A Race against Time

A bleak medical prognosis inspired Tony Phelan to follow his restaurant dreams

Six months. A year. Maybe two. Soon after the doctor uttered those words, Tony Phelan made the decision. He would open the restaurant. No more daydreaming. No more brainstorming. No more words without action. It was time, whatever time that may be.

Most success stories don’t begin with a presumed death sentence. Most entrepreneurs don’t flourish because they are faced with an actual life or death situation. It’s rarely that dramatic. But in the case of Tony Phelan, it was the fear of death that gave birth to the joy of life.

Fast- forward sixteen years. Pinchers Crab Shack is in the process of opening its tenth location along Florida’s Gulf Coast. From Sarasota to Key West, the restaurants are thriving. Soon, the company will move farther up the coast to take on the Tampa area.

And Phelan? He spends his days exactly as you would expect a man who combined faith, belief, and modern medicine to put cancer back on the sidelines: living the life he intended to live, a life full of boats, grandchildren, and restaurants.

The idea of Pinchers Crab Shack had been bouncing around Phelan’s mind ever since he moved to Naples in 1989. A Texas native with decades of experience in the food business, he looked around the crowded, resort- rich restaurant landscape and saw an opening, but not the one you might expect.

Most would think a born- and- bred West Texas boy would set out to bring his home state’s peculiar style of barbeque to the area. Not Phelan. That would have to wait, as he saw a much greater opportunity.