Mouthwatering catfish, crunchy crawpuppies, gumbo, boudin and delicious crawfish etouffee are some of the dishes on the menu of Arlington's newest Cajun restaurant, Crawdaddy's Shack. The restaurant opened its doors in July at 4101 West Green Oaks Blvd.

"At age five, when all my brothers and sisters were in school, I'd watch my mom cook all day in the kitchen,' said Jeff Boswell. "I was her sampler.'

Crawdaddy's started as a vision between Jeff and Rodney Boswell, two brothers originally from Pineville, Louisiana. While originally from Louisiana, the Boswell brothers have lived in Fort Worth for decades. They felt there was nothing close to their mother's cooking in town.

"Our food tastes homemade and the ingredients aren't packaged,' said Rodney. "We go back to Alexandria and Pineville to get a lot of our seafood, sausage and seasonings. It's authentic Cajun food, it's not coming from New York or Wisconsin. The recipes come from our grandmother, mother and aunt.'

Their vision turned into a catering business back in 2006.

"There's no overhead with the catering business and it helped us get our name out,' said Jeff. "In September 2006 we started our catering business and we catered hundreds of events throughout the metroplex. For the City of Keller, we did a crawfish broil with 3,000 pounds of crawfish.'

After six years of successful catering, the Boswell brothers found a location for their restaurant in Arlington. The location was once a sushi and hibachi restaurant. Rodney and Jeff gave it a whole new feel, with beautiful panoramic murals done by Painting with a Twist, another Arlington business.

"Rod and I personally remodeled it for a southern feel - a place to make you feel like home,' said Jeff. "We know a lot of our customers by name and they love it. We take the time to sit down and talk to them.'

And Arlington has welcomed the Cajun cooks with open arms. Crawdaddy's Shack received two awards at Taste of Arlington - Best New Restaurant and Most Unique Restaurant. The Boswells couldn't be happier.

"We plan on getting more involved with the city by joining the Chamber and looking for opportunities to cater events in Arlington,' said Jeff.

The Boswells also plan on opening a gift shop in the restaurant in a few weeks to sell their beignets, also made from a family recipe. "We're going to package our beignets, made from our family recipe. We are also gonna sell rice and beans and our seasonings,' said Rodney.

The Boswell brothers hope to one day open locations across the metroplex. For a look at their menu, please visit whosyourcrawdaddy1.com.