CROWLEY — With large gatherings being strongly discouraged by officials--one crawfish spot in Crowley is doing their part to encouraging customers to not host a large boil this Easter weekend. For their special, they are only allowing 20 pounds per customer.
Beth Gilbert and her father bart have been operating Gilbert's Crawfish Tub since 2008. Typically, Easter is their busiest time.
"Normally this time of year, we do an ice chest special, which is 40 pounds, and we'll sell 4-5 of those to one person" the owner, Bart Gilbert, said.
This year, things are different. They're running a 10 pound special with a limit of 20 pounds per customer. It's an effort to help encourage social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. On average a person will eat 5 pounds during a boil. By limiting the amount a person takes home, they hope it will limit the amount of people they have at their home.
"We came across the idea on Tuesday, it was tossed around then we said ok let's do it" Beth Gilbert said.
Usually the family host a boil of their own for more than 40 people.
"We can't really have our family, so we don't want to let everyone extend upon and let us all keep suffering" Beth said.
Gilbert says, so far customers have been ok with the idea.
"We haven't had any backlash" Beth said.
Many customers already placing smaller orders.
"Since all of this started, we would have people come every weekend and get 60 lBs. Now they're just getting 5-10" Bart said.
Gilbert's Crawfish Tub serves LIVE crawfish and boiled.
Lafayette is seeing the lowest prices in at least six years - according to KATC's Crawdaq Index, you can expect to pay $4.58/pound. When the COVID-19 pandemic made its way to Louisiana, we saw crawfish prices drop more than $1/pound.
Because of the decrease, members of Congress from Louisiana are working to get crawfish farmers included in the relief package.
The overall message - crawfish restaurants are open for business, but practice your social distancing and avoid big get-togethers.
