Folks have been asking movie star chef Darnell Ferguson to open a restaurant within the West Finish of Louisville for years. He lastly announced one in February— a brand new seafood idea referred to as Tha Drippin Crab. Now, it is nearly able to open.
Tha Drippin Crab will gentle open for its first clients on Oct. 14 at 11 a.m. Reservations might be made for Oct. 20 and onward on OpenTable, and a grand opening is scheduled for mid-November.
The three,000-square-foot restaurant at 1219 W. Jefferson St. stands out with partitions brightly painted in teal, orange and yellow. Some partitions are edged with a painted dollop of butter “drip,” with quotes like “obtained dripp on each chunk” and “Welcome to the Russell Neighborhood” across the restaurant. Picket tables are offset by yellow and teal chairs and hanging lights; one wall is embellished with newspaper clippings and a lit neon signal with the restaurant’s identify.
“This can be a combination between Pappadeaux and seafood boil eating places,” Ferguson stated, referencing the favored seafood restaurant based mostly close to Cincinnati. “We mixed them collectively. All the pieces is tremendous distinctive, the corn, the potatoes, even the egg is completely different. We actually simply went all out: the small print that you will note in the most effective eating places are right here. I wished to verify the standard was second to none. Nothing was skipped.”
‘Greater than seafood boil’: What to anticipate from Tha Drippin Crab menu
Tha Drippin Crab’s menu may have appetizers like seafood potato skins ($12) crammed with salmon, shrimp, caramelized onions, roasted pink peppers, cheese sauce and cheese and smoked shrimp cocktail ($17) served with candy chili cocktail sauce.
There’s additionally “Drippin Fries” ($12) seasoned with parmesan garlic and herbs and completed with housemade cheese sauce. The menu options quite a lot of specialty dishes, “Drippin Sandwiches,” “Drippin Bowls,” crab legs, lobster tails and 7 “Signature Drips” — Louisville Drip, Lemon Pepper Drip, Garlic Drip, Korean Drip, Steph-Curry, Italian-Drip and Jamaican Drip — that may be ordered on the aspect of any menu merchandise or build-your-own combo.
Specialties embody Seafood Lasagna ($23), with truffle alfredo, creamy tomato sauce, shrimp, smoked salmon, fried lobster tail and cheese, Seafood Birra Tacos ($14), which characteristic flour-tortilla (gluten-free choices obtainable), onions, cheese, shrimp, crab and cilantro with drippin sauce and Chimichurri Shrimp & Grits Scampi ($18), that includes shrimp scampi, tacky grits, truffled chimichurri and shaved parmesan.
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You can even order one in all 4 “Signature Drip Combo” dishes ($29 to $61) with a mixture of snow crab, smoked or fried shrimp, sausage, corn, crispy potatoes, egg and extra, relying on the dish. For those who’re feeling adventurous, you may construct your personal “Drip Combo” too.
For “particular events,” you may order 24K wings, that are crispy gold honey BBQ wings completed in actual 24K gold. The order of six wings ($50) additionally comes with a mini bottle of champagne.
“Folks drive from right here to Cincinnati to go to Pappadeaux,” Ferguson stated. “Now I need folks from Cincinnati to drive right here.”
On the bar, Tha Drippin Crab will serve 20-ounce cocktails and frozen cocktails named after Spongebob characters. The restaurant might be open for lunch and dinner and might be one of many solely sit-down eating places in Louisville’s West Finish.
“There’s an enormous want for a sit-down place the place you may go to take somebody after church, at work, only a regular Tuesday or Wednesday,” Ferguson stated. “There is a excessive want for a spot that individuals can go sit down, a very high-quality place that can be going to convey extra enterprise to the West Finish.”
Celebrating Black meals legends in Louisville
Crucial factor about opening Tha Drippin Crab was to convey a profitable enterprise to the West Finish, he stated. The second most necessary factor was to encourage others to convey their companies to the realm.
“We have now footage of influential individuals who made a mark in Louisville, and our heritage wall celebrating Black pioneers of the culinary business,” Ferguson stated. “Three of these pioneers have been all slaves. We inform their story.”
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One full wall of the restaurant options Louisville greats like Judge Derwin Webb, sculptor Ed Hamilton and journalist Brad Harrison consuming Tha Drippin Crab meals. An orange column in the course of the restaurant is painted with directions on the right way to open a crab leg or crab claw. The again rest room hallway lists dozens of names of Black individuals who made their marks on the culinary business, together with tales written about folks like James Hemings, who was enslaved by founding father Thomas Jefferson and was the first American to train as a chef in France.
“The West Finish is stuffed with folks of coloration. I need them to come back in right here and see this and suppose greater,” Ferguson stated. “I need them to really feel this similar manner about their lives and be impressed.”
Ferguson is well-known in Louisville because the founder and chef behind SuperChefs, an “eclectic” impressed breakfast, brunch and lunch spot at 17092 Bardstown Highway within the Highlands. He is additionally gained nationwide consideration from appearances on exhibits like Man Fieri’s “Event of Champions,” Meals Community’s 2018 “Final Thanksgiving Problem” and profitable “Chopped Next Gen” in 2021. Most not too long ago, he launched a brand new present referred to as “Tiny Food Fight” on Discovery Plus with YouTube star Mamrie Hart.
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“I am actually enthusiastic about this,” Ferguson stated. “A lot of the stuff I wish to do now could be shine some mild on another person. If you obtained quite a lot of mild shining on you…level it some other place. Assist another person get a few of that mild. From the cooking present we’ve on WAVE-3, to this, it is all about publicity for different folks.”
Constructing Black wealth in west Louisville
Tha Drippin Crab has been in improvement for greater than a yr, Ferguson stated, and would not have occurred with out Johnetta Roberts, proprietor of The 40 & 1 Company, which goals to construct Black wealth via business actual property improvement, enterprise progress and monetary counseling.
Roberts was the one who related Ferguson to the monetary buyers who made Tha Drippin Crab attainable: Louisville Forward and LHOME, or Louisville Housing Alternatives and Micro-Enterprise Neighborhood Growth Mortgage Fund. Tha Drippin Crab is a part of the Village at West Jefferson undertaking, a $7.8 million workplace and retail advanced that introduced 30,000 sq. ft of recent business improvement to the neighborhood.
“They did not attempt to discourage me or make me really feel prefer it was unattainable,” Ferguson stated. “I believe they noticed the potential and believed in me, and generally that is what you want. It is necessary that Black folks personal stuff within the West Finish.”
Tha Drippin Crab might be open Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday via Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Options reporter Dahlia Ghabour covers meals, eating traits and eating places within the Louisville space. Ship tips about new locations or story concepts to dghabour@courier-journal.com or observe on Twitter @dghabour.
