Pinchers hauls in buckets of seafood-loving customers

By crab joint standards, Pinchers could be considered upscale, with its butcher paper table cloths deftly ripped off a roll on the wall by the hostess and plunked upon your table as you are seated.

In the crab joints I've patronized in the mid-Atlantic region, there wasn't any such fuss, just the naked table, a bucket of crabs and, if you were lucky, a plate and some rudimentary flatware.

Not only do you get plates, forks and knives at Pinchers, the server scrawls her name on your table cover as she introduces herself. Considering the high volume of the patrons on the two recent nights that I visited, it's likely the only way you'd get it.

I visited the North Fort Myers Pinchers, which is on the ground floor of the Best Western Waterfront Hotel and has a smashing view of the Caloosahatchee and the Fort Myers skyline. Other locations are in South Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Naples and Sarasota.

Clearly, the family owned chain has developed a formula that appeals to tourists and locals alike with its "You Can't Fake Fresh!" motto and a menu that's almost exclusively seafood, although there are standards such as wings, burgers, ribs and chicken fingers in the mix. Pinchers recently reduced prices on a number of menu items in response to the down- turn in the economy.

Coconut shrimp with sweet chili sauce make a great start to a meal at Pinchers. PHOTOS BY KAREN FELDMAN There's a lighthearted attitude evident in the plethora of neon bar signs, silly signs (such as "Free beer tomorrow"), photos and knickknacks that cover almost every surface in the place. I particularly like the overhead lights, fashioned out of steel drums that are cut in half then decorated by punching in the shapes and names of local fish. Both dining rooms face the river and that side of the restaurant has windows that roll up like garage doors, allowing an expansive view of the water that rivals anything I've seen on the Fort Myers side.

As you might gather from the name, crab is the star of Pinchers' menu, which is why I was somewhat taken aback the night of my visit, smack in the middle of tourist season, to find that the restaurant was out of stone crab claws and blue crab.

Tuna is served grilled, blackened or . broiled and comes with two side dishes, such as fries and garlic bread. Considering the number of menu items that feature crab — about a dozen not counting the king, snow and Dungeness dishes — I'd think that the management would go to great lengths to ensure a steady supply (especially when you take into account that the company is a part owner of Island Crab Co.).

That put the kibosh on that appetizer of stone crab claws I had planned. I'd sampled the crab cakes the week before and found the preponderance of filler and lack of crab lumps disappointing. On my return trip, I'd considered ordering the High Roller Genuine Jumbo Crab

Cake, about which the menu says

"These babies have a ton of crab meat added for the discerning crab cake eater." They cost more than the standard cakes and presumably would therefore have more crab, but such was not to be.

From the lineup of appetizers, we chose coconut shrimp and a new offering, onion rings. The 10 shrimp were large, fresh and coated in a crisp breading that had great coconut flavor without being cloyingly sweet. A sweet chili dipping sauce had a good balance of heat and sweet, which paired well with the shrimp. The onion rings were excellent — big rings in a tasty batter that was fried to a golden brown. They were crisp and not at all greasy. They were served with something called Spicy Boom Boom Sauce and I can attest that it's aptly named. The creamy orange sauce looks innocent enough and the initial flavor is mild and then — boom! — the heat hits your tongue with a wallop.

My companion had grilled tuna for an entrée, accompanied by fries and garlic bread. (The kitchen was out of green beans, too, leaving cole slaw as the only non-starch in the side order lineup. We'd tried the slaw the previous week and found it crisp and fresh but bland.)

On our first visit, the tuna came out medium rare, as requested. On the second visit, it was cooked well into the medium range, which qualifies as overcooked for this particular fish.

I had the grouper tacos, which contained chunks of fried grouper, a bit of spicy chipotle aioli, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and mango salsa in tortillas. The tacos possessed a good mix of flavors and textures but were lukewarm, as was the tuna. A side order of baked beans was hot and nicely seasoned.

The fries, which had been hot and good on our first visit, were also lukewarm on the second trip, an indication that the dishes had languished in the kitchen before our server was able to deliver them.

There were other signs that all was not flowing smoothly in the kitchen, including a considerable wait for our appetizers — about 15 minutes — and another between starters and entrees — more than 20 minutes. Servers clustered repeatedly at the pickup window awaiting their orders as the kitchen staff worked feverishly in an effort to keep up.

Our server had her hands full, but that seems to be standard operating procedure here and the cheerful staff seem accustomed to the pace as well as the volume, which was high during both of my visits.

With a full bar, a family friendly attitude and low prices, it's small wonder Pinchers appeals to budget-conscious diners. A little more consistency in the food and service areas would ensure that more of them would keep coming back.