Skinney’s was founded after Skinney McNeese bought the old restaurant from Ed McCarthy in 1943. His wife Marie used to cook the sauce at home and it was there that I first smelled what was to become a famous BBQ sauce. She worked on the sauce until perfected and it was used at Skinney’s for the next 34 years. Jimmy Smith (Magnolia Motors) then bought the restaurant from Skinney in 1977 and he and Ralph Smith (Cleveland Browns pro football ) ran the restaurant until 1999 when I purchased it from Jimmy and Ralph.

The two of them let Cliff Brumfield who worked for Skinney make the sauce and over the years he changed the sauce trying to make it better.

When the restaurant closed in 1999 I contacted Jimmy and asked him if he had the old recipe from Marie McNeese and was told that he did. I asked him if it was on a 3 x 5 index card and he said yes. I asked him if it had flowers in the top left hand corner and he assured me it did. He told me then that they did not use that recipe and I told him if he had that card I would buy Skinney’s.

Skinney’s had a reputation as a bar room with a restaurant and was a little wild in my younger days. I closed the bar on the restaurant side and move the lounge to the “ The Other Side”.

I used the remaining part of Skinney’s and made a banquet room where now we have wedding receptions, rehearsal suppers, reunions and even a twice yearly tool sale by a “Northern Company”.

My wife Elloise and I started Skinney’s back up with the original sauce on November 14^th, 1999. It was an immediate success and for four years we added different items to the menu and then leased the restaurant to our son Robert. He has been running Skinney’s since then...

We will keep this letter updated as to any changes we are anticipating.

Thank you for your past and hopefully your future support.

Kent & Elloise Muse