Red Crab Opens In Joliet: 'Juicy Never Tasted So Delicious'

JOLIET, IL — At a time when many restaurants are struggling because of the pandemic, a growing East Coast-based seafood chain opened its first location in Illinois Friday, here on Joliet's West Jefferson Street.

All food orders Friday, Saturday and Sunday are 20 percent off to celebrate the grand opening for the Red Crab Juicy Seafood restaurant, 2314 West Jefferson St.

The restaurant menu proclaims: "Juicy Never Tasted So Delicious!"

The new restaurant is open for indoor dining and takeout orders, noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Customers can also order through Grubhub and DoorDash, staff told Joliet Patch.

Patch interviewed the new general manager, Kyle Dickinson, around 2:30 p.m. Friday while there were several people coming inside to pick up their carryout order. Others were choosing to sit inside the restaurant for their meals.

Because of the coronavirus, Red Crab is keeping its dining area limited to 50 percent capacity. Dickinson said the staff is seating people at every other table to ensure for proper social distancing. All the employees were wearing face masks Friday, and Patch noticed bottles of hand sanitizer on counters inside the new restaurant.

Dickinson said Red Crab Juicy Seafood will be a great addition for Joliet. He said that traditional seafood restaurants take 25 to 30 minutes to serve customers. Red Crab, on the other hand, will typically have your food ready in 15 to 20 minutes, he said.

Red Crab plans to offer a full bar, but it still needs to get its liquor license from the city of Joliet. Red Crab has replaced the Wild Horse Grill & Saloon. The Wild Horse closed in November 2019 after being open less than three years.

You don't have to be a seafood fanatic to eat at Red Crab, the new general manager said.

The menu includes several "Joliet Specials" such as grilled New York steak, grilled pork chops, grilled chicken breasts, grilled salmon, and BBQ pork ribs. The Joliet special menu also includes a king of the sea: grilled jumbo shrimp and sea scallops with baked lobster tail.

The Joliet specials range in price from $14 to $23 and come with a house salad, or, for $2 extra you can get fresh clam chowder.

There's a dinner for two people priced at $50 and a dinner for four people priced at $100.

Dickinson said the new West Jefferson Street restaurant is offering daily menu specials.

The daily specials for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are priced at $34: one lobster tail, 1/2 lb shrimp no head and 1/2 lb snow crab.

Dickinson said he trained in Massachusetts and he is excited to see the East Coast-based seafood chain "branching out to the Midwest."

Joliet Patch asked what first impressions he wants this weekend's customers to have for Red Crab Juicy Seafood.

"I want them to leave full and come back hungry," he said with a smile. "The food staff is super friendly and very experienced. Everyone I hired had more than enough experience on their resume."

Red Crab Juicy Seafood has two phone numbers for orders: 815-280-5005 and 815-582-3470.

To check out the entire menu at the Red Crab Juicy Seafood website go here.