Rockin' Crawfish

🇺🇸 LOUISIANA, USA / HISTORICAL: Permanently Closed.

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES (Louisiana)
📍 9777 Chapman Avenue,
Garden Grove, Orange County.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This location has permanently closed.

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📆 Original Article 17 May 2019

For anyone who has spent time near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana or Texas, the cultural and culinary connections made between Cajun and Vietnamese folks is quite extraordinary. Just like here in Orange County, after the fall of Saigon in 1975 waves of resettlement came to the bayou and Gulf Coast, and as always wonderful things happened. Many Vietnamese got into the fishing and shrimping industries similar to those they left behind back home, making them natural ambassadors of the eventual Vietnamese American food craze.

While it appears to have multiple competing versions for an origin story, the first Vietnamese Cajun crawfish joints grew up in and around Houston, Texas, which still has a vibrant community and many thriving restaurants. In Orange County, the first Boiling Point back in 2004 was the brainchild of two Texas transplants that saw the possibilities. After only a couple years, the concept blew up, with more locations and hoards of copycats.

It now seems so much a part of the fabric of Orange County's Vietnamese communities that it is hard to think about 15 years ago when there were none further west than Houston.

Rockin' Crawfish first made its name in the Bay Area, serving the demand for spicy crawfish to East Bay communities, but quickly expanded to Garden Grove and now has locations in Sacramento, Orlando, and the suburbs of Atlanta. As with most since the original Boiling Point, a nautical theme pervades, but here they also mix that with corrugated metal walls giving a shack feeling and the addition of some guitars and such to make sure the "rockin" gets its due.

The seasons are quite different in the Gulf and in California, the latter being the months of July, August, and September while in Louisiana they have a longer season from January to the end of June. Since this meal was eaten off season, the crustaceans were frozen, and this was very transparent. The half pound seen above only costs $4.49. Pair this at happy hour with bottled beers that cost just $2.49 and you have a very economical way to get full and drunk.

It appears most people order some of the other seafood items during the off season, but the crawfish are still good and the sauces are still just as delicious of course.

With California crawfish season fast approaching, paying a bit more for fresh catch will be absolutely worth it. Also, did you know that Long Beach has its own annual festival celebrating the Louisiana tradition of a crawfish boil? Lovers of the crawfish will never run out of options in Southern California.

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