Floridians always look forward to stone crab, the sustainable fishing season that starts on October 15. Though 2020 continues to be a challenging year, it’s possible that stone crabs have survived it better than we have. It almost seems a shame to eat them – but alas, they are delicious.
Twenty-eight years later, the phone still rings off the hook during stone crab season at PJ’s Oyster Bar on St. Pete Beach. Stone crabs are so popular our local restaurants often run out of them. The only way to know for sure if a place is still serving stone crabs that day is to dial them up and ask.
“It gets old after a while, but I would never shun it,” says PJ’s owner Kelli Umstead. “I’ll put it on our Facebook page – ‘Fresh stone crabs in today.’ When we get to the point where we start running low, I always say, ‘Call before you come in if you’re coming in for stone crabs.’ I really don’t mind the phone calls. It’s still kind of exciting. I’m like, ‘Wow, people are still interested in us. They still like us.’ Like Sally Field, ‘You love me. You really love me.’ But they love the stone crabs. They don’t love me.”
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