Crawfish boil successful; shrimp a big hit at event

By Staff, 05/17/19 10:16 AM

PRESCOTT – Saying the 5th Annual Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce’s Crawfish Boil was a success would be an understatement.

People started showing up for crawfish and shrimp before Bobby Duhon, owner of Lagniappe Specialty Meats in Texarkana, had the potatoes and corn ready. This year, shrimp was added to the menu and proved to be a huge favorite with the diners. Jamie Hillery, Chamber director, said 50 pounds of shrimp were pre-sold, along with 250 pounds of crawfish.

Duhon brought 540 pounds of crawfish and 65 pounds of shrimp, along with 100 pounds of potatoes and 200 ears of corn.

There was a steady flow of customers from start to finish. Southbound traffic on Hwy. 67 was bogged down due to a problem on Interstate-30. This allowed the workers to keep up with the demand – at least until the traffic thinned out, at which time there was no rest for the weary as the volunteers were kept hopping with orders.

Several people opted to dine under the pavilion and enjoy Zydeco music along with their shrimp and mudbugs. Most, however, chose to take their meals and go, with quite a few loading themselves down with several bags of the Cajun flavored treats.

“This is our fifth year doing this,” Hillery said. “We started with 200 pounds of crawfish and are up to 540 pounds.” She pointed out the event has sold out every year but one, the second year, but the provider didn’t show or give advance notice causing the event to be rescheduled. Since then, though, Lagniappe’s has been doing the cooking and the boil has sold out well before the 7 p.m. closing time.

“This is for the community,” Hillery said. “It’s not a fundraiser for the Chamber. We pretty much break even. The idea is for everyone to have a good time. This is the most we’ve ever sold and had a great turnout. The shrimp was a huge success and we’ll do more of it next year.”

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutlege was passing through, but her office had called asking about the event beforehand. She stopped off, talked with patrons and chatted with Hillery about the boil.

Initially Hillery ordered 20 pounds of shrimp, but the interest in it required her to call in two more orders, and this still wasn’t enough to meet the demand Thursday.