Two sisters craving a taste of home bring Tampa-style Deviled Crab to Orange Park Mall

Craving a taste of home, two sisters created a Tampa-style deviled crab recipe that's proven so popular with Jacksonville-area diners that it's the foundation of a brick-and-mortar seafood restaurant that evolved from their food truck launched two years ago.

Two Sisters and A Deviled Crab, from siblings Jo Neishia Johnson and Kiara Simons, also features other seafood dishes such as lobster mac & cheese balls, crab cornbread and a fried salmon BLT that the newly minted restaurateurs developed after moving to Jacksonville from Tampa.

Their unique Cuban-influenced deviled crab reigns as the signature dish at the restaurant located at the food court of Orange Park Mall at 1910 Wells Road.

Both insurance industry employees, Johnson and Simons added "entrepreneur" to their resumes when they introduced Northeast Florida to their deviled crab with the February 2022 debut of their Two Sisters and A Deviled Crab food truck.

Fast forward to July 2023. They opened the restaurant at Orange Park Mall. An eye-catching, cheerful and brightly colored space, the restaurant is among the first guests see when entering the food court.

Two Sisters and A Deviled Crab's food court neighbors include Mr. Potato Spread, Popeyes, Great American Cookies and Pei Wei Asian Express among others.

Johnson and Simons now have set their sights on expanding throughout the Jacksonville area in the next few years. But the expansion will come only when they can ensure the high quality of their food, they told the Times-Union.

"We really put our heart and souls into Two Sisters," said Johnson, noting their decisions such as menu additions are made with their customers and potential customers in mind. "We always say that we want to fee people like we like to eat. We want to treat people like we want to be treated."

Passionate about Tampa-style deviled crab

Tampa-style deviled crab originated in Ybor City amid Cuban and Italian culinary influences that came with immigrants who worked in the cigar factories, Johnson said.

"The deviled crab in Tampa specifically is a croquette and that's the Cuban influence on our deviled crab. Then the sauce that we season the crab meat with is the Italian influence," Johnson said.

Until now, the Tampa croquette-style deviled crab could scarcely be found outside the Tampa area, they said.

"The tradition of the authentic deviled crab is being lost because it takes a lot of time to prepare the crab meat. It takes a lot of time to roll each and every deviled crab. It's not being passed down to younger generations … So younger generations are not learning the craft," Johnson said.

Deviled crab has been a mainstay since childhood for the sisters who grew up in Tampa. Their craving for the hometown dish came with them when the sisters relocated to Jacksonville — Johnson 12 years ago then Simons nine years ago.

A family favorite, it was a "quick and delicious option" as they ran errands with their mom on Saturday afternoons, as well as during casual gatherings at an aunt's home on Friday evening, they said.

"Whenever we would go home, we would always stop and have a deviled crab. It's a staple item in Tampa that we grew up on," Johnson said.

One Sunday in February 2021, they were driving back to Jacksonville from a Tampa visit when they decided to bring Tampa-style deviled crab to Jacksonville.

Perfecting their recipe focused on capturing "the authentic taste of the deviled crab that true Tampa natives are familiar with," they said.

Taste of Tampa deviled crab

"It took about nine months before we came out with the recipe," Simons said.

After a lot of taste-testing plus five months of traveling at least once a week back and forth to Tampa as they researched flavors, they came up with the recipe. Next, they developed a dipping sauce after receiving feedback from people who tried the deviled crab.

Deviled crab is their signature dish.

Simons said at $10 per order, it's four ounces of seasoned blue crab meat in each serving.

Other popular offerings include:

• Chlobster Bites ($16): Three tennis ball-size Lobster Mac-n-Cheese balls made with five premium cheeses then breaded and deep-fried

• The Sammie ($17): A salmon BLT sandwich featuring a six-ounce filet with pepper jack cheese then dressed with bacon-jalapeno aioli

• Whole snapper dinner ($29): A whole snapper weighing 1 to 2 pounds marinated overnight in Caribbean flavors then deep fried and served with coconut rice topped with fresh mango salsa and a side of sweet plantains

• Ybor Special ($19.99): Authentic pressed Cuban sandwich paired with deviled crab

Side dishes range from crab cornbread to fried green tomatoes, sweet fried plantains and fries.

Homemade brownies such as a Turtle Brownie — a chocolate brownie topped with caramel, pecans and sea salt — are among the dessert options.

Future expansion plans

Simons said they're looking to expand. In five years, their goal is to have four or five restaurants, she said.

Johnson said "because franchising is not an option right now, we'd prefer to have all our locations in Northeast Florida" — possibly college towns.

"We feel that our menu bodes well with young adults so we've been toying with the consideration of maybe opening a location in Gainesville or Tallahassee," she said. "We're toying with some different ideas, but we definitely want to keep them close so we can be hands on."

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Two Sisters and A Deviled Crab is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. It's currently closed on Monday, Simons said.

The food truck is available for large festivals as well as private events, Johnson said.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Two Sisters and A Deviled Crab brings taste of Tampa to Orange Park