Lake Travis - Westlake Edition | March 2022

DINING FEATURE

BY GRACE DICKENS

WHAT'S IN THE BAG? The Kracken is a favorite among customers of Louisiana Crab Shack, featuring over 5 pounds of seafood cooked in a boil bag with the customer’s choice of sauce and spice level. Pictured is a sample of what’s included in the Kracken.

The restaurant serves po’boys with several options such as soft shell crab and fried shrimp. ($11-$15)

• 1 pound king crab • 1 pound snow crab • 1 pound clams • 1 pound green mussels

• ½ pound shrimp • ½ pound sausage • 2 ears of corn • 3 potatoes

The Kracken is a boil bag with king crab, snow crab, shrimp, clams, green mussels, sausage, corn and potatoes. ($105) (Photos by Grace Dickens/Community Impact Newspaper)

Louisiana Crab Shack Asian-Cajun cuisine makes its mark in Central Texas L ouisiana Crab Shack is a family-owned and -operated restaurant specializing in Asian-Cajun cuisine, which brings a saucy twist to traditional Cajun food with its signature Bottom of the Bayou sauce.

The Shack #2 comes with crawsh, sausage, corn and potatoes. ($32)

Cave, Georgetown, Round Rock and Austin. The restaurant also oers a Cajun, lemon pepper and garlic-lovers sauce. In addition to a spice level ranging from no spice to Fire, the restaurant oers an o-the-menu spice level called Scorpion for those unfazed by Fire. Spice level is controlled by the habanero oil made in-house. Since entering the family business, Duong-Wilson and Duong-Carter have taken up several roles within the company. Duong-Wilson is the chief executive ocer and her husband, Dennis Wilson, is the chief of operation, while Duong-Carter is the chief administrative ocer and her husband, Terry Carter, is the director of operations. “It’s funny how everything goes back full circle,” Duong-Carter said. “We were raised in restaurants, and we ended up developing our own career paths, and now we’re back into the restaurant business.” The restaurant is named in honor of the Duongs’ grandparents, who made their rst stop in Loui- siana following the VietnamWar. When seafood tycoon Richard Gollott Sr. was looking for workers, he turned to the Vietnamese refugee population of New Orleans, transporting Duongs’ grandparents and many others to Biloxi, Mississippi, for work and a place to stay. For years, the Duongs’ grandparents would travel to and from Biloxi to see their family who had stayed behind in New Orleans. “Food is part of our culture. This is how we show our love, and the great part is what brings us together is sitting down at the table,” Duong-Wilson said. “We love seeing people sit down at the table and actually eat together.”

Louisiana Crab Shack opened its agship Ander- son Lane location in 2019. Following the retirement of their father in 2020 due to their grandmother’s illness, Cathy Duong-Wilson, Debbie Duong-Carter and Lucky Duong picked up their lives in Dallas to take over the family business. “The rst thing that we did was we slowly started to transition down here to gure out what is the current infrastructure, who is working where, what’s happening,” Duong-Wilson said. “Then we really tried to gure out where we could plug ourselves in to help with all of the changes. The love that we have experienced at all the stores, but particularly the Bee Cave store, has been amazing.” The restaurant oers a variety of options from boil bags to fried food and prides itself on being customizable, Duong-Carter said. With crawsh season in full swing, Duong-Wilson said the dish is undoubtedly the most popular choice among customers. The Kracken is also a fan favorite, with king crab, snow crab, shrimp, clams, green mussels, sausage, corn and potatoes cooked in a boil bag with a choice of sauce to the desired spice level. The Bottom of the Bayou sauce is a secret family recipe that takes four hours to make, with Duong-Wilson or Duong-Carter either staying up until 3 a.m. or waking up at 4 a.m. to make the sauce. The sauce is made three times a week and sent out to the restaurant’s locations in Bee

From left: Louisiana Crab Shack is run by, from left, Dennis Wilson, Cathy Duong-Wilson, Debbie Duong- Carter, Terry Carter and Lucky Duong (not pictured).

Louisiana Crab Shack 12815 Shops Parkway, Ste. 100, Bee Cave 512-382-1384 www.louisianacrabshackusa.com Hours: Daily 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

LAKE TRAVIS WESTLAKE EDITION • MARCH 2022