A local restaurant spotlight
- Dixie crossroads is a lot more to write about than more. The restaurant has been serving Titusville since 1983, all they do is ocean caught seafood from port Canaveral. They have amazing shrimp and corn fritters
How Dixie Crossroads Became a Titusville Tradition.
The restaurant was founded by Rodney and Mary Jean Thompson in 1983 in Titusville. Rodney worked in boat building and commercial fishing. He also cooked for the Air Force in the Korean war.
Dixie crossroads started at a small 30 seat diner. Rodney's daughter Laurilee Thompson said her parents built the small diner to run themselves. The diner wanted to serve real, local caught Florida seafood, Rather than imported. Their business grew very quickly.
The restaurant expanded to about 465 seats. Then space coast connections, during the height of NASA's space shuttle era and all employees became regular customers. In the 2012 account reported a large NASA group would essentially take over the restaurant, this would then give Dixie crossroads more exposure to people around the world.
Rock shrimp were considered almost worthless because their shells are extremely hard and difficult to remove. Fishermen often threw them back because it wasn't an easy way to process and sell them. Rodney Thompson began experimenting with rock shrimp after bringing them home. Him and his family figure out that they could split and butterfly the shrimp and cook them like small lobster tails.
Corn fritters have been a big part of the Dixie crossroads experience since the restaurant opened in 1983. They're served as a part of the meal. The restaurant even gave out the recipe, which is corn, flour, eggs, milk, sugar.