What is Pinchers?

Pinchers is a family-owned and operated Florida seafood restaurant. It was started in 1997 by Tony Phelan and his son Grant in Bonita Springs, Florida, with twelve tables, and it is still owned and run by the Phelan family today. Pinchers serves Gulf blue crab, stone crab in season, grouper and other Florida seafood brought in on the family’s own boats and through Island Crab Company on Pine Island, a fish house the family has co-owned since 1998. There are ten Pinchers restaurants, from Tin City in Naples and Marco Island up the Gulf Coast to Venice, Lakewood Ranch and Wesley Chapel.

A family restaurant, not a chain

People sometimes assume a restaurant with ten locations must be a chain. Pinchers is not. There is no franchise, no corporate owner and no outside operator. The Phelan family opened the first Pinchers with the last of their savings in 1997, and the same family owns every Pinchers today, along with the fish house that supplies it. Growth came one restaurant at a time, in the towns the family lives in.

How it started

Tony Phelan built a business in Texas in the 1980s, lost it in the state’s financial crisis and moved his family to Southwest Florida to start again. A few years later he was diagnosed with cancer and given two years. In 1997 he put the family’s remaining savings into a 1,500 square foot unit in a Bonita Springs shopping plaza and called it Pinchers Crab Shack. Tony designed and built the room himself, tables and wall art included; Grant ran the kitchen. The plan was to bring the best of the Gulf, from local fishermen in local waters, to the table in a fun, down-to-earth room.

The first Pinchers opened on October 15, 1997, and the first guests walked in at 11:31, one minute after the doors opened. Kathleen Phelan, Tony’s wife, came up with the name, thinking of the blue crabs the family planned to serve. The wood for the tables came from discarded shipping pallets, the light fixtures were 55-gallon barrels Tony cut with a torch, and with no money left for a sign, he painted one himself on a piece of salvaged teak. Grant took a semester off from Cornell to help build it. An early review by Jean LeBoeuf in the Naples Daily News brought in new guests.

Those twelve tables are where every Pinchers comes from.

From the water to the table

In 1998 Grant set up a working relationship with Island Crab Company in St. James City on Pine Island, and the Phelans joined the Haugland family as co-owners. That is still where the blue crab, stone crab, grouper and other Gulf fish come in, from the family’s own boats and traps and from local fishermen and crabbers, delivered fresh to every Pinchers. It is why the crab cakes are hand-picked, why the grouper dip is smoked at the fish house, and why stone crab claws arrive when the season opens on October 15 and stay on the menu until it closes on May 1.

The family’s own fleet works about 10,000 stone crab traps, and its saying for the whole trip from boat to table is From Our Boats to Your Plate. Fishermen keep only the claws that meet Florida’s legal size and return the crab to the water, where it can grow the claw back, and every trap has a wooden breakaway panel so crabs can escape if it is ever lost. October 15 is also Pinchers’ birthday, so each new season starts on the restaurant’s anniversary.

What to expect

• Casual and family-friendly: a crab shack, not a white tablecloth room.
• Florida seafood, Florida style: crab claws, crab dip, grouper, Gulf oysters, peel-and-eat shrimp, seafood towers, stone crab in season.
• Waterfront settings at Tin City in Naples, Fort Myers Beach, the Marina at Edison Ford in Fort Myers and Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral.
• An online waitlist for every location, online ordering, and a rewards program shared across the family’s restaurants.
• Kids eat free with a paying adult. The Phelans raised their son Grant in restaurants and wanted other parents to be able to relax over dinner.
• Fresh-cut fries, cut in the kitchen since opening day.
• Shorts and sandy feet welcome. Tony never wanted a guest to wonder whether they were dressed right.
• Big shared tables and a bar where guests make room for each other, a habit from the first Pinchers that the family calls the Pinchers Shuffle.

The people behind it

Grant Phelan is now president of Phelan Family Brands. Tony’s first hire, Elizabeth “Lizard”, offered to sweep the construction site for free before the first Pinchers opened, and helped start the birthday celebrations and bell ringing that became part of a night at Pinchers. Some of the team have been with Pinchers since opening day and many for more than 20 years, and several who started as servers now work in the company’s corporate offices.

The Phelan family’s other restaurants

Pinchers was the first. Under Phelan Family Brands the family also runs Deep Lagoon Seafood, Texas Tony’s Rib and Brewhouse, The Bay House, Chops, Pazzo, Keewaydin’s, CJ’s On The Bay, Phuzzy’s Boat Shack, Caiman Cantina, Hogfish Harry’s, Bimini Basin Seafood and Cocktails, and Island Crab Company. One family, one rewards program across all of them.

Find a Pinchers

• Pinchers Tin City, Naples: 1200 5th Ave S, Naples, FL 34102, 239-434-6616
• Pinchers Bonita Springs: 28580 Bonita Crossing Blvd, Bonita Springs, FL 34135, 239-948-1313
• Pinchers Fort Myers Beach: 18100 San Carlos Blvd, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931, 239-415-8973
• Pinchers Marina at Edison Ford, Fort Myers: 2360 West 1st St, Fort Myers, FL 33901, 239-245-7049
• Pinchers Tarpon Point, Cape Coral: 5991 Silver King Blvd, Cape Coral, FL 33914, 239-540-7939
• Pinchers Gulf Coast Town Center, Fort Myers: 10029 Gulf Center Dr, Fort Myers, FL 33913, 239-415-4040
• Pinchers Marco Island: 591 South Collier Blvd, Marco Island, FL 34145, 239-970-5391
• Pinchers Lakewood Ranch: 10707 Rodeo Dr, Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202, 941-900-3315
• Pinchers Venice: 900 Venetia Bay Blvd, Venice, FL 34285, 941-485-9196
• Pinchers Wesley Chapel: 28330 Paseo Dr, Ste 185, Wesley Chapel, FL 33543, 813-528-8715

Read more: About Pinchers · Who Owns Pinchers? · Locations · Menu · Phelan Family Brands

FAQ

What is Pinchers?
Pinchers is a family-owned and operated Florida seafood restaurant, started in 1997 in Bonita Springs by Tony and Grant Phelan. Blue crab, stone crab in season and Gulf fish come in on the family’s own boats and through Island Crab Company on Pine Island, which the family has co-owned since 1998. Ten restaurants across Southwest Florida and the Gulf Coast.

Is Pinchers a chain?
No. Pinchers has no franchise and no corporate owner. The Phelan family opened the first Pinchers in 1997 and owns and runs every Pinchers today as part of Phelan Family Brands.