What are the stories behind the details at Pinchers?

Tables made from shipping pallets

Buying a dining room full of new tables wasn’t in the cards. Tony and Grant found wood someone else didn’t need, much of it from discarded shipping pallets, and a carpenter helped turn it into sturdy tables.

Pallets are held together with a lot of nails and staples. Despite everyone’s best efforts to pull them all out, one staple escaped notice. It went through the carpenter’s planer, left its mark on the machine and left a mark in the wood too, a little reminder of where those tables came from.

The tables were never meant to make anyone worry about scratching the furniture. They were built for cracking crab claws, passing baskets of fries and putting your elbows down while you tell a good story.

Light fixtures cut from barrels

At one point Tony learned to use a cutting torch and started turning 55-gallon barrels into light fixtures. He cut them lengthwise and decorated them with fish, beaches and scenes from Southwest Florida. It was creative, inexpensive and just unusual enough to fit right in.

The green ceiling

The original ceiling was green, and painting it became one of those father-and-son projects that sounds like a good idea until everyone involved is wearing more paint than they intended. Tony and Grant can still laugh about that one.

A sign painted on salvaged teak

The family couldn’t afford a proper sign for the front of the restaurant, so Tony painted one himself on a piece of salvaged teak. That handmade sign is how the neighborhood first met Pinchers.

Why it still feels this way

Over time, the bright colors, Florida touches and playful details became part of who Pinchers is. They were never meant to match perfectly. They were meant to make people comfortable, whether they come in with the whole family or straight off a boat. Sometimes the things you build because you have to become the things you remember most fondly.