Old legends like The Bright Star and Chris’ Hot Dogs and relative newcomers like Nabeel’s have young folks in the family at the helm, ensuring they’ll go on for at least the foreseeable future. But what will unfold in the next chapter for places like Niki’s West is a little less certain.

“Things have changed now, because we’ve gotten so-called ‘more educated’ and so our kids have more options, different ideas about what they want to do,” Pete at Niki’s says. “I have no idea if any of my kids or any of Teddy’s will want to do this. It is hard. You work with some crazy folks, and you have to be a little crazy yourself sometimes. We may be the last of the Mohicans, so to speak.”

And a lot of parents don’t want to see their kids work as hard as they did, although Pete is not one of them; he prides himself on being old-school, an olive that has not fallen far from the tree.

“I like to see my children work hard; that’s how I know they can make it on their own,” he says. “But a lot of other families aren’t like that now. They don’t want to see their kids go through what they did.”

When Tasos and Beba bought it, Ted’s escaped the fate that Niki’s may be facing. Ted’s daughter didn’t want to take over her parents’ restaurant.

“She watched them work so hard here,” Beba says. “She wanted another career.” But it too could be up for grabs in the next few decades, when Tasos and Beba get ready to retire. Tasos doesn’t want his kids in the restaurant business.

“My kids are not interested, and I will fight them tooth and nail to keep them from getting interested,” Tasos says. “This business is really hard. You have to be willing for a big sacrifice.”

Unlike their grandfathers or even their fathers, Gus, Tim and Andreas had a world of options open to them. Still, they chose to enter the restaurant business.