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NEDERLAND — In 2019, Moe Ghazawenh bought what was a home on the corner of Nederland Avenue and 34^th Street. After completely renovating the building, Ghazawenh turned the property into Nederland Seafood House, with the name paying homage to the property’s past.

“My friend owned this property before,” he said. “We changed all of this stuff to make it a restaurant.”

Nederland Seafood House offers curbside pickup and dine-in options. Ghazawenh said he just had concrete poured last week for the drive thru, which should be completed in February.

“It’s still under construction,” he said. “We are still developing the window and the drive-thru system. It should be about a month or so.”

For the first time in the eatery’s short history, crawfish has been added to the menu.

“We are going to have orders of 3 and 5 lbs.,” Ghazawenh said. “We’re ready for that. I know everyone is ready for that. I had lot of people asking me when we were going to have it. It was a popular demand.”

To help compliment the new menu addition, Ghazawenh is adding more outdoor seating to allow people to enjoy their food in a picnic-like atmosphere, while maintaining a safe environment.

“A lot of people also like No. 29, which is a combination,” Ghazawenh said. “It is two fish and five jumbo shrimp. A lot of people love that because they get both.

“A lot of people like healthy options, so we give you a choice of fried or grilled. We have food for everyone. If someone doesn’t like seafood, we have chicken strips and burgers. If someone is allergic to something, we have something else for them. We have food for the whole family. We really pride ourselves on having really big shrimp.”

Ghazawenh dreamed of owning restaurants ever since he was a child. He also owns Sam’s Southern Eatery in Beaumont.

“So far, we’ve done pretty good,” he said. “The COVID hit us pretty hard. Now we are trying to do a drive thru to help people get their food quicker.”

Ghazawenh, who is from Louisiana, said cooking is in his blood.

“A lot of my family cooks,” he said. “I learned from my cousins. They are really big on that. My favorite thing to cook is a Philly cheese stake. Our seasoning makes it different from anyone else.”

The connection to the community is one of the main reasons Ghazawenh is in the business, he said.

“I love to cook,” he said. “The city has been very supportive. They come out. We hope some of these new additions like the crawfish and the drive thru will make them come out more.”