Shrimp Lips is approaching the opening of their first brick and mortar, set to open by the end of October.
Run by Johnny and Doe Carter, Shrimp Lips is a food truck offering fish, shrimp, crab, and chicken, as well as a variety of cajun-spiced meats and sides, including potatoes, sausage, egg, and corn.
The food truck operates in the parking lot of the vacant Dairy Corner building on Wednesday through Saturday. Soon, they’ll take over the building itself and begin offering more selections, including breakfast items like eggs benedict with crab cakes and grits and sausage, served with coffee.
Shrimp Lips will continue to operate as a carryout-based business. Guests will use a walk-up window to order their food, and there will be limited seating on the north side of the building.
Doe Carter left her construction job in 2014 to start Shrimp Lips, a business named after the nickname bestowed upon her by her husband, “because I eat so much seafood,” she says.
“Where I come from [Pensacola, FL] that’s all we ate,” Doe says. “We were poor, so we had to fish for a living. We always had shrimp, crab, and fish, and some light bread to eat. So he called me Shrimp Lips because I love shrimp!”
Starting the business out of their home in Obetz, the Carters have since moved operations twice. They served out of a night club on the East Side from 2016 to 2017 before settling at their current location at 1622 Parsons Ave.
Seafood runs in the family. Carter’s son runs the Crab Boss Shack in Brandywine, MD, and her daughter is the Seafood Lady, operating out of Louisville, KY. She was featured in an episode of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Carter says a few small construction projects have delayed their opening, but they’re looking to open by the end of the month.
For more information, visit shrimplips.com.
