Crab Man

"Don't let him drown you," the woman yelled as the back wheels of the truck sprayed gravel across the parking lot. Charles Douglas Sartin Sr. and Jeri Sartin founded Sartin's first location, in Sabine Pass.

"Too bad they took off; I would love to interview them," I said.

"They don't talk to the press anymore," he said. "They aren't good at talking."

Doug, on the other hand, spoke freely. In fact, he didn't seem to know when to shut up.

"I'm the crazy one in the family," he said. I asked him about his two former wives. His estranged wife, Emily, looks just like his ex-wife Kim, he said. People think they're sisters. Having seen a photo of Kim Lynch on her Web site, I said she was a good-looking woman.

Doug laughed and said he bought those titties -- and his second wife's, too -- four titties total. I reminded Doug that I was a reporter and we were on the record. He said he was just a commercial fisherman and he could say whatever he wanted.

Doug Sartin Jr. started not only the Beaumont and Nederland restaurants, which he ended up giving away, but also several other Sartin's locations -- all of which are gone now. There have been a total of 14 Sartin's over the years, counting the three that are still in business. But it wasn't Doug's partying that caused all the business failures. Hurricanes did most of the dirty work.

The first Sartin's opened in 1972. "My daddy was a pipe fitter at the Texaco refinery," said Doug. "He fished for crab and shrimp on the side." Doug Senior set up wife Jeri in a fish market on the dock at Sabine Pass. But Jeri, who grew up in a family that owned several restaurants, decided that she would rather sell cooked seafood. And anyway, there was nothing else to eat in Sabine Pass. So she started a little restaurant in front of the family's trailer with four tables inside and four outside, weather permitting. Things took off quickly.

As the business expanded, Jeri hired a fry cook who brought along a recipe for a dish called barbecued crabs. Barbecued crabs were invented at a restaurant called Granger's, which was popular in Sabine Pass in the '40s and '50s. It burned down in 1958.

The barbecued crab tradition was continued at a Port Arthur restaurant called Mama's in the '60s. These days, besides Sartin's, Stingaree Restaurant in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula also specializes in barbecued crabs. They are also a summer special at Floyd's, Ragin' Cajun and a few other seafood restaurants.

Charles Douglas Sartin Sr. left his job at the refinery to devote more time to catching seafood for the restaurant. It has been reported that he actually didn't want to quit that job, but Jeri went down there and quit it for him. She told the foreman she needed her husband to catch more crabs.

The Cajun crabs you get in Louisiana are boiled whole in highly spiced water with corn and potatoes, just like crawfish. On the East Coast, Maryland-style crabs are sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning and then steamed. Both Cajun crabs and Maryland-style crabs come to the table whole -- the diner cracks the shell and cleans out the guts.

Texas barbecued crabs are much more civilized -- at least for the diner. The crab has its top shell and guts removed while it's still alive. It is then dipped into a barbecue spice blend called Alamo Zestful Seasoning (see "How to Cook a Barbecued Crab"), dropped into a deep fryer and brought to the table piping hot and crusted with caramelized barbecue spices.

All-you-can-eat barbecued crabs at Sartin's became a tradition for beach lovers from Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange. Texas 87, the highway that used to run the length of the beach-lined Bolivar Peninsula, went right through Sabine Pass before it turned inland. Sandy, sunburned diners clad in their bathing suits stopped at Sartin's on the way home from the beach -- and it didn't matter much that barbecued crabs were messy to eat.

The original Sartin's became enormously successful. They added dining rooms several times, until the capacity of the restaurant eventually reached 500. On weekends, the lines were so long that the restaurant started setting out tubs of free beer for those who had to wait. Free beer remains a Sartin's family tradition. Kim Lynch sells beer for a penny when there's a line outside her door.

But the original Sartin's was open for only eight years before it developed a hurricane problem. In 1980, it was Hurricane Allen. In 1983, it was Alicia. The storms did some damage to the restaurant, but what devastated Sartin's business was the closure of Highway 87 between High Island and Sabine Pass. Beachgoers were forced to use other routes. The road was finally reopened in 1985, and Sartin's began to make a comeback.

Three years later, in 1988, Hurricane Gilbert's storm surge took out the road again. In 1989, after Hurricane Jerry hit the Texas coast, plans to repair the highway were abandoned. On most highway maps, Texas 87 between High Island and Sabine Pass looks just fine. But don't try to drive it. The road has been closed for 17 years now.