The Crab Trap: Seafood for the Masses
3500 Scenic Hwy 98 East, James Lee Park, Destin, 654-2722
Open daily @ 11am


By Bruce Collier March 22, 2007 Issue

There are several restaurants with variants on the Crab Trap name, but the structure on Okaloosa Island’s Boardwalk and the one at James Lee Park share the same management company. We ate at James Lee Park, on the Okaloosa-Walton County line in Destin on a weeknight, and I wasn’t expecting the crowd we faced. There were tourist groups, families, couples, well-behaved spring breakers, and one grub assessor, myself.

The hostess told us we would have a half-hour wait, gave us a blinking vibrator device that doubles as a drink coaster, and sent us off to explore. The Crab Trap is in a long building overlooking the Gulf, accessible from the parking lot and the beach. There are stairs and ramps. Upon entry, one can either turn left into a bar/dining room, right into another dining room with an open view of the kitchen, or go straight ahead and down into the beach bar and patio. On the way to the restroom hallway is a small bar/lounge. The lounge was about the only area without a crowd, leading me to conclude that people come not so much to drink, but to chow down.

We were seated, almost exactly on the half-hour — a sign of good management by the hostess — ordered drinks, and made some last minute decisions. My friend and I had spent part of our waiting time studying a take-out copy of the menu, and had pretty much made up our minds. For starters, I got a dozen raw oysters and she chose seafood gumbo. Other starters are fried calamari, popcorn shrimp, crab claws, boiled shrimp, hot crab dip, tuna dip, and crab cakes.

The food came after only a short wait. The oysters were the smaller, tastier kind, served on ice with condiments and a little paper tag advising me of the perils of consuming raw oysters. Nothing like a memento mori to whet the appetite. The thick gumbo had a good supply of smoked sausage, shrimp, scallops and oysters. It was only slightly spicy, but the house provides hot sauce for customizing.

The Crab Trap is moderately lit, with wooden floors and walls covered with model fish, fishing gear, and old sepia photos. Over the hostess’ station is suspended a “chandelier” made of a clutch of crab traps. Well, what else?

For the main course, my friend ordered a grilled shrimp and crab cake combo, and I got grilled mahi-mahi topped with shrimp and lump crab in a lemon butter sauce. There was a blackboard near the entrance for nightly specials, but it had been erased, so I guess there weren’t any that night.

A few minutes after clearing our appetizer dishes, the server brought out the entrees. He was a busy young man, but he had a sharp eye, because he always seemed to be there just as drinks ran out and more napkins were needed. This is another sign of good management. I also noticed that the bussers were quick to clear tables and floors. In a place this busy, that’s essential.

My fish looked like a double portion, thin but wide. The tender mahi had just enough light sauce to enhance, not cover, its natural flavor. Every time I eat grilled fish I wonder why I ever order it any other way. The sauce was full of small shrimp and deluxe-size lumps of sweet crab. I had garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob as sides. My friend got five medium-size skewered seasoned shrimp and two crab cakes. The shrimp were brushed with a slightly sweet, teriyaki-like sauce. The crab cakes were the breaded variety, almost like empanadas or Louisiana-style seafood pies, with lots of onion and spices, and tangy remoulade. If you prefer the mostly-crab version, you may not care for these, but they were a good example of their kind. My friend’s sides were steamed vegetables and a good Cole slaw that was not swimming in mayo.

Other dinner items include she-crab soup, seafood salads, grilled, blackened, bronzed, broiled or fried fish and shrimp, Alaskan and Dungeness crab legs and combos, fried or grilled seafood platters, steak and chicken, Maine lobster, and seafood pastas. There are also house specialties.

We were sated, so we split a dessert, a respectable key lime pie on graham cracker crust with whipped something-or-other as topping. Other choices were chocolate cake and cheesecake.

There are any number of dining establishments in this area that are set up along the same lines as Crab Trap. It’s simple. Start with a huge space, maximize seating, hire an army of servers, bartenders, cooks and management, organize, and move the people through. The Crab Trap has all this. What makes it a worthwhile place to eat is that they do all this while still managing to provide good, well-made seafood. The latter element is sometimes overlooked hereabouts, in the rush to turn over tables.

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