Skipper’s remains a college town favorite with Chicago flavor and family service

By Kelly Higginson, For The Miami Student

Andrew slammed the phone against the wall, bathed in the neon glow of the Skipper's sign through the window.

"I need two more cheeseburgers, one done up and one with just American cheese, both with criss cuts on the side and honey mustard dipping sauce," Andrew yelled.

It's Monday night, also known as "Burger Night" at Skipper's Pub, where customers can get a burger and fries special for $5.

"The kids love burger night, you won't stop hearing that phone ringing for more deliveries," Andrew said.

It's not just the deliveries - Skipper's itself is packed. Guys hunch over the counter watching sports games on the TV at the bar. Groups of students and their bags fill every table. In front of all the patrons are the classic red plastic baskets filled with only crumbs of leftover crispy fries.

A group of girls walks in the door. The first girl's face lights up as soon as she recognizes who is working behind the counter.

"Hey, Andy!" the girl waves.

Andrew greets her by her first name and then proceeds to shout her order without even asking her: cheeseburger with no onions, and a Greek side salad with extra feta cheese. Her expression showed this clearly wasn't the first time he had nailed her order, and she followed her friends outside to the picnic tables.

People who know Andrew Amarantos closely call him the "Mayor of Oxford." Others who don't know him still know that he is one of the owners of Skipper's Pub on High Street, in Uptown Oxford.

The two Amarantos brothers, Andrew and Terry, have been business partners since they decided to take their father's business from the big city of Chicago to the small streets of Oxford.

The two brothers were raised helping their father, who owned a hot dog shop named "Skipper's Red Hots Drive-In." The 20-by-40 foot space had one counter, six stools and a menu that the Amarantos family had perfected. The two teenage boys would help their dad on weekends making burgers, Italian beef and hot dogs, wrapping them up in wax paper for customers to take outside the shop to eat.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

"My dad was a straight shooter, almost too straight of a shooter," Terry said as he leaned back in his office chair to reflect. "That business was successful because of the way he worked with customers."

Terry describes the area in which they grew up as "dodgy," with crime occurring more often than not. Yet, the Amarantos still made an effort to get to know everybody and serve them with a smile.

"My dad knew them all," Andrew said. "He really just liked people and he knew that if he worked hard, he could put us all through school and that was his goal."

Their father's goal was achieved - all the Amarantos children attended college. After college, each of the four Amarantos children had a choice to either follow their father's footsteps with the family business or pave their own trail.

"When we heard about a potential closed Dairy Queen location open in Oxford, Ohio from one of our church friends, I knew I should give it a go," Andrew said.

Andrew drove down with his brother Terry and their friend Kevin in the fall of 1983 with a bag full of nails and a hammer and put together what is now Skipper's Pub on High Street.

"It was fun because we were close to the same age as the students that were coming in as customers," Terry said. "We all had the same likes and dislikes so adjusting to the 'Oxford way' was easy."

Before the Amarantos brothers, Oxford had never seen anything like Italian beef or a Greek gyro.

"Unlike the Chicago city people, all the Ohio people had never tried any authentic Greek food like we had known from growing up in a Greek family," Andrew said.

The brothers wanted to continue the same recipe of their burgers, Italian sausages and hot dogs by using their father's same "meat guy." Every month, the Amarantos brothers make a big trip with a truck full of coolers to get all of their specialty Chicago meats and products freshly back into shop.

Since the early days of Skipper's, not much has changed. The Amarantos have stuck to making their original famous burgers, gyros, Italian beefs, hot dogs and sandwiches.

The essence of their father's old "Skipper's Red Hots Drive-In" is still living in the Oxford pub, with black-and-white photos of them working as teenagers hanging on the wall.

Although Andrew has been meaning to raise prices, he hasn't gotten around to it because it just isn't a priority. The Amarantos pride themselves on making people's days and making sure they leave feeling satisfied.

Miami sophomore Abbie Luther has been going to Skipper's Pub ever since touring the campus with her father, a Miami alumnus.

"Every time I walk into Skipper's, Andy is always there chatting it up with some customer," Abbie said. "People don't just come here for the food, but for the company of the Amarantos brothers."

Food is a big part of what they do, because, to them, food means family.

"We grew up around serving food with our dad and sharing all of these experiences, it only made sense that we do the same in our own new but similar way," Terry said. "We try to treat our employees like they are family to us."