The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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June 23, 2009

New store offers fresh seafood

The Crab Deck brings a little bit of the coasts to North Mankato

By Tanner Kent

NORTH MANKATO — The Crab Deck’s first in-store special is no mistake.

In its first full week with doors open, The Crab Deck has already figured out what folks around here are craving. In a town starved of seafood options — especially if you want to cook it yourself — the aptly named Crab Deck is offering giant crab legs for $11.99 per pound.

“These things are humongous,” said store manager Candy Underland, hoisting into the air a bag of King Crab legs the size of baseball bats.

“Where else are you gonna get ’em like this?”

Smack-dab in the middle of the Midwest and thousands of miles from the nearest King Crab, the Minnesota River Valley seems an unlikely destination for fresh seafood. But The Crab Deck, in North Mankato on the east side of Highway 169 near Subway, has plenty of it.

Underland said this area’s latest seafood venture is owned by two local entrepreneurs, Gary Wolters and Terry Siegler. She said Wolters owns a trucking company and that’s how The Crab Deck gets fresh seafood from the coasts.

And while the store is still stocking its full inventory — “We want to wait and see what the customers want first,” Underland said — the freezers are already full of ocean fare, from halibut and mahi-mahi to lobster tails and tuna steaks.

She also said the store is accepting customer requests and will be stocking some local items.

“We’ve already been asked a bunch of times about catfish,” Underland said.

The store has held soft openings for the past few weeks, opening the store for a few hours here and there. A grand opening will be held soon.

But for now, Underland said, the store will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, except Sundays.

In the future, Sunderland said the store also will carry some specialty items, from fruit and vegetables to meats. She also said the store will begin offering samples on weekends.

“We’ll always have the main things,” Sunderland said. “But it’s really about what the people want.”

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