GAUTIER, Miss. (WLOX) – Fresh off the boat and straight to Killer Crab & Seafood, a family-owned restaurant that sits on Gautier Vancleave Road in Gautier.
“My whole family is in the seafood business and it kind of started from there, then one thing led to another,” explains owner Drake Killingsworth.
Killingsworth put his fishing reel to work at 14 years old alongside his brother. The two caught fish and other seafood and sold it to everyone in their community.
Little did the Killingsworth family know, this was only the beginning.
“My senior year in high school, I knew we needed a building because it was 10 to 15 cars lined up in our neighborhood at my mom and dad’s house, and that’s when we said to ourselves, ‘We definitely need a building,’” he described.
Despite being faced with such a large task at such a young age, Killingsworth had some help along the way.
“My mom and dad helped me out…” he recalled. “…When we started at Ladnier Road, we probably sat 15 to 20 people and now I think we’re fitting 80 at a time.”
Owning and operating a seafood business for nearly 10 years was never in Killingsworth’s plans. However, when you love what you do and your hobby becomes your source of income, he says it’s hard to view it as work.
“I love what I do, and I think everybody in my family loves what they do,” he said.
At 23 years old, Killingsworth currently has just over 30 employees with two locations. You can find them at 5116 Gautier Vancleave Road in Gautier or 6901 Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs.
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