Palm Beach restaurants, foodies, grocers and caterers are about to crack open a long-lost friend and one of Florida’s claims to fame.
A little lemon and mustard sauce on the side, please.
After an annual five-month, regulation-mandated hiatus, the commercial and recreational stone crab season starts tomorrow (Oct. 15) and runs through May 15.
By as early as this weekend, sweet and succulent stone crab claws—harvested almost entirely off Florida’s coastline—will be available at area specialty markets, grocery stores and restaurants.
“Last season, we couldn’t get enough to keep up with demand,” says Chef Avery Watson, co-owner of Palm Beach’s 264 The Grill, which expects to have stone crab on hand by Sunday. “People would practically fight over them.”
For decades, stone crab claws, a sustainable product because de-clawed crabs are returned to the ocean where they typically regenerate their claws, have been a sought-after—and pricey—delicacy.
They have to be at least 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 usually are the most prized, although last season, mediums were the most popular at The Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach’s Restaurant, Ocean Bistro and Atlantic Bar & Grill, a resort spokesperson reports.
The traditional way to eat cooked and chilled stone crab claws is with a mustard-based dipping sauce, but 264 The Grill, for one, also fields requests from patrons who want them steamed and served with drawn butter.
At The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach’s Temple Orange restaurant, where stone crab is slated to be available by Saturday, claws are served with traditional mustard sauce, but also in other ways as part of monthly specials. The special through Oct. 31: two chilled jumbo crab claws served with roasted pumpkin crab bruschetta, cranberry-mint aioli and lime.
Among other Palm Beach eateries that have arranged to have stone crab by this weekend include Nick & Johnnie’s and Cucina dell’Arte. At Nick & Johnnie’s, claws are served individually and also as part of a platter, including oysters, lobster, shrimp and clams.
“At both places, we sell out of whatever claws we purchase,” says Nick & Johnnie’s and Cucina’s Executive Chef Kent Thurston. “Everyone wants them, especially when the season first opens.”
