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| Chef's Showcase |
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| Angler's- Year-Round Fun On a Pier |
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Executive chef: Cindy Fowler
Owner: Dan Empson
Open since: 1999
Concept: Casual family beachside dining and sports bar
Dayparts: Weekend brunch, lunch and dinner
Number of seats: 30 on pier, 80 on deck, 250 downstairs, 300 in bar
Best sellers: Chicken Bayou, Seafood Platter, Reuben Sandwiches, Quiche Specials,
Angler's Elizabeth, Smoked Tuna Dip, Baked Sweet Potatoes
Check Averages: $8.50-$9, lunch; $15-$16, dinner
Clowns on duty: Kids Nights on Mondays and Tuesdays
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Angler's, Beachside
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How does Angler's attract tourists and locals? - Questions & Answers
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Chef, looks like Angler's is right on the beach on Okaloosa Island in the Florida Panhandle. Can you give
us the lay of the land?
It's a pretty big place, with the main dining room and kitchen on the first floor, which has two big garage
doors that open right onto the water. Upstairs is our sports bar, with big screen television and two full
bars. You can order anything off the menu up there. Outside we have tables on a deck and the pier. We tried
to pick up the colors of the gulf sunsets in our decor, with teal, green and yellow mix-and-match tableware,
paint and accents. On the walls we've put historical photographs from the area, known as the Emerald Coast.
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How has your menu changed in the two years since you opened?
The food has always been of high quality but casual: steak, seafood, pasta, sandwiches, salads and
appetizers. There's a lot of variety with 40 to 50 items in all. Our whole dessert program is changing so
that we're making everything in-house now. We're offering Bread Pudding, Barbarian Apple Torte and an
outrageous brownie. The raw-oyster section of the menu is completely new. For lunch I'm starting a regular
special rotation so that customers always know what's cooking on the different days of the week. The phone
was ringing all morning with people wanting to know when this or that would be on special, so this seemed to
make more sense, and it ends up attracting customers.
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What's your "season" like?
The busiest time of year is summertime, unlike the situation at some other beaches in Florida. The
off-season is from October through February, but we're still pretty busy even then.
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How do you explain that?
We love tourists, but we also make it a point to court the locals because they end up recommending Anglers
to visitors when they're asked. There are 20 or 25 restaurants in town, so it's pretty competitive. Part of
what helps us is the Sports Bar. Football season attracts a lot of people, and so we add some finger food to
the menu up there, things like pizza and wings. Locals also can get a 10-percent discount card. And all year
round we have kids nights.
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What's that all about?
Well, kids are pretty important to us anyway because so many of our managers have little ones. There's an
Angler's playground out on the beach so that parents can sit out on the deck or the pier and watch the kids
run around. Early every night kids eat for 99 cents, and on Mondays and Tuesdays we hire clowns to work the
crowd, blowing up balloons and painting faces and doing gags. Adults want to be able to enjoy a nice night
out with the kids and have a little fun, too.
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How else does Angler's add value for guests?
Portion sizes are pretty big, and we're sort of known for that. When we set the plate down, it's a "wow"
experience. We go through a lot of to-go boxes. And there's never a problem with sharing a dinner. When you
split an order, we'll do it in the kitchen and even give each half order a whole potato or full side. There
is no extra charge. Then everyone leaves full. The cost isn't worth losing a plus.
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What's "a plus"?
That's how you know what sort of experience they've had. You can see it on their faces when they walk out.
They've either got big pluses or big minuses on their foreheads. We always go for the pluses of course, but
when we suspect anything might be wrong, we try hard to take care of it right then. Our whole policy is to
make the guest happy even if that means special orders or bending over backward. Before we make even the
littlest decision, we ask, "Is it best for our guest or best for us?"
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