Fresh seafood market opens first Midlands location

Augusta-Ga.-based seafood takeout restaurant Crab King opened its first Midlands area location at 1123 S. Lake Drive in Lexington in the Piggly Wiggly Shopping Center on Saturday.

Lifelong friends Tracy Corley and Richard Jones own and operate the Lexington location. The restaurant opened its first location in Augusta in 1994, according to Corley, and quickly became best known there for its garlic snow crab legs tray. In the last five years, Crab King has opened an additional Augusta location, and two other South Carolina locations--one in Greenwood, the other in Aiken.

In addition to the garlic crab legs, Crab King has an abundance of raw seafood including shrimp, oysters, scallops, blue crab and crawfish. All seafood can be purchased raw or cooked in Crab King's special seasonings and garlic butter sauce for a small additional fee. House specialties, Corley said, are the low country plate, seafood combo and the Alaskan snow crab plate.

"Our shrimp is wild and locally (sourced) from Edisto and the blue crabs come from Beaufort," Corley said. "We use a variety of suppliers to meet demand. We get product in at least three times a week and also take special orders with specific time frames."

Crab King hours are 3 to 7:30 p.m. Monday; 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Fresh seafood market opens first Midlands location."