Seafood royalty is reigning in Newberry with Da King of Krabs seafood restaurant open six days a week at 140 SW 250th St. 

The family-owned and operated restaurant started serving hot seafood baskets and crab trays at the start of the new year. Now the soft opening has ended; the current hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Saturday.  

The Krab King, also known as Andrew Garrison, said the community is already behind his recipes just a few weeks into business. 

“Everybody’s putting positive input out on social media, saying how good the food is,” he said. “The city has definitely been waiting on us to open, and it’s time.” 

Originally from Gifford near Vero Beach, Garrison said his seafood venture began 10 years ago by selling his own catch of crabs from his yard.  

Garrison earned his “Crab King” nobility by catching 102 crabs in one day. 

“I am the king of crab,” he said. “I would catch the most crab at the end of the day. They started calling me Crab King because nobody could out-crab me…it just stuck with me.” 

Garrison said selling out of his yard was tough, but it brought people to where the business is now. After saving enough money from his crab catching and selling, he got together with a few family members, purchased the Newberry storefront and opened in January.  

Garrison said permitting was the hardest part of the process. But once the building was his, he painted the walls with fish, octopus, oyster, shark and, of course, crab cartoons. 

Garrison and his brother cook in the back while their sister, Tenesha Denmark, helps manage the restaurant. 

“It’s like a relief. There was a long struggle in there,” he said. “Tenesha did everything. She handled everything perfectly for us to get here where we are.” 

Garrison said he and his family crafted all of Da King of Krab’s seafood and non-seafood recipes.  

Customers can order fish, gizzards, or “The Big Nasty” burger baskets, oysters, snow crab trays and blue crab trays, which Garrison said is his favorite crab. Sides include hush puppies, hand-cut fries and grits. 

The G-Town special, paying homage to his hometown of Gifford, features two snow or blue crab legs, shrimp, sausage, egg, corn and potatoes. 

The secret ingredient for it all — butter. 

“The butter is gonna sell everything in here,” Garrison said. “If we could put it in the lemonade, we would.” 

In the future, Garrison said he plans to add a market selling fresh fish and live crabs and open more storefronts.