Skipjacks Serves up Crabs and Craft Brew to Patrons

Successful business owners may have big dreams and long-term plans, but they also must focus their immediate attention on the goals at hand in order to flourish. That’s the approach being taken by Richard Remeta and Eric Wood in their current business venture,  on Belair Road in Overlea.

Friends since they were roommates at Clemson University, the two already owned Seaside Seafood, a seafood carry-out operation in Glen Burnie. But they wanted to bring customers indoors with a sit-down seafood restaurant.

“We wanted to build a place where people could come for an enjoyable, but affordable, family night out,” said Remeta.

Initially, much of their time went into finding just the right spot.

"As the business is in its infancy, we know that changes will come and we will bring our many business plans into play, but for that infancy stage, the main focus was on the right location," said Remeta. "We wanted it very convenient on a major artery."

They scouted locations from 2007 until 2009 when they settled on a free-standing restaurant at 7703 Belair Road in Overlea. Locals may remember the site previously as Schooners and before that, Brownie’s. Skipjacks Crab House & Sports Bar opened officially in fall 2009.

“Right from the start, the building needed a lot of cosmetic surgery and an overhaul of the equipment inside,” said Remeta. “And we gutted the bar area.”

Skipjack’s horseshoe bar area includes six large plasma televisions for watching sports events. Remeta said he is crossing his fingers along with other football fans waiting to find out if they’ll be watching the Ravens playing on those screens this season. 

After renovations began taking shape, Wood and Remeta concentrated on the main element: the food. They hired head chef Mike Delacruz from John Steven in Fell’s Point.

“Our idea was that if you get good food, especially good crabs, people will come.”  They hope word-of-mouth recommendations spread the word so that stopping at Skipjacks on the way home from work or making a trip with the family for a Saturday night dinner becomes a regular practice.

While the owners' aim has been to establish a traditional, Maryland crab house, they're intent is to use Gulf seafood, including Louisiana crabs, said Remeta.

“We have people who ask for Louisiana crabs — more than you might think. It used to be that around here people only wanted Maryland crab, but due to the seasonal nature of the Maryland crab, crabs had to be flown in," Remeta explained. “Customers have come to like the availability and the consistency of the product.”

Consistency has been an important element in building the business, and that means weeding out light crabs, Remeta said.

“Serve someone light crabs and it will kill your business,” he said.

“I would tell people to get the medium  or large crabs. They’ll get big meaty crabs. With a family of four, you can get out with a bill of about $50-60,” he said.

The careful planning and baby steps in developing Skipjack’s comes from the duo’s collective background working in the food industry. Many people enter the restaurant business haphazardly, but Wood and Remeta have been leading up to a restaurant for years.

“I worked in restaurant management, and Eric grew up working in the business with his father,” explained Remeta. At various points, both worked in management positions in other industries.

Eric Wood grew up in Ann Arundel County working in his father’s food business, Seaside Seafood Inc., a wholesale and retail seafood operation, founded by William “Jerry” Wood in the early 1970s.

Jerry Wood and his brother, Jim, also operated a local restaurant which they sold in 2001, as well as a carry-out operation which was sold to Wood and Remeta in 2003.

It was all part of the long-term plan for a restaurant, according to Remeta. Unlike like many who get the notion to buy a restaurant or bar, then find out it’s very different from what they had imagined, Remeta said he and Wood had no illusions about the long hours and work needed to make a restaurant successful.

“We knew what we were getting into from the start,” Remeta said.

Nowadays, they’re tweaking promotions including trivia nights and karaoke. Wednesdays mean a chance to sample craft beer.  

"Larger companies took hold of the term ‘microbrew,’ so the small, home-grown brews have come to be known as craft beer," explained Remeta. For $5, he said, "people can get a really unique product; they can try out something from a small brewer."

All of these things are elements of becoming part of the neighborhood, Remeta said. "We get the families on the weekend and the guys stopping on their way home from work during the week."