H20 had a 20-year-run on Pensacola Beach. Its new restaurant promises even more.

Pensacola Beach favorite H20 Grill had a 20-year reign inside the Hilton hotel, but a new Mediterranean coastal cuisine restaurant has taken its place with the intent of becoming a destination dining hub.

Salt was created behind the idea that every piece of the meal should be fresh and full of natural flavor. Fresh fish is pulled out from the water. Vegetables are grilled to perfection. Dressings and dips are curated in-house. Crab cakes are delicately hand-patted without fillers.

The coastal influence of the restaurant driven by Manny Rodriguez, the corporate director of food and beverage for Innisfree Hotels, is one that comes natural to him from growing up in Spain.

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Rodriguez was cooking octopus by the age of 5 and making a big batch of paella with whatever fresh ingredients were on-hand. As he fell in love with cooking, the dependency on fresh ingredients stayed with him when he moved to the States, refusing to cut corners for cost or convenience.

Now, when sampling other area restaurants known for their “fresh” flavors, he can tell from merely one look at the mussel shell whether it had been in the freezer prior to hitting the plate.

That can’t be the case at Salt, where the “coastal catch of the day” is locally sourced and pulled out of the water right before being served for dinner. The ingredients on hand drive the dish, not the other way around.

“Let’s adapt some of the recipes to what we have to fit what’s here. I don’t want to fly anything in. I want to use what we have in our backyard. That’s going to be the catch of the day,” Rodriguez said. “If we have mahi — that’s what we’re going to have. If we have pompano — that’s what we’re going to have. I didn’t want to just go ahead and put a signature fish dish on the menu, because I want to keep it fresh, I want to keep it intriguing.”

There are some staples on the menu though that you can count on, such as the smoky braised octopus tentacle appetizer, or the Arroz A La Marinera entrée, tossed with gulf shrimp, calamari, mussels and scallops cooked in a seafood broth with saffron and sherry wine infusion rice. Seafood is far from the only items on the menu with filet mignon, Duroc roasted pork chop, lemon chicken breast and a signature burger taking a prominent place on the menu.

“I know that everybody in the South, they really love their fried food,” said Heather Hice, director of food and beverage marketing for Innisfree Hotels, said. “Sometimes for me — we’re spending time out on at the pool or the beach, I don’t want a heavy meal. (Salt's menu) is still like copious amounts of food, but it doesn’t feel like it’s heavy. It’s very light and beachy.”

The feeling of lightness also applies to the house-crafted cocktail menu, which relies on fresh citrus, herbs and fruit juices for flavor instead of sugary syrups. Signature drinks like the “Garden Grove” tie in botanicals flavors such as lemon, rosemary and lavender to drive the drink. The restaurant also prides itself in its variety of alcohol-free cocktails full of flavor, like the “All Bark No Bite” made with fresh mango, lemon, mint and soda.

The restaurant is inside the Hilton hotel, where guests can be viewed taking a dip in the pool just outside the lobby windows, but the dining room has become a destination in and of itself for non-hotel guests as well.

The chic slate blue décor and Cyprus-lined ceiling provides guests with an upscale meal away from the sun. Whether it be just to share a charcuterie board over a glass of wine, or a steak dinner with the Tomahawk for two — the fresh ingredients serve as the priority.

The dishes are created for all the ingredients to complement each other, with multi-faced flavors and textures in every bite.

“I got the bitterness and the saltiness from the caper, but also have the citrus from the lemon, and now I got the silkiness from the mashed potatoes," Rodriguez said. "So, it’s different levels of food."

The braised octopus tentacle, for example, is positioned atop a beet potato puree, tzatziki and a citrus olive oil infusion that is intended to draw out the octopus' smoky flavor.

The new restaurant concept is still growing, and rest assured that H2O's fan-favorite brunch will be back on Salt's menu soon. The popular bottomless mimosas will be making a return, along with a few new Mediterranean menu items that the kitchen is still developing.

There will also be a more casual restaurant coming on the Hilton's property in early July called Sal De Mar, or in English meaning "sea salt," that will cater to more casual, pool-side fare. Both restaurants will have something in common though: the quality.

“That’s my thing. If you’re not going to do something with quality that is either going to put us on the map and sets up apart — then it’s not going anywhere,” Rodriguez said.

More updates and information can be found on the Salt Pensacola Beach Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Beach Hilton restaurant Salt replaces H20