Boiling Over: Worcester Shaking Crab Saga May End With Lost License

WORCESTER, MA — A planned downtown Worcester restaurant specializing in Cajun seafood boils may be cooked, partly due to the aroma produced by the cuisine.

The Worcester License Commission on Thursday will hold a hearing on whether to revoke licenses granted to the Shaking Crab restaurant in 2022, crippling the restaurant's ability to open.

But the delayed opening of the planned 554 Main St. Shaking Crab restaurant may have deeper problems than its licenses. The owners have appeared before the license commission multiple times, and have said they were unable to open due to a fight with the building's owner — Washington, DC-based Menkiti Group, one of the biggest players in downtown Worcester development — over a ventilation system for the building.

The Cajun seafood boils can produce strong smells, which need to be vented away from the restaurant, co-owner Kevin Duong has told the commission. Duong wanted Menkiti to allow a vent to go through the roof of the building, while Menkiti wanted the vent to go into the alley.

A request for comment from Shaking Crab was not immediately returned Tuesday. The restaurant was the subject of a hearing at the April 11 license commission meeting, but no one representing the business spoke. At the meeting, commissioner Anthony Vigliotti attempted to continue the hearing to give the owners more time. Commissioners Charran Fisher and Maritza Cruz questioned why the issue was continuing to be continued after nearly two years.

"I’m hoping not to lose another entity from Worcester ... in an area where there are not a lot of eating facilities," Vigliotti said at the meeting. The restaurant would be located across from the Hanover Theatre, an area that lost The Muse cocktail bar and restaurant last year.

The commission first granted Shaking Crab alcohol and victualler licenses in August 2022. Shaking Crab has five other locations in Massachusetts in Foxborough, Newton, Brookline, Boston and Quincy, and locations in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey.

The Menkiti Group owns 554 Main, plus the Chatham Lofts, 401 Main St. and 204 Main St., home of the Courthouse Café. Menkiti was also chosen as the developer for the Denholm Building. That project may still be two years from being started, with the city still working on a land disposition agreement with the developer as of this month.