Spyder, Spice & Everything Nice

LAKEWOOD RANCH — This weekend, Polo Grill and Bar owner Tommy Klauber and his good friend Spyder Broussard are determined to, as the French say, “Laissez le bon temps roulez!”

“Let the good times roll!”

Spyder, a native of Louisiana, will lend his culinary expertise of all-things-Cajun as he and Klauber roll up their sleeves for the Third Annual Spyder Broussard Low Country-East County Fish Fry & Shrimp Boil from 6:30-10:30 p.m., July 24, at the restaurant, 10672 Boardwalk Loop, Lakewood Ranch.

The event will feature live entertainment by the Gumbo Boogie Band and a buffet that includes Cajun dishes such as gumbo, crawfish corndogs, boudin, muffulettas, boiled shrimp with sweet corn and andouille sausage, fried catfish and beignets du monde, among other items.

“Everything’s meant to be eaten with your fingers,” Klauber said.

The buffet costs $29.50 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations required.

“It’s a chance to get everybody out here and talk to people,” Broussard said.

ITSY BITSY SPYDER
Spyder Broussard was born in Guyden, La., and was raised in Houma, just 40 miles south of New Orleans. His parents only spoke French.

“I learned English in school,” he said.

After graduating high school, Broussard joined the U.S. Air Force at just 18 years old, and later attended college to study business administration.

Through a career in the petroleum industry, he’s lived in countries such as Bolivia, Spain, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Singapore.

But in 1979, Broussard and business partners started their own company, SOFEC, which develops single-port mooring systems from its headquarters in Houston. And the year after Broussard returned from opening an office for the company in Singapore in 1984, Broussard decided to host a crawfish boil for his employees and a few customers before a scheduled technical conference.

The event was a success, and requests to have it again came year after year. By the time Broussard formally retired in 1995, he’d gone from boiling 100 pounds of crawfish to more than 5,000 pounds. When SOFEC built a new building in 1995, he even designed the 70,000-square-foot facility to accommodate the annual event.

“More customers came to the boil than the (technical) show,” Broussard said. “I never pictured it would grow like that.”

SPYDER TO SARASOTA
He and his wife, Frances, moved to Sarasota a few years after Tommy and Broussard’a niece, Jaymie, married. Delicious Cajun dinners followed, and Klauber couldn’t help but remember his first crawfish boil in Breaux Bridge, La., in the late 1970s.

“It left a lifelong impression on me because it was so fun,” Klauber said of his time in Louisiana. “It’s the craziest place. It was the first time I tasted boudin, a Cajun sausage made with rice. It’s totally unique.”
And so, one night a few years after the Broussards had moved to Florida, the families were eating together when inspiration struck.

“I said let’s do a (shrimp boil),” Klauber recalled.

Broussard had no reservations.

The first event drew well more than 200 people. Last year’s boil sold out as well.

“It’s that time of year here where people could use a fun night out,” Klauber said. “I’m hungry just thinking about it.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

Third Annual Spyder Broussard Low Country- East County Fish Fry & Shrimp Boil
WHEN: 6:30-10:30 p.m., July 24
WHERE: The Polo Grill and Bar, 10672 Boardwalk Loop, Lakewood Ranch
COST: $29.50 per person plus tax for the all you can eat buffet. Full bar also available.
INFORMATION: Live music by the Gumbo Boogie Band and an all-you-can-eat buffet featuring Cajun dishes such as crawfish corn dogs, Zatarain’s boiled shrimp with sweet corn and andouille sausage, fried catfish, muffulettas, gumbo and beignets du monde.
RESERVATIONS:782-0899, Ext. 2
WEBSITE: www.pologrillandbar.com