We love crawfish. It represents everything we love about great seafood. It is fresh, seasonal, simple in some ways and complex in others, and, it is a true Southern delicacy that is always associated with family, good friends and happy traditions.
We are very proud of the crawfish that we select and prepare at Fish City Grill and Half Shells and we are proud of the relationship that we have with our supplier.
We source most all of our crawfish from a family-owned company. Fruge (pronounced ‘froo-zhey’) Seafood is located in Branch, Louisiana, about nine miles outside Lafayette — the heart of the Rice Belt.
Fruge isn’t your average seafood purveyor. No one else in the business owns the farms, grows the rice, harvests the crawfish and delivers them directly. There is no middleman between our Louisiana crawfish and us. We can track every mudbug to the very pond from which it was harvested.
Since rice from rice farms is the primary source of food for crawfish, Fruge carefully measures and manages the amount of rice left behind after harvest so that their crawfish have plenty to eat. This steady food source creates steady growth. They track how many pounds of crawfish are harvested from each acre and each pond and monitor the population, to prevent over-fishing and over-reproducing.
Fruge also takes extra steps in the care and handling of live crawfish to make sure they arrive to us as fresh as possible. They aren’t over-handled, and are always kept at consistent temperatures so they show up healthy and ready to boil. Our crawfish are carefully transported overnight to us, and it is about 24-36 hours from when they leave the pond to when they reach our restaurants. And our crawfish are always cooked to order. Those guys are alive and wiggling until you order, never pre-cooked and reheated.
When prime crawfish season starts, we always only purchase what are known as “Graded Crawfish.” In the seafood industry, this is like saying USDA Prime Beef, and means that we are buying the largest of the available crawfish and that it is washed and purged before they head our way. We pay extra for this but we believe it is the absolute best product for our customers. We wash and purge them again once we receive them. This is why we believe our crawfish are bigger, meatier, cleaner and more flavorful than our competitors.
This year our restaurants are doing something truly unique. We will be offering a way to take crawfish eating to the next level. Lovers of the mudbugs can have their crawfish served in one of 5 flavors.
In addition to the Traditional and Nitro seasonings that we have always offered, our chef, Randy Morgan, has created three new, outstanding flavors that are unique to Fish City Grill and Half Shells:
1. “Hair on Fire!” – Habanero! — Hottest of the hot. Addictive, flavorful, and the heat builds as you eat!
2. “Old Bay” -Classic — New England favorites.
3. “Caribbean Jerk” — Spicy Flavors of the Caribbean.
All three are outstanding and provide a whole new way to enjoy boiled crawfish.
Crawfish will also be available To-Go for a meal or in large quantities if customers want to throw their own party…. Call your local Fish City Grill or Half Shells for pricing and to order large quantities in advance.
Come on in during this crawfish season. In addition to our outstanding Boiled Crawfish, we are also offering Crawfish Etouffee, Crawfish Fritters, Crawfish Po’ Boys and Fried Crawfish Tails.
Come on in – the water’s boiling!
Bill Bayne
Chief Seafood Officer
