Restaurants are notoriously short-lived, but Restaurant Bricco, a West Hartford mainstay since 1996, is not only alive, but thriving. How many dinners have crossed the counter from the open kitchen whose wood-burning stone ovens greet arriving guests? Assume an average of 275 covers per night, and Billy Grant, its chef and owner, is somewhere around serving Bricco's two millionth meal. And this is only one of three restaurants he owns.

What is the secret of such success? Of course, there is the food. As a young man, Mr. Grant learned to cook at restaurants owned by his father and uncle. "I fell in love with kitchen culture and the sound of dishes," Mr. Grant said of how his career began. He would later move on to work at the Max restaurant empire as the chef of Max Amore when it opened in Glastonbury.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/