A La Carte Claws

Joseph Weiss – the "Joe" of Joe's Stone Crab – came to Miami from New York City along with his wife, Jennie, in 1913, when his doctors told him that the only help for his asthma would be a change of climate. That year, he opened up a small lunch counter on Miami Beach before it was even a city, and in 1918 they bought a bungalow near the beach, moved into the back, set up seven or eight tables on the front porch, cooked seafood in the kitchen, and called it Joe's Restaurant.

In 1921, Joe brought in a Harvard ichthyologist, who mentioned that he should try cooking up the area’s plentiful stone crabs – which were abundant but nobody was eating. He took a chance and added them to the menu, and – lo and behold – they were delicious, and have been the restaurant’s signature dish since then.

For more than 100 years, no visit to Miami has been complete without stopping in at Joe's Stone Crab. From the beginning, it has always been the love of food, family, and friends that has brought in customers and kept them coming. Again and again, Joe's owners and employees credit the restaurant's success to its family solidarity. They're referring not only to the Weiss family, of which Jo Ann is the third generation; her children, Stephen and Jodi, the fourth; Stephen’s daughter, Julia; and Jodi's children, Jessica, Lauren, and Blake, the fifth; but also to the extended family of Joe's employees, many of whom have been with Joe's for as long as fifty years.