Capping off a busy Lenten season, supermarkets and restaurants are going all out to promote seafood over the Easter weekend. Some seafood restaurants are even providing photo opps with the Easter bunny. Here are the top 5 U.S. Easter seafood promotions:
1. In addition to its brunch of seafood and several other dishes, Reel Seafood Co. in Albany, N.Y., is sponsoring live music and is bringing the Easter bunny to visit each table for photos with kids. The Easter bunny is also making an appearance at The Yard Seafood & Steak House in Manchester, N.H. Among the seafood dishes on its Easter brunch menu is Seafood Newburg.
2. The Easter Buffet at Salty’s Waterfront Seafood Grill in Seattle, Wash., not only includes a great variety of seafood dishes, but also something original – a made-to-order “prawn scampi action station”. “We did the scampi station for Thanksgiving last year and ot was a huge hit, so we are going to do it for Easter and Mother’s Day,” said Stacey Cooper, director of guest services at Salty’s. In addition, the buffet includes oysters on the half shell, peel-and-eat shrimp, Dungeness crab, snow crab, clams, mussels, salmon lox, seafood chowder and ceviche.
3. The extra-large cooked farmed shrimp is just one of the many popular seafood specials for Easter week at Cod & Capers Seafood Marketplace and Café in West Palm Beach, Fla. “We start with frozen, peeled and deveined, tail-on 15/20s and steam them. It’s an extremely popular item, especially around holidays and events where people would be gathering,” said Jessica Zabel, marketing manager for Cod & Capers. The shrimp is on special for USD 20.95 (EUR 18.78) per pound and is paired with house-made cocktail sauce.
4. Crawfish and other Gulf of Mexico seafood is significantly discounted at Rouses, a 37-store chain in Thibodaux, La. “Good Friday, Great Crawfish,” stated Rouses’ Easter week sales flyer, promoting its live and boiled Louisiana crawfish. The stores are also featuring 12-ounce bags of Bernard’s Crawfish Tails for USD 6.98 (EUR 6.25) each, along with local, wild-caught shrimp for USD 4.99 (EUR 4.47) a pound and local farmed catfish fillets for USD 4.99 (EUR 4.47) a pound.
5. Cod and Capers just received its first shipment of jumbo soft shell crabs from the St. John’s River in Florida and is selling them for USD 11.95 (EUR 10.71) each this week. “Our customers love them and have been waiting quite some time for them to become available again,” Zabel said. The store is also featuring local and mid-Atlantic flounder fillets for USD 17.95 (EUR 16.08) per pound. “Flounder has been expensive lately and this new shipment has offered it to the customer at a lower price,” Zabel said. “It’s nice to have a fish on special right now because lots of people will be eating fish for dinner on Friday since we are still in the Lenten season.”
