Alfresco Seafood

With the weather as perfect as it has been lately, sitting outside to eat seems required, at least to me.  I was on the Southshore for business and I dropped in at The Blue Crab. Nothing will ever come close to the spirit of the old West End, with its restaurant row of seafood joints on stilts over the lake, but The Blue Crab was from the beginning as close a replica to that era that is possible now. I remember when they broke ground at that spot on the lakefront, that was their mission.

Mission accomplished. I think of the old West End whenever I am there, but it is a modern version of the place that was literally blown away twenty years ago. I wish there was a restaurant row so I could try a few other options, but Felix’s and Landry’s, the neighbors on either side of The Blue Crab, simply do not measure up. The food at both is just ordinary. From the beginning, The Blue Crab had standards far beyond anything from the West End, with the exception of Bruning’s, the West End standout. The loss of Bruning’s stung extra hard because the restaurant had been around since 1859. Bruning’s was not a mid-twentieth century arrival as many others in the West End, so it was doing things better. The old–fashioned way.

The Blue Crab does housecut fries, which is quite a feat for a place that doesn’t need to, and one that does that kind of volume. This is a seafood house that is a cut above. I have had most things at The Blue Crab, but I tried to steer away from my favorites. Here is a great stuffed crab. A real New Orleans stuffed crab of old, where it is mostly crabmeat and not breading, instead of a stuffing of mostly bread   piled like a softball into the shell and deep-fried. These stuffed crabs were nicely seasoned and topped with bread crumbs, then broiled. 

In a recent trip I saw that they have switched not to the overstuffing but to the deep-frying, which is disappointing. It was easier to pass them by this time.

I have had the seafood gumbo, which is excellent, but this day I had the chicken andouille. I also ordered the crabmeat au gratin because we have been talking about it on The Food Show, and I got a shrimp poor boy, which came with the housecut fries.

The gumbo arrived and it looked like rice. I stirred it and saw that it was overflowing with andouille and chicken. There was so much “stuff” in that cup that I could have made a meal out of it. No kidding. Best of all, it was piping hot, so hot I had to wait to eat it. This was a terrific gumbo, seasoned just perfectly.

The crabmeat au gratin was a large portion. I have never had this here, opting instead for the Blue Crab dip, which comes with blue corn tortilla chips. I do love that dip, so I was expecting to love this as well. It came with French bread slices that were thicker than crostini, and not flavored with butter. They were bare and toasted. These bread pieces didn’t really need anything because the crabmeat au gratin was so cheesy and creamy anything else would have been overkill. Inside this piping hot dish was a lot of cream, but not as much crabmeat as I expected. Still, it hit the spot. What could possibly be wrong with crabmeat, cream, and cheese?

When I was ordering I thought getting a shrimp platter on top of this other food was just too much, so I ordered the shrimp poor boy. When it came to the table I saw the folly in this plan. The shrimp on the sandwich were much smaller than the ones on the platter. And inside the bread was a not-so-generous portion of fried shrimp.

They were fried golden brown and crispy, as all fried things are here, but the shrimp themselves were disappointing. And the fries were not done as well as they normally are. They seemed to be underdone, and a tad greasy. That’s never an experience I have had here with these fries.

I asked to switch to potato salad, which is something I almost never order anywhere. But potato salad can be very good. This was pretty, and very creamy, but it was far less chunky than I like it. Potato salad that is this smooth I feel has a texture problem, It was beautifully done, and had a nice taste, but too smooth for me.

I was glad I went when I did, because it was not as crowded as usual. The servers were as good as always. These are competent professionals who serve a lot of people every day. It shows.

The Blue Crab maintains its appeal, with a nice menu of delicious local seafood options. It’s not all fried, and there are a few other things on the menu like local classics. The standards seems to be upheld, Though COVID hit everyone hard, the place remains pretty much what it was. And that is good.

The day The Blue Crab slips, it will be heartbreaking. But not as heartbreaking as losing the old West End, the place it has channeled since Day One.