The Hooked Island Grill in Fort Myers posted on Facebook that they are ending all you can eat crab.
Fox 4’s Bella Line sat down with the owner, who said between the weather in Canada and potential tariffs, he's not sure when it will be back on the menu again.
Watch as Fox 4's Bella Line reports on the crab shortage and seafood tariffs:
People come from all over to get their fix of seafood in Southwest Florida, but not everything served comes from the Gulf.
Erik Lebsack, Co-Owner of Hooked Island Grill in Cape Coral and Fort Myers says they bring seafood in that you can't catch here from all over the world.
"We're at the mercy of whatever happens,” said Lebsack.
However, tariffs and winter weather in Canada has made it harder to get.
"Apparently, crabbing has not been going well because of frozen pathways to the fishing grounds and stuff like that,” said Lebsack. "The question becomes whether or not with tariffs, and that being at 25% when we do get a chance to buy crab again, what does that look like?”
Lebsack says his restaurant uses three of the top sellers in the country and when he tried to get more crab from them, they were all out.
"We don't have crab to sell right now,” said Lebsack.
He says they stopped their popular “All you can eat crab legs” and may have to start adjusting their menu by adding in more local catch, pork, steak, and chicken. Basically anything that you can get right here in the US.
"You can overcome 10% you know, I mean, we'll raise the price $2 on the menu to cover the cost,” said Lebsack. "If the tariffs are a permanent thing, we'll figure, we'll figure out another way."
With seafood so popular in Southwest Florida, this is not the only restaurant who could feel this.
“There's several seafood places around there [Cape Coral] that use the same purveyors that we do, so the problems are not going to be just Hooked Island Grill."
To combat not having their most popular item, he says they are substituting it with a deal on two lobster tails and two sides for $25 until they have a better picture of what the future holds.
