Crawfish make big splash for Easter dinner

GAUTIER, Miss. (WLOX) - There should be no doubt about how crazy people are over crawfish.

The line at Killer Crab Seafood in Gautier on Saturday morning was already out the door and around the building.

“We had over 100 people in line this morning an hour before we opened,” said co-owner Drake Killingsworth. “We’ve been busy. Busy as can be. I don’t know if we can handle much more.”

Many of those crawfish lovers were preparing for the big Easter meal.

“A lot of people don’t want to fight the crowd tomorrow, so they want to try to plan ahead and get them today,” Killingsworth said.

It’s always been this way.

“Since I’ve started in the business, Easter has been one of our biggest weeks of the year,” he said.

It stands to reason.

“Easter is always about the time when crawfish get fairly cheap and they’re plentiful,” Killingsworth added. “Easter brings people together and crawfish kind of goes hand-in-hand.”

Howard James is gathering the Easter feast for his family, and his explanation for the choice is about regional culture.

“This is the South,” he said. “We don’t discriminate on food. We don’t have to have ham every day.”

For him, it’s also a simple push-back from traditional holiday fare.

“We’re so burned out on dressing,” James said with a laugh. “We’re burned on everything else. We want some seafood.”

That has always been his family’s preference.

“Since I was growing up, my family has always loved crawfish,” he said. “Always loved crawfish, seafood, crabs. We do all that. We all fish around here.”

Killingsworth said this has been a very good season for crawfish.

The quality and quantity are much better than last year.

For crawfish prices at Killer Crab, check out its Facebook page.

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