Get ‘em while you still can.
Succulent stone crab claws, that is.
Florida’s annual stone crab season for commercial and recreational harvesting runs from mid-October through mid-May.
Saturday is the last day of the season this year, which means one of Florida’s claims to fame soon won’t be on restaurant menus or in retail food stores’ seafood departments.
After Saturday, the annual five-month regulation-mandated hiatus ensues as part of managing Florida’s renewable seafood resource. Stone crab claws are a sustainable product because de-clawed crabs, returned to the ocean after catch, typically regenerate their claws.
For varying reasons, several restaurants in Palm Beach stopped serving stone crab claws weeks or even months ago.
And the cut-off date for special orders at Palm Beach’s gourmet grocer and caterer C’est Si Bon was yesterday.
But other venues, including restaurants at the island’s resorts, will offer stone crab claws through Saturday, either as a daily special or on their regular menus.
Among them: The Ritz-Carlton and The Four Seasons.
At The Seafood Bar at The Breakers, Chef Chris Corvelle says, “Typically, we have a high demand for premium stone crabs for the entire seven months (of the October-through-May season).”
Other restaurants armed with stone crab claws through Saturday include Charley’s Crab. Word from Ta-boo is that the Worth Avenue eatery may have them through tomorrow.
Seekers also will find stone crab claws at Publix in Palm Beach.
Wherever you find them, expect them to be heavyweights. Claws have to be 2 ¾ inches in length to be harvested legally—and they can’t be taken from egg-bearing females—but it’s jumbo and colossal-sized claws that are the most prized in Palm Beach, along with a de rigueur mustard-based dipping sauce.
