Out the Mud Crawfish & Catering became popular in the Houston area when it pivoted to a delivery service during the pandemic.

As COVID-19's discomforting reign arrived in early 2020, Out the Mud Crawfish & Catering co-founder Stanley Alford noticed how much the pandemic stalled Houstonians' access to their favorite local restaurants. An idea of delivering their boil boxes they had considered at the beginning of that year was finally put into action in February, when the world began to shut down.

"[Crawfish] is such a social food," Alford said. "Being that many people were bunched in and weren't leaving their homes, we wanted to ignite that good feeling with our boxes while staying at a distance."

But similarly to other food services pivoting to a pandemic routine, the company hit a roadblock. Alford and his small team—his wife, Jamie, and two workers—began to see a massive demand for their crawfish boils. Online orders and call-ins were piling in, and ensuring that every customer received their food in a timely manner became consuming.

"At one point, we were completely overwhelmed with customers and we didn't have enough drivers to fulfill orders. So every now and then, we would have to go in and shut down the site, which was a huge drawback," Alford recalled. 

Their phones were ringing non-stop, their Facebook inbox grew and their posts expanded in reach. Right then, they realized just how popular their crawfish had become. "That's when we knew we were onto something huge," he said.

Stanley Alford (right) and business partner Jecorey Bowman show off crates of Out the Mud crawfish.

Little did they know, two years later, they would be planning the opening of a brick and mortar restaurant, which will open in 2023, in time for next year's crawfish season.

But before Out the Mud was delivering crawfish to all corners of the Houston area—Katy, Baytown, Spring, Angleton, you name it—the founders were in Louisiana.

A native Louisianian, Alford grew up surrounded by family members who knew their way around Cajun cuisine, especially crawfish boils. Like many households along the Gulf Coast, Alford spent his summers feasting on pounds of freshly cooked seafood. The finesse that went into making a crowd-pleasing boil (and Southern-rooted dishes in general) sat with him. He had one mission: Learn how to cook authentic, Louisiana-style meals for the masses.

Alford originally launched a delivery service in Louisiana that catered health-conscious food, but after the devastating 2016 Louisiana floods ripped through his hometown of Monroe, he was forced to close down. 

"For 13 days, we were displaced from our home," Alford said. "We were completely flooded out and [were] kind of forced to start over."

The Alford family's Monroe, La., home flooded in 2016.

Alford, his wife and two children relocated to Houston, still pondering ways he could successfully rebuild his food business.

It wasn't long until he became homesick, missing the aura of his small town and the connections he made there. As he built a new life for his family in the Bayou City, he knew no matter the direction he took in the food industry, he wanted to bring a piece of his upbringing with him, and that, he says, was "real Louisiana crawfish."

About a year in, he and his wife bought a trailer and hit the ground running with their catering business. They specialized in boil boxes, each crate holding 15 or 30 pounds of piping-hot seafood, destined for pop-ups, baby showers, company socials, backyard parties and other such events.

Each boil is heavily simmered in a concoction of onion, garlic and other spices, and served with a cluster of lemons, which you can drizzle on the meat once cracked open.

"Although most people identify with crawfish as being overwhelmingly spicy, I disagree," Alford said. "Seafood is really tricky, especially crawfish, because you're dealing with a large number of people that might prefer different spice levels. But, as a  Louisiana native, I know that spiciness should not overpower true Louisiana flavor."

As well as crawfish, Out the Mud offers Gulf boils containing seven to 10 pounds of blue crab with an add-on shrimp option. The company's wholesaler, Capt Sin's, provides their crawfish, crab and shrimp fresh from Louisiana on a nightly basis. Once a truckload pulls into the area, Alford immediately heads over to retrieve the seafood and begins his daily routine. To keep these treasures hot and flavorful, Alford boils everything as close to the delivery period as possible, secures the grub in FDA-approved bags, slips them into a cooler, and delivers them.

Out the Mud also sells crab and other seafood.

Out The Mud began its 2022 season with a massive hit by catering tennis champion Sloane Stephens' wedding ceremony in January, coinciding with the early start of crawfish season.

"About a couple months before the wedding, we got a call from her team saying they would like for [our company] to ship crawfish out to her, but the only stipulation is that we couldn't say anything about it," Alford said. "We had to hold on to this big secret for a while. The fact we were able to ship a couple hundred pounds of seafood to something as special as her wedding, it was so mind blowing. We're still so honored."   They went on to deliver to other notable businesses and institutions, such as Texas Southern University, Fairway Mortgage, Stewart Title, and more. The team also delivered a box to Houston rapper Bun B last May.

When reflecting on their 2022 season, Alford said "it's been a dream come true" to have customers "believe in their craft." That support will allow them to plan their 2023 season with new additions. Not only will they be introducing a new Crab Special box—filled with blue crab, snow crab and king crab—but they'll be expanding their operations to a brick-and-mortar location.

"A huge move like this will give anyone a chance to stop by and order anywhere from three to five pounds of crawfish. Right now, we mainly serve our crawfish in certain increments," Alford said, referring to the delivery boil boxes. "Not every customer who has a taste for crawfish might want to order that big of a number. So with a brick-and-mortar, that'll allow us to serve that customer base, offer smaller quantities when needed, and let everyone see what the hype is all about."

It's no secret that Houston has a soft spot for crawfish. An Out the Mud restaurant will be a welcome addition to the scene next season.

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