The executive chef of Alabama’s oldest restaurant is packing his knives for a short trip to the Florida Panhandle. Andreas Anastassakis, who runs the kitchen at the Bright Star in Bessemer, will cook two special dinners at Hunt’s Oyster Bar & Seafood in Panama City on November 17 and 18, with both seatings starting at 6:30 p.m.
The crossover event, first reported by AL.com, will bring a four-course menu built around chargrilled Greek oyster, a Village Greek salad, pecan-crusted snapper and baklava cheesecake to the Gulf Coast seafood spot. Tickets run $80 per person for the dinner alone, or $110 per person with wine pairings, according to the same report.
A Taste of Bessemer’s Century-Old Kitchen
Anastassakis has deep roots at the Bright Star, having joined the restaurant’s management team in 2010, per the Bright Star’s own history page. That was the same year the restaurant’s owners, the Koikos brothers, accepted a James Beard American Classic Award on its behalf, as noted by Alabama NewsCenter. Today the restaurant is run by Nicky Koikos, Andreas Anastassakis and Stacey Craig, the history page states.
The Bright Star traces its roots to 1907, when it opened as a 12-seat bar in Bessemer, started by Tom Bonduris, the same history page notes. Sources differ on exactly when the restaurant settled into its current footprint: AL.com reports the move to its longtime perch on 19th Street North happened in 1925, while the restaurant’s own history page states it landed in its final location, as anchor tenant in the Realty Building, in 1915. The Bright Star has been recognized by the Alabama Tourism Department as the oldest restaurant in the state, and it still operates today at 304 19th St. North in Bessemer.
What’s On the Menu in Panama City
Diners heading to the two-night event can expect a menu that leans into the Bright Star’s Greek heritage, paired with Gulf seafood sourced near the restaurant’s Florida host. The pecan-crusted snapper on the menu echoes the kind of volume the Bessemer kitchen is known for back home — the restaurant has averaged around 1,400 pounds of snapper a week, according to a 2017 report from Alabama NewsCenter…