By Donna Price

dprice@americanpress.com

Story, photos by Donna Price

dprice@americanpress.com

Last Saturday, I visited Elton, the home town of champions. Elton can claim that title due to the fact that last Friday, the Elton High School girls’ basketball team won the Class 1A state championship at the Marsh Madness tournament, making the townsfolk pretty darn proud. Who can blame them?

Another source of Elton pride seems to be the popular Buster’s Crawfish restaurant, located in a large, converted house at 303 Main St. The place was hopping Saturday night, so much so that you would think this was the last night on earth you could ever eat crawfish again.

The restaurant is open only during crawfish season, although for Buster’s, that season is longer than you might expect: January to around the first of August.

“We’re the first ones with ’em and the last ones without ’em,” said owner Buster Zaunbrecher.

Buster’s is not fancy, it’s just the home of some really good crawfish and seafood.

The first thing I noticed was a sign saying gloves (as in disposable gloves to wear while eating your crawfish) are available for $1. If you forego the gloves option, though, it’s still quite easy to get your hands clean after a round of peeling Buster’s crawfish. There’s a hand washing station right there in the main dining room.

The second thing I noticed at Buster’s was the staff, and how quickly they get from one place to another. Employees zip in and out of the kitchen delivering steaming hot platters of boiled crawfish at lightening-fast speeds. Needless to say, our orders arrived quickly.

The crawfish is plentiful here, but so are the fish and shrimp, and it all looks good. I decided upon the fish dinner with fries for $14.99. My husband, Neil, tried the large shrimp dinner with onion rings for $18.99.

We also ordered a pound of boiled crawfish because how could we come to Buster’s and not try the crawfish? The menu lists all crawfish as being market price. On Saturday, a pound was $5.99. An all-you-can-eat order was going for $40 per person.

We were both impressed by our meals and the crawfish. My fried fish and Neil’s fried shrimp were light and tasty — not at all greasy. The cornmeal batter on my incredibly fresh-tasting catfish did not overpower the fish. The shrimp in Neil’s dinner were impressively large.

Our Cajun boiled crawfish was also done right. It took me two or three crawfish to remember how to properly peel one because it had been a long time since I had done that, but once I got the hang of it, I helped finish off our platter in no time.

I drank water with my meal. Neil had iced tea. But at Buster’s, if customers want alcohol to accompany a meal, they bring their own. It’s the Buster’s way. Customers are free to walk in with ice chests and make themselves at home, and they do. Three women at a table near ours unzipped their purses and pulled out bottles of beer when their food arrived.

The food was delicious and well worth the drive. Buster’s also serves poboys and hamburgers. A children’s menu is available. The restaurant is open 5-9 p.m. every day.