Southwest Florida’s Phelan Family Brands achieved its 25th year in business two weeks after losing a few of its restaurants devastated by Hurricane Ian.
Reaching its silver anniversary was a bittersweet moment for the Phelan family because some of its 22 restaurants were damaged in the storm. Five Phelan restaurants have yet to reopen after Ian but the local company plans to rebuild and looks forward to the next 25 years.
“Southwest Florida has been so good to us. I could never be angry with Southwest Florida,” said Grant Phelan, CEO of Phelan Family Brands, a restaurant group based in Bonita Springs. “It’s a tremendous place to live and work and raise a family.”
The local restaurant dynasty began with an American dream and humble beginnings. In 1997, Grant’s father, Tony Phelan, signed the lease for the first Pinchers Crab Shack where Petar’s restaurant is today in The Center of Bonita Springs on the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Bonita Beach Road. That small location eventually relocated a short distance south on 41 and the Pinchers concept grew during the next two decades to 12 restaurants along the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Key West. Other locations are in The Marina at Edison Ford in Fort Myers, Gulf Coast Town Center, Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral, Naples, Marco Island and Lakewood Ranch. 
In 2010, the Phelan’s introduced a barbecue restaurant concept, Texas Tony’s, to the area. Six years later, they founded Deep Lagoon Seafood, which has locations in Naples, Fort Myers and Marco Island. Early on, they also became co-owners of Island Crab Co. on Pine Island and they eventually acquired The Bay House in North Naples, Fish-Tale Waterfront Dining on Fort Myers Beach and Phuzzy’s Boat Shack in St. James City. Earlier this year, they launched another concept, Two Fillets, in North Naples.
Sadly, Pinchers Beach Bar & Grill at the Wyndham Garden hotel on Fort Myers Beach is gone forever. It was one of Grant Phelan’s favorite restaurants because it was on the beach so close to the Gulf. That proximity proved to be its undoing when Ian made landfall in late September.
“Nothing but a concrete slab is left. It’s horrible. That one is 100% complete loss,” Phelan said. “They’re going to bulldoze the hotel. They can’t rebuild it.”
That beachside restaurant is the only one of Phelan’s restaurants that will not be reopening.
Pinchers at Tin City on the Gordon River in Naples reopened Oct. 26, the last of the restaurants in Naples and Marco Island to relaunch after the storm. Four more of the group’s restaurants in Lee County are still being rebuilt.
Phuzzy’s and the Pinchers at The Marina at Edison Ford are targeted to reopen by the end of November. Phuzzy’s had damage from about 2 feet of water inside, but Pinchers in Fort Myers is a completely different story because the marina got walloped, Phelan said.
“The downstairs probably had about 4 feet of water in it but, fortunately, the restaurant is on the third floor. The restaurant really went unscathed but the marina was completely destroyed,” he said. “We had 42 boats in it at the time of the storm. Now, we have about five sunken, about 20 on land and 20 that we just don’t know where they are.” 
The hurricane ripped the docks to shreds, destroying the marina, Phelan said. “Now we’re busy trying to get all the boats safely out of the marina so that we can have guests park in the parking lot. Once we get the boats out, we can get the restaurant back open,” he said.
The family’s other Pinchers on Fort Myers Beach and the Fish-Tale restaurant also have yet to reopen.
“Our San Carlos (Boulevard) Pinchers, the one on the other side of the bridge when you’re going off the beach, it took a severe pounding,” Phelan said. “It got a bunch of water in it and a lot of wind damage but it’s still standing. We hope to get that open before the end of the year.”
Fish-Tale, which Phelan just bought in May, won’t be reopening for another six months to a year. “It took on about 9 feet of water. It’s still standing but it’s going to need a lot of repair and maintenance and TLC in order to get that one back up and going,” he said.
The company, of course, took a huge financial loss from the historical hurricane. “We had some insurance but we don’t have a tremendous amount,” Phelan said. “Nobody expected that kind of a flood and storm surge. It’s a major loss for the company, for the family, from a revenue standpoint, just being closed all the time that we were and continuing to be closed. Now, we’re going to miss for some of the locations November, December and possibly all of season. It’s been a big hit, but we’ll come back.”
Importantly, all of Phelan’s employees were able to safely evacuate, so nobody was physically injured, and they are still employed. “Fortunately, we’re large enough that we were able to move everybody that wanted to move into other positions within our organization within the family,” Phelan said.
Starting with the family’s first restaurant 25 years ago, the Phelans continue to prove that they can overcome incredible odds and obstacles to survive and thrive.
