Criollos, with garlic, with sauce, maduro and the inevitable cocolón. The crabbers, the real ones, do not need a special date to sit down and ‘hammer’. They go in groups or alone, they are not novelists, of those who appear before the seasons. They have their favorite places to enjoy their ‘rojitos’ and in some cases they are known as ‘partners’ of their favorite hollows. At least that’s what they call them The Crab Society (Avenida Miguel H. Alcívar and Víctor Hugo Sicouret), the restaurant that turned this crustacean into its star preparation and that recently celebrated 10 years of activities in Guayaquil, with a view to expanding to another sector of the city.
They survived the pandemic, like many businesses, reinforcing their home delivery service and becoming closer to their customers, recognizing their preferences and pleasing, through seasoning, the most demanding palates. The recipes, behind each one of the dishes that are served in the restaurant, arose mostly in the cangrejadas that Jennifer Nájera Lasso organized for her friends. “I left working as a production manager for a channel, I wondered what I would do and I went to the beach for about two months to rest and I was looking for an excuse to stay there. Almost every option that came to mind had to do with customer service. I was always the typical person who invited everyone to eat crabs at home, I prepared them myself, I discovered the recipe along the way, I considered having a specialty restaurant where crab is the forte and I discussed it with my best friend and with him we started”, says Nájera.
His proposal was clear, he wanted the restaurant to have its own concept, not just a crab, to have a different experience. Thus, the smallest details such as the menus are in the form of a table for crabs, the lamps, the napkin rings and even the walls show the passion with which The Crab Society receives its members, through thick and thin, as dictated by one of his ‘crab’ commandments.
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Nájera, who began empirically in the kitchen, specialized as a chef to learn in depth the culinary procedures and techniques that later took shape in around 15 specialties. “We began to prepare recipes, the Creole crab recipes were already there, then the garlic recipe came, with the taste of my then partner Arturo, and then we began to make classic dishes that should not be missing. From the first day we have stuffed green baskets that have been kept for 10 years”, he says.
During this time, he reveals, his partners have also taught them to ‘crab’. In its initial menu, cocolón was not planned as part of the proposal but it was the diners who, by constant request, managed to make it part of the menu. “When we opened, from day one, they asked us: give me some crabs, the sauce, and give me a portion of cocolón. We didn’t have any and we asked the chef at that time to make it for us, we did it by acolite, and after a few weeks we made the cocolón by the pound and today, our best-selling dishes are made with cocolón. We were discovering what our partners liked”, mentions the woman from Guayaquil.
The Crab Society has preparations such as The Crab Volcano, The Partner’s Favorite, Crab Ball Broth, Crab Bun, Shrimp, Seafood Rice, Casserole, Seafood Soup, Seafood Trilogy, among others.
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The premises have capacity for 98 people, with service from Monday to Saturday, from 12:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Sundays until 7:00 p.m. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
