Crabby Daddy

Crabby Daddy gets all of its fish from The Woodlands Seafood Market, also owned by the Chagouris family, run by Louie and located next door. The restaurant's kitchen and prep area connects the market to the restaurant. The fish market gets fresh fish deliveries daily.

"Everything is fresh," said Louie. "This drum is 20 hours out of the water. Our fish have black eyes. Sometimes they are still alive; they come in wiggling."

The market and restaurant opened in The Woodlands in 2000, called Louie's Raw Bar and Grill. In 2006, Nick purchased the restaurant from his brother and swapped the location of the market and restaurant, so the restaurant is now adjacent to Rayford Road. Nick has since expanded the restaurant by three times its original size.

"The moment the new dining room opened, it filled up," Nick said. "We'll have waiting lists routinely in the spring and summer during crawfish season."

Crawfish season is the busiest time of year for the restaurant, when the inside dining area and the restaurant's large patio is packed with patrons.

"We throw a big Fat Tuesday party to kick off the crawfish season," manager Judy Schmidt said.

The restaurant offers live music six days a week during crawfish season and live music on Friday and Saturdays throughout the year.

"We're the kings of crawfish in this area," Nick said. "You'd be hard pressed to find any other restaurant who serves as much as we do. It's a frenzy."

The influence of the Chagouris family's East Coast background is evident in the restaurant's menu, including traditional Maryland-style steamed crabs and New England-style lobster bisque and clam chowder.

One of the specialties at the restaurant are the crab cakes, made with golf-ball-size lump crab meat.

"We focus on the product," Nick said. "A customer wants to see the crab, to taste it."

Crabby Daddy and The Woodlands Seafood Market have many loyal customers, he said.

"We have branded ourselves well here," Nick said. "They come here, and they load up on our seafood."

Customer favorites:

• Crab cakes (pictured): Jumbo lump Maryland style crab cakes. $12.99 for one or $22.99 for two.
• Crab and artichoke dip appetizer: Made with a generous portion of jumbo lump crab in a rich, white-wine garlic sauce. $9.99
• Fried jumbo Gulf shrimp: $10.99 for six or $17.99 for 12
• Boiled crawfish: $4.99 a pound for dine-in.
• Crab stuffed mushrooms: Six jumbo crab stuffed mushrooms, finished with a light Parmesan cream sauce. $14.99
• Cajun Tour: Made with red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee & jambalaya. $18.99
• Seafood Enchiladas: Shrimp and crawfish enchiladas are served with cilantro rice and poblano pepper pico de gallo for $18.99.
• Filet Mignon: 8 ounce filet topped with bordelaise sauce, served with porcini ravioli in a bleu cheese cream sauce and garlic chard asparagus. $34.99

Special offerings:

• Monday: All day happy hour. Kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entree
• Tuesday: All you can eat snow-crab from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. $38.99 a person
• Tuesday-Friday: Happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Friday & Saturday: Live music on the patio or indoor stage 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Crabby Daddy Seafood & Steakhouse, 25186 I-45 N., Ste. 4G , Spring, 281-296-CRAB (2722),www.crabbydaddy.com. Hours: Mon.–Thurs. 11 a.m.—10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.—11 p.m., Sat. 11:30 a.m.—11 p.m., Sun. 11:30 a.m.—10 p.m.