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In two days Mr. Rock will be relieved of duty over at NASA and return to us at Dixie Crossroads. His very important consulting position for Project Juno will be complete. That’s because Juno will launch into outer space at 11:54am on August 5th, pending no complications with weather and equipment. Currently there is a 70% chance of acceptable conditions for launch. But since the shuttle program is over, how exactly is Juno supposed to get outside of Earth’s atmosphere, much less to the orbit of Jupiter? The Atlas V-551 rocket, that’s how!

Ricky Ly from the Orlando Food Blog, Tasty Chomps, has posted a video of his visit to Dixie Crossroads where he got a taste of our wide variety of shrimp flavors, and had a nice chat with Dawna about the history of the restaurant.

Overall, I would definitely recommend a trip out to Dixie Crossroads in Titusville for a day if you’re headed to the beach or just want some really fresh wild caught seafood. It only took us about 25 minutes to get out there on 528 and I-95, pretty much the same amount of time it takes to get to Disney from Orlando.

Right before the Atlantis roared into the sky, visitors from around the world descended on Dixie Crossroads for the other experience on the Space Coast that is like no other–Amazing Seafood! Check out the many people, young and old, that came to say goodbye to the Space Shuttle program and return to Dixie Crossroads for a great meal with family or friends:

Our Facebook Fan Page has just crossed the 3,000 fan threshold, an amazing feat! Thank you to all of our many fans and patrons! We love providing the greatest seafood imaginable, and this more than validates what we do.

Here’s a little bit of history on how far Dixie Crossroads has come:

In the late 70’s, the financial climate for boat manufacturers like Rodney Thompson required him to leave the boat manufacturing industry. It was during this time that Laurilee and Sherri had become closely involved in the family business. Rodney borrowed the money to purchase the last Thompson Trawler built while he still owned his boat plants. Laurilee named the boat after her mom and took it fishing. She was the first lady long line skipper in the southeast.

Rodney began his next venture, a 30-seat diner at the intersection of Garden Street and the Old
Dixie Highway in Titusville. Mary Jean Thompson, Rodney’s wife, christened it the Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant.

Laurilee stayed on the ocean for ten years, providing cash flow and grouper for the family’s
restaurant operation. In 1987, she came ashore to help manage the ever expanding eatery. Dixie Crossroads continued to grow, increasing its need for exceptional local seafood products. In the early 1990’s the family started Cape Canaveral Shrimp Company at Port Canaveral, giving them the ability to control the quality of the product they off-loaded from fishing boats.

Back in Titusville, the shrimp cleaning operation at Dixie Crossroads grew too large to contain in the kitchen. A freezer with a processing room was added in the parking lot. That facility was quickly outgrown and a seafood processing plant was developed in a nearby reconverted shopping center. Rodney built a freezer inside an old grocery store that could hold a half-million pounds of product. He began selling large amounts of seafood products to other wholesalers.

In 2004 the family started selling seafood to the general public, capitalizing on increasing interest in healthy “wild caught” product, with The Wild Ocean Seafood Market.

Laurilee and her partner Clay Townsend bought Dixie Crossroads from Rodney and Mary Jean
in 2006. The iconic restaurant continues to draw visitors from around the world.

When asked “What do you like most about being in this business?”, Laurilee stated that she loves
talking to people about the unique outdoor activities and history of our area. She is often asked
about her fishing past and says that reality shows like the Deadliest Catch and Swords have
been good for raising awareness about American fishermen and their noble industry.

Sherry McCoy, President of the Southeastern Fisheries Association, offers this notice to seafood lovers, “Good seafood isn’t cheap and cheap seafood isn’t good.”

In our continuing coverage of Mr. Rock’s adventures at NASA, we’ve decided to bring you some information on the target of Project Juno: The Planet Jupiter.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, but unlike Earth, Mars, or even Mercury, it is not a solid planetary body. Jupiter is a gas giant, made up of millions of cubic feet of hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia. Earth, on the other hand, is a terrestrial body with an atmosphere of gases that allow us to live on the surface of the planet.