GAUTIER, Miss. (WLOX) – Fresh off the boat and straight towards Killer Crab & Seafood, a family restaurant located on Gautier Vancleave Road in Gautier.

“My whole family is in the seafood business and it started from there, then one thing led to another,” explains owner Drake Killingsworth.

Killingsworth started the fishing reel alongside his brother when he was 14 years old. The duo caught and sold fish and other seafood to everyone in their community.

Little did the Killingsworth family know that this was only the beginning.

“My senior year in high school, I knew we needed a building because there were 10-15 cars lined up in our neighborhood at my parents’ house, and that’s when we said to ourselves, ‘We definitely need a building,'” he said.

Despite being faced with such a huge task at such a young age, Killingsworth had some help along the way.

“My mom and dad helped me…” he recalled. “…When we started on Ladnier Road we were probably seating 15 to 20 people, and now I think we fit 80 people at a time.”

Owning and operating a seafood business was never in Killingsworth’s plans for nearly 10 years. But he says it’s hard to see it as work when you love what you do and your hobby becomes your source of income.

“I love what I do and I think everyone in my family loves what they do too,” he said.

Killingsworth, 23, currently has more than 30 employees at two locations. You can find them at 5116 Gautier Vancleave Road in Gautier or 6901 Washington Avenue in Ocean Springs.

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