Two mobile crawfish companies in Oxford, The LandShark and Cajun Crawfish Co., are already seeing an increase in revenue with crawfish season officially underway.
Dixie Crawfish workers prepare their next batch of famous seafood, crawfish, com, potatoes and sausage. (Photo by: Kamera Griffin)
This crawfish season, which began in the end of January and will continue through early to mid-June, is shaping up to be a strong season quality-wise, according to The LandShark’s owner, Jared Foster.
“I did more crawfish this weekend than I did the whole month of February last year,” Foster said.
Both companies charge $6.50 per pound of crawfish, importing their crawfish into Oxford from Louisiana.
Foster sources from a family friend with 6,000 acres of crawfish farms in Southern Louisiana about 30 minutes from Baton Rouge. Foster has a driver who makes the 15-hour round trip drive to Louisiana and back to Oxford four times per week, but he also makes the drive himself sometimes. Foster said The LandShark will need to increase the trips to every day of the week in the near future.
Derek Linton, owner of Cajun Crawfish Co., buys from vendor Riceland Crawfish Inc. in Eunice, Louisiana.
The crawfish business is a guessing game, according to Foster. He has been selling around 1,000 pounds per weekend this season, a sharp increase from the 450 pounds he was selling in February 2015.
“To empire a crawfish business, you have to be able to pull in costumers,” said Foster.
Not having to buy from a large vendor presents a benefit for Foster, who is able to get crawfish in several hours with a hired driver, unlike some businesses that must deal with a supplier.
Linton said, despite several small crawfish businesses being concentrated in Oxford, he said he doesn’t see a lot of competition.
“We all kind of work together; we’re all friends, to be honest,” Linton said.
The LandShark and Cajun Crawfish Co. also parallel their businesses by both selling crawfish to bars on the Square. Linton caters to Rooster’s, Mr. Feather’s and Frank and Marlee’s. The LandShark, on the other hand, sells to Funky’s, The Levee and Round Table.
The manager of The Levee, Griffin Tanner, said he utilizes Foster’s crawfish Saturdays at The Levee and Mondays at Round Table.
“Most of the time we do crawfish on Saturdays but as the weather get nicer, we will do Friday and maybe even midweek,” Tanner said.
In addition, both Linton and Foster also cater for Greek functions, and Foster sells crawfish at UM baseball games.
Within the next three weeks, The LandShark will sell from the Chevron on Old Taylor Road, the Skymart Grocery and Bait Shop on College Hill Road, and on University Avenue at the Ole Miss Motel. Foster is also expanding to Grenada, Mississippi.
The LandShark is located behind Rebel Rags at 102 Mall Drive off of Jackson Avenue, and Cajun Crawfish Co. is located in the Chevron parking lot on Jackson Avenue West.
