The trio decided to open a crawfish business because they did not like the options in Austin, Kate said.
They first opened the crawfish trailer in 2015 for the peak of crawfish season, which runs from late February until the end of May. They have been open every season since, she said.
“My dad thought he was going to scare us off [from buying the trailer] by saying, ‘Bring your checkbooks, and we’ll buy it,’” Kate said. “[Deanna] and I showed up with our checkbooks, and here we are.”Pops Crawfish is named after Deanna’s father, Clyde Léger, or “Pops,” a Louisiana native who spent his life around crawfish.
“We have [crawfish] recipes from my mom’s side of the family in Mississippi, and my stepmom’s [Deanna’s] side in Louisiana, so we just combined everything,” Kate said.
She added eating crawfish is not meant to be a “quick-eating meal.”
“You’re sitting around the table with your friends and family for hours eating crawfish, hanging out and drinking cold beer,” she said. “It’s just a social thing.”The crawfish trailer offers shrimp and crawfish by the pound with sides such as potatoes and corn.
Pops Crawfish goes through 1,200-1,400 pounds of crawfish, which are shipped from Louisiana and Southeast Texas, every weekend, Tim said.
The secret to making good crawfish is to soak the crawfish instead of shaking them; shaking is the preferred method of many places that sell crawfish because it is quicker, he said.
“What [soaking] means is we heavily season the water, and then we cook the crawfish in the cooker for about three to five minutes,” he said. “And then we let them soak in the water for 25 minutes.”It takes longer, but it allows time for the crawfish to absorb the spices, and it tastes better, Tim said.
The Pops Crawfish trailer is a resident of Rock House Bar and Trailer Park, an indoor-outdoor park off RM 620 near Four Points.
Pops Crawfish is only open on the weekends during crawfish season.
“This is really a second job for most of us,” Tim said.
Kate, a high school piano director, said Rock House Bar and Trailer Park is busiest on the weekends, so it makes more sense for them to be out there during that time.Pops Crawfish
6900 N. RM 620, Austin
512-688-9917
www.popscrawfish.com
Hours: Fri. 4 p.m. until sold out, Sat.-Sun. noon until sold out, Feb. - May
