The seafood restaurant serves a diverse menu for fast-casual dining in a setting meant to evoke an “old-style fish camp,” said Bill Curci, one of the owners of Shuck Me.
The first Shuck Me restaurant opened in Southlake in 2017. Curci, 58, has worked in the restaurant business for 42 years and joined founders Roger and Monica Haverkamp in 2020.
“I fell in love with the authenticity of it,” Curci said.
Everything is made from scratch, and much of it is from old family recipes. Although there are two other locations in Texas and one in Oklahoma, Curci said Shuck Me takes steps not to feel like a chain restaurant, including buying plates from local thrift stores.
“You could come in and end up eating off of your old plate,” Curci said.
The inside of the restaurant is lined with photos from fishing trips, and many of the photos are of the Haverkamp family, according to Michael Rose, a partner at Shuck Me who manages the Austin location.
Rose, 46, said that Austin is a tough restaurant scene to break into but credited the quality of Shuck Me’s food for helping create word-of-mouth buzz in the community.
“It was very organic how we grew,” Rose said.
Shuck Me hosts charity events on the third Sunday of each month with live music and classic cars. Despite being “kind of off the beaten path,” Curci said Shuck Me has been successful thanks to this kind of community involvement and mostly thanks to people loving the food.
“Our claim to fame is our fried baskets,” Curci said.
In addition to baskets of fried shrimp, oysters and catfish, Shuck Me’s menu is swimming with a variety of grilled fish, pasta, burgers, po'boys, tacos, chowders and fresh Gulf oysters and Blue Point oysters from the Northeast. The restaurant bar serves foreign and domestic beers, wine and margaritas.
“We have great clientele, and our staff is awesome,” Rose said.
Staying involved
Shuck Me offers weekly and monthly events for customers and the community to attend.
- Charity events with live music and classic cars on third Sunday monthly
- Live music Thursday-Sunday
- Happy hour daily from 3-6 p.m.
10817 RM 2222, Austin
512-514-0137
www.shuckme.net
Hours: Sun.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
