PINCHERS
By Duncan
The day began with food. While Jim was still asleep, I hit the kitchen for one of my favorite American breakfasts.
The morning was young, at least for some of us. I enjoy cooking occasionally, and what better way to do that than to hold court over a beautiful kitchen and fix myself a breakfast of over-easy eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast?
Of course, the problem is that I need to clean up after breakfast.
This meal will hold me over until we get to Pinchers tonight. It’s fun to sit on the Lanai and look out over the water, but it’s also fun to try some of the better restaurants in the Cape Coral Area.
We headed to Marina Village, a very swank location. As you can see on the sign, this will be an interesting event as we enter the complex.
Jim is very careful where he parks his BMW. He told me he would let me out at the door, and then I would approach the hostess, put our name in the rotation, and he would park the car. The parking garage was a half block away from the restaurant.
I left my name and walked outside with the rest of the people waiting for a table.
I took a few snaps of the front of the restaurant. I was approached by a lovely-looking woman sitting with her girlfriend, and she wanted to know if I was there by myself.
“I smiled and looked at my girlfriend, who was smiling, too. I said, “No, I have a pal parking the car? He will be here in a few minutes.”
“Are you gay?”
The question took me aback. “No, I’m not gay, and you and your girl freind, what might you be tonight? Aye?”
“We were wondering if you would like to join our table.” At that point, two men standing before the women became interested in my answers. I felt a cold breeze on my neck. I asked the ladies,
“Would these fine-looking gentlemen standing next to me be your husbands?”
“Why yes, they would.”
I looked at the two men and asked, “Does this happen often?”
One said, “What goes on in Cape Coral stays in Cape Coral.”
They both laughed. I’m not sure what that meant.
“I see; well, thank you for the invitation, and I’m sure I would enjoy the evening, but I’m going to have to take a rain check.”
Thank goodness their table was ready, and they entered the restaurant.
Jim walked to the front of the restaurant, and I said, “Let’s get to the table; I have a story you won't believe.”
Jim Tsareff - Pinchers
Pinchers bring a big piece of brown paper to the table. This allows the waitress to write her name backward so we won’t forget her name. It’s a neat little trick. Our waitress was “Donna.” A total professional. She talked me into the drink special. If I buy one cocktail, I get a second one free. I asked for her magic marker and wrote my name backward so she could call me “Duncan.”
DUNCAN
The manager came by, and I asked him a couple of questions. “I don’t know much about Pinchers. What's the backstory of this place?”
He took a deep breath and began the story.
Well, we must start in Texas to tell the story of the Pinchers Crab Shack. A fellow named Norman Brinker owned a few Steak and Ale restaurants on the east coast of Florida.
Norman decided to open two Steak and Ale restaurants in Texas and asked Tony Phelan (Tony and his family own Pinchers) to move to Texas to manage his restaurants. After working for Norman, Tony wanted to own his restaurants. He got tired of working for someone else. Tony moved forward with a new concept.
Tony Phelan decided to open an Irish Pub in Wichita Falls, Texas. It became successful, and Tony opened his Irish Pub concept in Wako, Longview, and Keleen. It took Tony about six years to have four successful Irish Pubs making money. Life was good, and his lifestyle was “Large.”
Tony and his family had a big home, luxury cars, and an airplane. “Life is Good.”
Then, things happened beyond Tony’s control. During the 1970s, the Texas economy was run on oil. Oil drilling rigs were everywhere, and everyone was making money; a barrel of oil sold for forty dollars ($40.00).
Across the Atlantic, Margaret Thatcher opened up the North Sea and allowed drilling. Drilling for oil. The price of oil went from forty dollars to fourteen dollars a barrel ($40.00 - $14.00). In addition, the Savings and Loan scandal didn’t help either. Texas went broke overnight. Interest rates for mortgages went to sixteen percent. (16%) The population of Wichita Falls went from 100,000 to 70,000 almost overnight. Business was so bad Tony had to shut down his four restaurants. He had no choice.
It was time to come up with a new plan. It was time to leave Texas. So, Tony asked his wife, Kathleen, what do you want to do now? Where would you like to move to this time? Kathleen said,
KATHLEEN - GRANT - TONY PHELAN - PINCHERS CRAB SHACK
“As far away from Wichita Falls as I can get.”
Tony looked at Seattle, and then a friend called Tony and said, “Hey, you need to look at Naples, Florida. This place is busy and booming, plus the weather is terrific.”
Tony packed everything he could in a cargo van, with a beat-up old trailer with plywood sides and a blue trap over the contents to keep things dry.
It’s now 1989, and the family (Mom, Dad, and their two sons) find a 1200-foot Florida apartment. Yes, Florida can get chilly. On one December morning, Tony asks his son Grant to go out and warm up the van. Grant walks outside, returns in a few minutes, and asks Tony where he parked the van. Tony says, “Right where I park the van every night.” Grant says, “Well, the van is not there.” The van had been repossessed. The family didn’t have transportation at that point.
So, Kathleen took up the reins and said I need to get a job. Kathleen has always wanted to teach school. She applied for a job at a school and worked in the superintendent‘s office as a secretary. And she would hostess at Red Lobster at night.
Tony was trying to find his niche. He worked as a server at “The Dock Bar,” then at Wollie grocery store in the seafood department, then at Hooters for a little while. When Grant was 14, he started bagging groceries at Publix. Grant also worked at an ice cream parlor and carried golf bags at the country club through high school.
Grant (the oldest son) wants to attend Cornell's School of Hospitality and Administration.
Tony was grilling outside the apartment one night, and Tony told his son, Grant, “I’ve been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. They have given me two months to two years to live.” Cancer had metastasized into his leg.
Kathleen has her teaching certificate and was teaching. At this point, Grant was a sophomore at Cornell, and the family didn’t know what to do. The next day, Tony asks his son Grant, “What do you think about opening another restaurant?”
Grant thought about it and said, “Let’s see, my brother is in high school, I’m in college, mom is working as a teacher, you're going to die, and we have no money. For all those reasons, let’s not open another restaurant.”
Tony said, “Well, I’ve already signed a lease on a 1500-square-foot place in Bonita Springs, Florida.”
Grant yelled, “Why are you doing this to us?”
“I want to leave something behind—something for the family. I have an idea; listen to me. There are many New York-style steak restaurants and Chicago-style pizza places, but not many restaurants offer seafood, which the Gulf of Mexico has plenty of right here in Florida. There are not that many quality seafood places in Southwest Florida.”
Grant dropped his head, regained his composure, and looked at his father. “I’ll be happy to join your dream.” Grant took a year off from Cornell. Grant worked as a server at a Japanese Steak House and put his tips on the breakfast table every night. Tony took the money the next morning, went to Lowes, and purchased nails, a hammer, paint, and whatever was needed to get the restaurant up and running. Tony’s uncle sent him $7,000 for cancer treatments, and Tony put the money into the restaurant instead of cancer treatments.
October 15, 1997, Pincher's Crab Shack became a reality. In the middle of Bonita Springs, Pinchers Crab Shack was 1500 hundred square feet, with twelve tables and sixteen employees. Grant continued to work tables at another restaurant because the Crab Shack only made about $600 a day. Grant (Tony’s son) could make more money serving tables at another high-end restaurant, and Tony’s wife continued to work as a teacher during the day and as a hostess at night at the Crab Shack.
Then, the Crab Shack got a write-up in the Naples Paper. They gave the restaurant three stars for the ambiance—three and a half stars for food and three and a half stars for service.
Sales then increased to one thousand dollars a day. The family worked with each customer, one at a time. But the one thousand dollars a day was a big deal. That meant they could have a decent meal once in a while.
The original Crab Shack was in a strip center with a Beauty Supply and Salon on one side and a Pet store on the other. Imagine the smells from a Beauty Salon, a Pet Store, and a seafood crab shack in one-hundred-degree Florida weather.
They continued to add more restaurants. About ten years ago, one of Pinchers' fresh seafood suppliers of Chesapeake blue crab and stone crab, who was selling Pinchers his catch from his boat, said, “I’m not making any money; I can’t catch more product. I’m going to have to stop doing business. I’m going to sell my boat and move back to North Dakota.”
Tony said, “Wait a minute. I’ve built my business around the product you have been supplying me. You can’t quit! Tony had to think fast of a way to protect his seafood supply.
“Let us (Pinchers) buy fifty percent of your company. I will run all my seafood purchases through you, not anybody else.” They made the deal.
Since then, Pinchers has purchased four additional blue crab and four stone crab boats. It has also bought 10,000 blue crab traps and 10,000 stone crab traps, and It has its own Grouper and Shrimp boats, which allows It to control the supply of fresh seafood to the restaurants.
If you asked Tony about the most significant period of his life, he would say going broke in Texas and getting Cancer. Why? He would have never moved to Florida if he had not been broke. Cancer was God’s way of telling him to get up and be motivated to do something with his life.
KATHLEEN AND TONY PHELAN STILL LIVING THE DREAM.
With seventeen Pinchers restaurants today, they always remember the original store. To make it big, Tony reminds the staff at the current scenic locations that they must have a super clean environment, the best fresh seafood, and outstanding service for great value. If we do that, we will stay in business.
What an interesting evening.
