DALLAS TWP. — Something fishy is going on in the Back Mountain.
Local restaurateur Ron Roberts will bring ocean-side cuisine with Cajun flavors into the township with a new dining venue named Crabby’s Seafood Grill and Pipes Bar located at 3159 Lower Demunds Road in July.
Roberts knows a thing or two about running restaurant-bar combination business. He is the original owner of the former French Quarter on Main Street in Luzerne from 1996 to 2001.
The restaurant’s menu was well-known for a variety of Cajun foods.
Roberts plans to bring back French Quarter menu favorites to Crabby’s Seafood Grill, including a seafood stuffed potato, seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee and sauteed green beans.
Also, Roberts plans to bring back a French Quarter staple, a frozen alcoholic beverage called the Attitude Adjustment.
For the last few months, Roberts and his daughter Kim and her husband Bill Gonzales have rolled up their sleeves to put a fresh purpose into the former Back Mountain Lodge.
Seaside decor, complete with glass buoys and a crab net, completes a dining room that can seat up to 50 people. A separate bar, named Pipes, features rough cut wood panels with a motorcycle motif offers additional dining seating for 20 as well as a pool table and dart board.
The restaurant’s location at the intersection of Upper and Lower Demunds roads may seem tucked away from mainstream traffic, but Roberts is confident when he is finished cleaning and remodeling the former bar, customers will come.
“It is kind of like, ‘If you build it they will come,’” he said, quoting the movie “A Field of Dreams.” “I believe good food and a clean, friendly atmosphere will bring in people.”
A draw of incoming patrons to a quiet rural community required Roberts and his family to take extra steps to ensure the peace is kept between the business and its residential neighbors.
The bar jukebox volume will be controlled, and the side entrances to the bar will be kept shut to keep the noise levels down, he said.
“We will always have a family member on site,” he said. “I met with the neighbors, and they are happy to see what is going on here.”
