Gay Fish Co. |

Contents:

• THE GAY FAMILY
• TAG ARCHIV: GAY FISH CO.
• GAY FISH CO., INC.
• GAY FISH COMPANY INC
• TAG ARCHIV: GAY FISH CO.
• GAY FISH CO

THE GAY FAMILY

When John Henry Gay and his wife, Hilda, me to St.

His son Robert Gay, who still works on shrimp boats om the fay dock, scrib his father’s early cisn. Today Robert is -owner of the dock along wh brother, Charl, and sister, Hilda Gay Upton.

TAG ARCHIV: GAY FISH CO.

He says, “We survive here at Gay Fish Company bee of the retail shop. I was gonna stay the service, but I got engaged to a young lady I had known most of my life, Hilda Gay. Gay for about six years.

The Gay fay legacy ntu today spe many challeng. Foreign petn and high operatg sts have also had their impact all along the ast, and Gay Fish Company has seen the number of boats dockg there drop om a high of 21 to a handful today. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.

GAY FISH CO., INC.

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Gay Water, however, is out and proud.

The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry.

The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.

GAY FISH COMPANY INC

For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. Turns out, Forrt’s oft-quoted adage also appli to an old filg bet at Gay Fish Company on Sat Helena Island, South Carola, which recently yield a pair of thirty-year-old receipts documentg the sale of shrimp to the Paramount Pictur productn. The fd was prompted by a chat between -owner Charl Gay, now seventy-seven, and dghter Cyndy Carr about the filmg of the Southern-set movie at nearby lol 1993.

TAG ARCHIV: GAY FISH CO.

Photo: urty of Gay Fish CompanyCharl Gay and Cyndy Carr hold the amed receipts and a photo of Gump actors Tom Hanks and Gary Sise.

“We already knew they were filmg bee they took a lot of boats jt up the way to Sam’s Pot, ” Gay remembers, addg that Gump’s creaky boat Jenny was actually the former Miss Sheri, purchased om a lol shrimper.

Even so, Gay didn’t expect crew members to stroll and requt shrimp for the upg scene, much ls a whoppg ial orr of nearly five thoand pounds. 95 a pound, forty-five baskets of ice, and a ed shovel apparently taken om the Miss Hilda, a boat named for Gay’s sister. Gay remembers that the crew discsed wantg enough shrimp to make Gump’s too hefty to put arms around, and to ver the ck when dumped.

GAY FISH CO

That goal was certaly exceed, bee after watchg the scene, Gay timat volv somewhat shy of six hundred pounds.

(As for the few crabs mixed wh the tch, Gay figur they were obtaed om a lol crabber. photo: urty of Gay Fish Company.