SEPT_OCTOBER_2015_FINAL_no bleed

AT SEASON’S PEAK

T he gulf is home to more than 60 types of crabs, but for most Gulf Coast locals, crab means blue crabs, so named for their blue-tinted shells and claws.Those claws make it easy to tell male and female blue crabs apart: male claw tips are blue; female claw tips are red. Blue crabs are caught year-round, but harvests peak during the warm summer and fall months. We get our blue crabs from fishermen and seafood distributors all over the Gulf Coast. In Alabama,we source them from the same place that sells shrimp, crabs, oysters and whole fish to some of the finest seafood restaurants in the state — Royal Lagoon Seafood in Theodore, Alabama. Royal Lagoon’s owner Val Hammond was born and raised in New Orleans and spent summers on Dauphin Island working in the shrimp industry. He moved to Alabama and at age 22 went into business for himself. Today, he employs nearly two dozen people. —James, Rouses Seafood Director The Mobile Bay Causeway The scenic causeway overlooking Mobile Bay is the road to seafood heaven, with famous seafood restaurants like Felix’s Fish Camp (our favorite spot to watch a sunset), and BlueGrill Restaurant, home of the crab omelette sandwich and great crabcakes. Another favorite, the Original Oyster House, was featured on Man vs. Food. Get the cheese grits and anything seafood. Bayley’s Corner Bayley’s SeafoodRestaurant on theDauphin Island Parkway in Theodore, Alabama gets credit for two of Lower Alabama’s best — the West Indies Salad and fried crab claws . The late, great restaurateur — and raconteur — Bill Bayley invented both dishes. Bill and his wife Ethyl opened a steak and seafood restaurant and one-room grocery in 1947. The West Indies salad, a combination of crabmeat, onions and vinegar, came first. Bill used lump crabmeat in the salad. That left a lot of claws, which he broke to scoop out the meat. Sometime in the early 1960s, Bill figured out a more elegant claw cracking technique, which left the claw meat attached to the pincher. Voila, crab claws.

Claws for Applause: BLUE CRABS

ROUSES.COM 39