Glaze Hardage cooking crawfish is as much a harbinger of spring as daffodils, king cakes, and baseball spring training.
Unless it rains, Hardage cooks crawfish and shrimp outdoors on Saturdays at Max’s Sports Bar and, beginning March 19th, on Sundays at Loflin Yard.
Describing his opening March 4th crawfish boil at Max’s, Hardage says, “We sold everything we had. We did 150 pounds of crawfish and 60 pounds of shrimp.”
Now is prime time for crawfish, Hardage says. “Crawfish season is between Super Bowl Sunday to the end of May.”
A West Memphis, Arkansas, native, Hardage grew up with crawfish. He liked the taste of the spicy crawfish, but, he says, “Having that little lobster in front of you, there was something cool about that as a kid.”
Hardage learned early on how to eat crawfish. “One of my friends taught me back when I was younger. He said, ‘You just gotta pinch the tail and suck the head.’ So, you twist the tail away from the body and kind of pull it. And it will separate the tail from the rest of the body. And then you can suck the head for the juice and spice and flavor that are inside of that crawfish.”
You basically only eat the tail meat unless the claws are big. Then you “can get some meat out of them as well.”
Hardage perfected his crawfish cooking skills when he was in Kappa Alpha fraternity at Arkansas State University. Some fraternity brothers taught him how necessary it was to get the crawfish good and clean. “And then you want to get your water hot and season it with a crab boil seasoning and lemons, onions, garlic, butter, and some hot sauce.
“Once you get the water seasoned and to a boil, you add your crawfish. And once you add your crawfish, you give it a stir and you wait till your water comes back to a boil. I would say light boil. And then you cut it off. And you want to either put some ice or some frozen corn or something in that water to drop that water temperature. Because what that does is it shocks that shellfish and makes it kind of absorb that flavor and sink to the bottom of the pot.”
He then lets the crawfish soak for about 20 to 30 minutes to absorb the flavor. “After that, you dump them in the cooler and you’re ready to go.”
Hardage experimented with different techniques over the years. Like “adding a little bit more cayenne and celery salt and stuff like that to increase the flavor and the heat.”
He began cooking at Max’s about eight years ago. “My wife works at the Arcade. We would hang out at Max’s.”
Owner Max Lawhon asked what Hardage thought about doing crawfish boils at Max’s. “We started off boiling a couple of sacks.”
It “blew up” the next year with about 300 people showing up at his first boil that season. “Word kind of got out, I think. We moved down into the pit area behind the bar and set up more tables and chairs. And it was a big party.”
He and his buddies, Ricky O’Rourke and Dax Nichols, team up to do the boils each week. His Instagram is @glazescrawfish.
Hardage added shrimp because it’s “a little less spicy than the crawfish. We’ve got people that don’t really care for crawfish ’cause they say it’s a lot of work for a little bit of meat. The shrimp is more bang for your buck, if you will. More meat, less work. Whereas, I believe crawfish is a labor of love.”
And, you might say, Hardage is his own best customer. “I always have to test out the crawfish every batch I pull to make sure I know what I’m doing.”
Max’s Sports Bar is at 115 G.E. Patterson Avenue. Loflin Yard is at 7 West Carolina Avenue.
