NATCHEZ &045;&045; The Seafood Shack has opened on U.S. 61 South, where owner Bill Rieffel is bringing shrimp and other fresh catch from the gulf to Natchez-area customers.

The small building, recently renovated, sits just south of Kaiser’s Food and Fuel and across the highway from Stine Lumber.

Rieffel showed off shrimp on a day earlier in the week, from small to jumbo size. &uot;Right now we’re trying to stay open seven days a week until we find out which days are the slow ones,&uot; he said.

Rieffel has been in the business for more than 30 years, he said. &uot;I grew up in New Orleans, petting the horses and ponies,&uot; he said. &uot;My family was in the race horse business.&uot;

He abandoned horses for the Gulf of Mexico, starting out as a shrimp boat owner who sold his catch on the docks.

&uot;The foreign markets were killing us,&uot; he said. However, he had established a few small places away from the docks where he sold seafood to retail instead of wholesale customers.

Today, he has seafood markets in Hammond and Denham Springs, La. He lives in Kentwood, La., but has an eye on Natchez as a possible new home.

&uot;In addition to shrimp, we’ll have crab, flounder, red fish, soft shell crab, whole fresh filet &045;&045; I want to find out what people around here want,&uot; he said.

The market manager is Tammy Jones, who will assist customers with their fresh seafood orders from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Seafood Shack does not offer cooked seafood. &uot;I have a lot of people who think we sell prepared food. We do not,&uot; Rieffel said.

He hopes the market will become known around town for its good seafood. He opted to open the market in Natchez when he found no one else was selling shrimp in the area.

Natchez businessman Peter Buttross owns the building. He said the new tenant should be a success. &uot;He’s a good business man. And he already has put a lot of effort into making the building look good,&uot; Buttross said. &uot;We need to support him.&uot;