14-03-2025
Chef's famous lobster fest back for St. Patty's Day
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – A local caterer with four decades of experience is making the most of St. Patrick's Day by cooking and celebrating for several days.
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Jeff Chrystal and his catering team have been busy getting ready for an entire weekend of food, music, and fun for the St. Patrick's Day weekend.
Everything kicks off for Jeff Chrystal's Lobster Fest happening on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 at Knoll Run Golf Course in Lowellville. Guests will enjoy a large menu with items like Portland Maine Style Lobster roll on a grilled butter roll, house-made clam chowder, and Maryland-style crabcakes. Dinner entrees include boiled fresh Maine Lobster, roast prime rib, chargrilled lamb chops, fresh cod from Maine and much more.
'The people of Knoll Run are wonderful enough to let us come in and invade their parking lot and cook, and they take care of all the cocktails and wines that you want to have for the evening,' said Jeff Chrystal, of Chrystal's Catering. 'We have entertainment Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday at 2 p.m. we reopen with a full Irish menu, and then we'll open on Monday morning and I'll be cooking eggs and breakfast for you.'
The dinner is reservation only and Chrystal says spots are going fast.
'I ran up to Portland, Maine. The guys from Lucky Catch Lobster got these for us,' said Chrystal. 'The cool thing is there's so many fantastic fresh fish from that area, so I brought back lobster, thick-cut cod, fresh swordfish and we have salmon.'
If you're not a seafood lover, you can enjoy prime ribs smoked on a spit, chicken or steak just to mention a few.
On Sunday, March 16 and Monday, March 17, the food and festivities continue at Knoll Run with a St. Patrick's celebration. Chrystal is no stranger to catering and cooking incredible food as he started cooking 45 years ago. He said St. Patrick's Day is one of his biggest holidays, and he truly likes to keep it steeped in tradition.
'We've been cooking corned beef in the area for probably 40 years. We'll have corned beef and cabbage dinners, grilled Reubens. We try to do it as traditional as we've always done with the corned beef and cabbage dinners,' said Chrystal. 'And then we have homemade desserts. Our Baileys Irish cream almond tort, cheesecake with fresh berries and also a chocolate mousse torte.'
Chrystal makes everything fresh and from scratch.
'We make our homemade rye that we make for the sandwiches. We also have our rolls that we made for our lobster roll,' said Chrystal. 'We'll take diced up lobster, open the rolls up, butter them an grill them and then put the chopped up lobster with a little bit of spices, a touch of mayonnaise, some lemon juice onto the sandwich for an appetizer. And like always we have our homemade cracked wheat bread.'
Also on Monday, the owners of Phantom Fireworks will be at Crystal's Northside kitchen on Belmont Avenue in Youngstown handing out sandwiches to first responders from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Lobster Fest is happening on March 14 and March 15 at Knoll Run Golf Course in Lowellville by reservation only. The rest of the celebrations on March 16 and 17 are also at Knoll Run and no reservations are needed.
Knoll Run Golf Course is located at 1421 State Route 616 in Lowellville. For more information call (330)743-8062 and visit
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