going to be a breakfast/brunch/lunch spot that Jewell and Trahan were looking to franchise out for other locations around the South. Kastner helped develop the menu and the first Brick and Spoon opened in Lafayette in May of 2013.
Two years later, Jewell and Trahan sold their first franchise to Eric Beech who was going to put his restaurant in Orange Beach. (There are now 13 Brick and Spoon locations in six states in the South.) Kastner and his girlfriend, Sarah Arceneaux, went to Orange Beach in August of 2015 to help Beech open his restaurant. Kastner and Arceneaux fell in love with the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area and told Beech that they'd like to live there at some point. It turns out that Beech knew of a restaurant opportunity at a local marina and said that Kastner should look into it.
Kastner met with Hudson Marina owner Rodney Jones who had an empty waterfront restaurant space that was available. The agreement was made almost instantaneously, and within two months Kastner and Arceneaux had moved to Orange Beach and the Anchor Bar and Grill opened in October of 2015.
Kastner kept the menu simple, but with more of an upscale twist to just regular bar food. The brisket tots that he came up with - whiskey-smoked brisket beef on tater tots - were an instant hit. The chicken wings were an ever-changing item as Kastner would experiment with brining his wings in things such as lemon zest and fresh thyme, or even brining the wings in whiskey. The Anchor Bar & Grill was famous for their Cuban sandwich, their burgers, and their Philly Cheesesteak sandwich made with braised beef belly. Kastner continually fidgeted with the menu adding and subtracting some items, and he became known for some of his unique nightly specials made with fresh locally-sourced ingredients.
Now, every once in awhile, I'll go to a restaurant and it usually takes me six to eight weeks - or longer - to get around to write about it for Road Tips. There have been a couple three times in the past where the restaurant closed from the time I was there to the time I started to write about it. Well, from the time we were there and now, there's been a big change in the Anchor Bar and Grill.
Late last year, Kastner - like many chefs his age - felt that he needed to do something different after five years steering the Anchor Bar and Grill. Not long after he had opened the restaurant, Kastner had made friends with Craig Williams, a restaurateur from Tuscaloosa, AL who grew up in the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area. Williams and his wife would vacation in the area and they began to hang out with Kastner when they would get to Orange Beach.
Williams opened his first restaurant - the Avenue Pub - in Tuscaloosa in January of 2014. It was an immediate hit with the locals and it allowed Williams to open his second restaurant - Central Mesa - a couple years later. From there, he took over an Italian restaurant, then took over a specialty grocery store and delicatessan after that.
When Kastner decided to make a change, he naturally told Williams of his plans. Kastner eventually asked Williams to take over the Anchor Bar and in April of this year the handoff was made. Williams ran the restaurant from afar for a couple months - including while we were there - but by June, he decided that he couldn't sustain Kastner's hands-on business model. So, Williams decided to transition the Anchor Bar and Grill into an Avenue Pub location.
The menu at the restaurant changed dramatically after Williams turned it into the Avenue Pub. Gone were many of the food items that Kastner had made famous at the Anchor Bar. But given that it's only been a couple months since Williams changed things over, it's my guess that they'll be adding more items along the way.
We made our way down Canal Road and turned at the corner of S. Wilson Blvd. We were familiar with the area as we had a late breakfast a couple days before at OSO Early right at the corner of Canal Rd. and S. Wilson Blvd. (Look for an upcoming Road Tips entry on OSO Early.) We went down to the end of S. Wilson Blvd. and pulled into the parking lot across from the Anchor Bar and Grill and the Hudson Marina. (see map) As we started to walk toward the restaurant we heard screeches from an osprey that was in a nest on top of a pole near the parking lot. It turned out that there was a family of ospreys in the nest and the parents were feeding their babies. It was actually kind of neat to see.
The front wood facade of the Anchor Bar and Grill that faces the parking lot is shaped to appear like a boat. There were two different entrances to the place, both stair steps up the "bow" and the "stern" of the building. We went up the "bow" side and found ourselves in the kitchen. I sort of stopped and someone said, "No, no! Come on in!" We walked past the open kitchen and out onto the deck in the back of the "boat".
The patio area consisted of a plank floor with a number of metal tables and chairs. The sun was setting and there were some flimsy shades that didn't do much in keeping the sun out. It was still very windy - as it had been all week - and we were having trouble keeping stuff on the table.
This is the view off the patio at the Anchor Bar of Terry Cove, a small area that is part of Perdido Bay. (Click on picture to enlarge.) Centered in the picture is the Perdido Pass Bridge that connects Orange Beach with Perdido Key. To the left of the bridge between the tall buildings is Cobalt, the Restaurant which we went to for our anniversary dinner. (Click here to see the entry on Cobalt.) To the right of the bridge in the large block house is the Orange Beach home of entrepreneur Art Favre - the owner of The Wharf at Orange Beach entertainment/retail/restaurant complex on the north side of Orange Beach. (Favre is the uncle of former NFL legendary quarterback Brett Favre.) To the right of Favre's magnificent contemporary house is his covered boat dock for his ocean going yacht. In the foreground of the picture, you may be able to make out a pirate ship. Hudson Marina does pirate ship cruises twice a day for families and groups paying homage to the 18th century pirates who hid out on Perdido Bay.
Our server that day was a young guy by the name of Kevin. He was laid back and very casual in his demeanor. My wife decided she wanted a piña colada while I wanted to know if they had an IPA or a hazy IPA. "Uh, yeah, I'm sure we have something like that," Kevin said. "Let me go look."
Moments later, he brought out my wife's piña colada and brought me a can of the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger V2K. It was already opened. I thought that was pretty presumptuous of him as I don't really care for New Belgium beers. I thought he would have just come back and tell me what they had and I certainly wouldn't have ordered The Voodoo Ranger V2K. But it was a hazy IPA, however it was a little too syrupy and citrusy for me. I went ahead and drank it, and didn't complain to him about it.
Kevin had dropped off a couple menus for us to go through. While we were there for the burgers, they had some other interesting things on the menu. The Philly cheesesteak sandwich wasn't on the menu, but the Cuban sandwich was. The whiskey brisket tater tots were also on the menu. Their rendition of wings that day were tossed in a candied jalapeño sauce. They also had yellowfin tuna poké with avocado, tamari-pickled mustard seed and a chopped sweet onion. And they had Gulf fish tacos - fresh caught gulf coast whitefish that was pan-seared and topped with a Cajun crawfish salsa, cilantro-puffed rice, and refried butterbeans and finished with an avocado créma. Now THAT got my attention.
Despite the other temptations on the menu, we stayed true to our quest for a big, greasy cheeseburger. And the one at the Anchor Bar didn't disappoint. This is called the "More In than Out Burger" - Jonathan Kastner's version of the west coast classic In-N-Out Burger. It consists of two mustard-seared Louisiana wagyu beef patties both of which were topped with American cheese. Iceberg lettuce, caramelized onions and a house-made tomato jam were added on top. The bottom bun was splashed with spicy mayo sauce. I got tots as my side and had Kevin bring me a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce to add to the tots. My wife got a side of their house-made cole slaw made with tzatziki sauce.
From the first bite, we knew we had made the right choice. The burger was juicy, flavorful and just outstanding. We were using multiple napkins (the used ones we were having trouble with staying on the table with the brisk wind coming in over the bay) as the juicy goodness along with the gooey American cheese was dripping on our hands. This was exactly what the doctor ordered after our bouts with the stomach flu.
The only problem is that Kevin just disappeared. He sort of copped an attitude about halfway through our visit and I would have like to have gotten another beer while my wife wanted some water after her drink was finished. But he was nowhere in sight. We flagged down one of the female servers to get us our drinks and, later, our bill. (We did see him later on when we were leaving. He was evidently on break having food at the counter in the kitchen area. We walked past him and he didn't say a word. We are still trying to figure out why he started to cop an attitude with us. Or maybe he was pissed off at something else.)
The burger we both had at the Anchor Bar and Grill was simply outstanding. But, as I said, with the changeover to the Avenue Pub just a month after we were there, the More In than Out Burger is no longer available. And that's a shame because it was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had. And you can go through the Burger category on Road Tips and read about some truly great burgers I've had over the years. Our server's demeanor went from laidback to cold to non-existent. But the views of the bay and the harbor were great for Midwesterners like us. Even though they don't have quite the eclectic menu at the Avenue Pub as they did when it was the Anchor Bar and Grill, just being able to have a meal on the water would be worth the trip there.
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