ORANGE BEACH, AL — Just because the menu at the Anchor Bar and Grill isn’t, let’s say, extensive, doesn’t mean there’s not a variety of unique tastes coming from its cozy kitchen.

Actually, the short but intense menu is the main reason there’s always a variety of tantalizing tastes at the new restaurant.

“We call it elevated bar food or bar food just done really, really well,” Chef Jonathan Kastner said. “We want to outsource correctly and make all of our techniques such that we make some really good food.

“Really fun place, fun food, fun environment.”

The boat-shaped bar sits atop the dock at Hudson Marina in Orange Beach and is co-owned by Kastner and Hudson Marina owner Rodney Jones. Kastner and long-time girlfriend Sarah Arceneaux came to Orange Beach in August to help with the opening of the new restaurant.

The Louisiana natives came from Lafayette where Kastner helped start the Brick and Spoon concept including developing the menu. On that job he met Eric Beech, the local Brick and Spoon owner, who made him aware of the opportunity at Hudson Marina.

“When we first came up we initially came up just to write a menu,” he said. “When we got here we were like ‘this place is awesome, it’s really cool.’ We were really excited whenever we got the opportunity to actually stay here, move here and run the place and kind of make it our own.”

Kastner looked at what are staples of bar food and gave them an Anchor Bar twist. Take the bar’s “nachos.”

They are actually tater tots covered up with brisket that is smoked in house. Add pickled red onions, cotija, sour cream, tomato jam, fresh jalapenos and the coup de grace: a sunny side up egg.

Regulars – there are already regulars – like to cut the egg up, stir up the whole thing and dig in.

“We try to simplify it down to the six items we thought about when we thought about bar food,” Kastner said. “For us that’s nachos, tacos, hamburger, something in a bun and wings and salad. That’s what we focus on and by only doing those we are really able to fine tune them and do everything really properly.

The sandwich is a Cuban sandwich with tobacco smoked pork, honey ham, B&B pickles, Havarti and dijonaise in a pressed French loaf.

Want tacos? How about duck confit tacos served with sweet potato puree, LA Hot Sauce, roasted tomato, cotija, charred jalapeno cream and Craine Creek lettuce.

For a salad, in the Lyonnaise Salad the Craine Creek lettuce is joined by Meat Mart bacon, herb roasted red potatoes tossed in an apple cider viginarette with a poached egg topper.

The burger is half a pound served on brioche, topped with Havarti, Craine Creek lettuce, Duke’s mayo, Anchor Steam Mustard, hot sauce, roasted tomato and a sunny side up egg. 

He’s even got special wings with a unique Memphis hot sauce that’s above average and different all at once.

It all sounds creative, but the six stars of the menu, while creative, allow Kastner to really explore new tastes with the frequent chalkboard specials.

“We rotate the menu a lot and it gives us that ability to create,” he said. “It also gives us the ability to run a lot of specials because we only have five or six items on the menu we can run as many specials as we’re capable of running.”

He takes pride in using locally sourced items and incorporating those into specials. Most afternoons during opening – Anchor currently operates 3-9 p.m. - you find Kastner digging some blues from the radio as his mind races with thoughts of that night’s surprise. And handing out samples to staff and any early customers to gauge how he did. He generally nails whatever he has in mind.

One day a pork belly slider was offered up and requested as a regular menu item by just about everybody who tried one. Another a vanilla bean panna cotta. Still another some barbeque lamb ribs.

“That’s what makes our jobs fun,” he said. “Everybody knows the restaurant business can be very tedious and you make the same stuff over and over and over.

“For us being able to be creative on a daily basis and utilize all this stuff around us — the fish, the shrimp from my shrimpers the pigs and beef I get from my farmers. I’m able to showcase that stuff because we’re so small. I’m able to do a lot of different things with specials.”

Some of the other recent offerings from the chalkboard specials included the George Family Farm lamb ribs with Tin Roof Brewing Company Coffee Porter BBQ sauce, smoked duck flatbreads, George Family Farm beef, pork and lamb chili topped with local creole garlic sour cream and Havarti, smoked duck, chicken and sausage gumbo, tacos on Taco Tuesday made with brisket, steak, shrimp, pork, duck, Conecuh sausage or smoked chicken, a Hanger steak sandwich and a George Family Farms meatball sub with beef pork and lamb.

On wing Wednesday wings are 50 cents and added to the Memphis sauce are ones created that afternoon by Kastner and staff. A recent offering included garlic parmesan, lemon pepper, honey sriracha and sweet satsuma. On Tuesdays the tacos are just $2, $3 for the duck.