Restaurateur learns from mistakes

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 18, 2004 by Neil R. G. Young, CLU, ChFC

Patrick McCusker, Skunny to his friends, will tell you he learned everything about running a successful restaurant by learning how not to do it.

Born and raised in Dundalk, Skunny spent most of his early adult life at the beach. He started going to the beach every summer as a teen-ager, working odd jobs in restaurants or steaming crabs.

By the time he was ready for college, he was living at the beach full time and commuting every Tuesday and Thursday to Towson University, where he majored in marketing with a minor in economics. But from the beginning, Skunny knew he wanted to have his own restaurant.

His first experience as an entrepreneur began in 1990 when he became a part owner at the Great American Cookout and Bimini's Beach Bar at the 45th Street Village in Ocean City. The hours were long and hard, and nothing seemed to go right.

Even the hostess was making more money than I was, he admits.

Although Skunny was working incredible hours, he tried to get some time alone every morning. He'd put on his wetsuit, grab his sea kayak, and paddle around for a while.

But even this time didn't give him rest, and he began to grow tired and irritable. His friends and especially his roommate began to worry about him.

One morning I went out and paddled for a while, but I was so tired, I finally came in, went up to the apartment, pulled the shades, hung my wetsuit in the front room and crashed in the back room, Skunny recalls.

Concerned when he didn't show up at the restaurant, his roommate went back to the apartment, opened the door, and saw the dark form of the wetsuit hanging in the dark front room.

Fearing the worst, that Skunny had done harm to himself, his roommate screamed, Call 911! and dove at the form to pull it down, only to find himself wrapped in a soaked wetsuit.

Making his mark

Great American Cookout and Bimini's Beach Bar didn't last too long, and Skunny decided it was time to leave the beach and make his mark in Baltimore.

After Bimini's, Skunny went to work managing different restaurants along the beach, riding his bike everywhere, thinking, It's time to do something.

Living at the beach didn't really prepare me for coming up to Baltimore for interviews, Skunny says.

In 1993, Skunny left the Eastern Shore and moved in with his parents in Baltimore. It wasn't a triumphant return home, but Skunny needed to regroup. He started working for a small pizza delivery business in Canton.

The owner and I had an understanding that I could work my way into ownership with sweat equity. I didn't take a salary, and I worked like crazy to take over ownership.

Soon after taking over the pizza delivery business, Skunny decided it was time to open his own restaurant next door.

So, on Elvis' birthday in January 1994, Nacho Mama's opened for business, and has become a legend in Baltimore's Canton Square. For the first few months, business was horrible, and he had visions of the Great American Cookout all over again. The winter of 1994 was one of the worst in decades. Fortunately, the pizza shop kept them going.

The early years were slow, but as housing prices kept rising in Fells Point, people began to spill over into Canton, and soon the Canton Square became a destination place, crowded with restaurants and pubs. Skunny credits the growth and competition for the success of his restaurant.

In 1996, Skunny made a strategic decision and hired Sean Fisher as his executive chef. Sean brought a real talent for palate-pleasing Mexican dishes and business took off.

Skunny, Sean, and the staff focused on what they did best: giving diners a unique dining experience. However, Skunny, ever the entrepreneur, began thinking about a second restaurant.

Two doors down was the home of the Catholic War Veterans. Skunny and the vets became friends and one day he said to them, If you guys ever decide to sell this building, let me know. Several years later, in fact Christmas of 2002, the old vets agreed and Skunny got the financing to buy the building.

Early on in the process, Skunny decided to bring his wife, Jackie, into the equation. Before her marriage to Skunny, Jackie had worked in marketing in her father's company, the George J. Falter Co.

Jackie has a great head for business, says Skunny, and I realized with all the pressures of running Nacho Mama's, she would be a great help with the new restaurant.

Skunny and Jackie envisioned an upscale seafood restaurant that would go head-to-head with the established seafood restaurants in Baltimore.

Normally, when a high-end restaurant gets ready to open, it will hold rehearsals to iron out bugs in the kitchen and with the wait staff. Not so with Skunny and Jackie's new restaurant, which they named Mama's on the Half Shell.

We opened the Tuesday before Thanksgiving of last year, Skunny explains. When we got up that morning, we really hadn't thought we'd be open for business that night, but by 4:15, we got everything together and opened at six o'clock. I called my mom at 5:15 to see if she could come for opening night!

In addition to running Nacho Mama's and with Jackie running Mama's on the Half Shell, Skunny is constantly coming up with new ideas.