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Red Virginia crabs are several times the size of the traditional blue crabs, which are becoming more scarce. |
BY CATHY JETT
Shelly Van Cleve carries a lot of super-size seafood at Capt. Jack's Crab Shack.
The king crab legs alone in the Thornburg store and cafe's display case weigh about a pound apiece.
But even she was taken aback the first time her supplier delivered an order of red Virginia crabs. The rust-colored giants dwarfed the more familiar and increasingly scarce blue crabs, outweighing them by at least a pound each.
The red Virginia crabs also looked different, more like an amalgam of three other crabs with their Dungeness crab-like bodies; chunky, stone crab-like claws; and long, meaty legs similar to an Alaskan king crab's.
"This isn't your granddaddy's crab," laughed Van Cleve, whose shop on State Route 606 near Indian Acres is among a handful of places in the state that sell the new-to-the-fresh-seafood-market crustaceans live or steamed.
Capt. Jack's, which she runs with the help of her sister, Valerie Boyer, and daughter, Alexandra Van Cleve, started carrying red Virginia crabs last month
The first shipment sold out quickly, and now Capt. Jack's gets about two deliveries of 150 pounds a week, usually on Thursdays and Saturdays.
"People around here are used to getting a bushel of blue crabs and having a feast," Van Cleve said. "With these, they're so big it's almost one per person."
Red Virginia crabs' sweet, white meat isn't entirely unknown. People who've been ordering such generic crab dishes as crab Alfredo at Red Lobster have been eating it for years.
Benthic Fishing Corp., which is based in Westport Island, Maine, catches them in the deep, cold waters just beyond the Continental Shelf, processes them in Canada and sells them to the seafood restaurant chain.
But rising diesel prices caused owner Jon Williams to rethink his business plan for the part of his fleet that fishes 80 miles off the Virginia coast. It made more more sense to have those boats dock in Newport News and then truck their catch to the processing plant.
"Now that we're here, we couldn't be any happier," he said. "Everyone in Virginia likes crabs."
The big red crabs caused quite a stir when his men started unloading them in Newport News last year, and they started giving away some to curious fishermen. The fishermen liked the crabs so much that they said they'd buy them once the freebies were stopped.
"I figured that if a local fisherman would buy them, then there's got to be a market here," Williams said.
He decided to sell them locally as well as ship them north, and came up with the red Virginia crab moniker because its a local product and Virginia seafood lovers are as crazy for crab as Mainers are for lobster.
"We want to localize it. That's truly my goal," Williams said. "It's a local product and should be recognized as a local product."
He said he's seen a dramatic increase in interest, especially among curious buyers who've eaten blue crabs all their lives and want to try something new.
"Some people say they'll always prefer the blue crab," he said. "Others say, 'I like these' and come back for seconds and thirds."
At Capt. Jack's, the red Virginia crabs have been a sellout every week, according to Van Cleve. They go for $4.99 a pound live and $7.99 a pound steamed. Some people prefer them already steamed, she said, because their pots simply aren't large enough to accommodate the critters.
"It's just a new and exciting crab, not an alternative to our blue crab, but an addition," Van Cleve said. "I don't ever see it replacing the blue crab, but it sure has made an impression around the water cooler."
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
