When they finally did open in February, it was still too soon, said Josh Rader, the company's vice president and chief financial officer. The staff wasn't familiar with the machinery, the menu boards weren't ideal and the operation wasn't polished, but they feared having another headline in the paper with the word ''delay'' in it.

''If we didn't have as much pressure to open as quickly as we did, we would have benefited from another three or four weeks,'' he said. ``Those first couple of days were hectic.''

MEDIA MANIA

If the early days were hard on the ego, the ensuing media frenzy made up for it. As the national media woke to the smell of cereal cafés spreading across the country over the summer, The Bowl trio were in demand. They were featured on a Chicago radio program, in Time magazine and on CNN's 360 with Anderson Cooper. But to be featured in a national business magazine has been special, said Kenneth.

''I used to read Entrepreneur magazine in college,'' he said. ``So for me personally, this is very cool.''

With each new appearance, their inbox has buzzed with hundreds of franchise requests and investor queries from as far away as Dubai and Ireland.

That kind of media attention is exceedingly rare for new ventures, said Marc Junkunc, an assistant professor of management at the University of Miami who teaches entrepreneurship. Before becoming a professor, Junkunc owned a coffee bar in Los Angeles during the pre-Starbucks era. It was open for nine months before it ever got its first mention in the Los Angeles Times, he said.

Media attention, particularly in the early stages of business when marketing budgets are tight, can make or break a business.

Restaurants can have great food, great service and great prices, ''but if nobody knows you're there, you don't even get a chance to show [customers] that service,'' Junkunc said. ``Many restaurants that deserve to survive may not because of lack of awareness, even though they are scoring high marks in all other areas.''

WATCHING EVERY WORD

If the media attention has been good for business, living under the spotlight hasn't always been easy.

Kenneth claims he still can't bear reading The Miami Herald articles for fear of what he might have said. After he quipped about a cup of coffee consisting of little more than a dime worth of ground beans and some hot water, The Bowl was hounded by customers asking for the 10-cent cup of Joe.

When Glassman called last year's hurricanes ''The Ya-Ya Sisters'' and referred to his manager as his ''double dragon,'' Michael and Kenneth fretted that readers in the business community would think they were yahoos.

And Josh still feels anxious about being so open about quarterly earnings, for fear future investors or franchisees might construe his quotes as earnings statements and leave them open to litigation.

''It has been unusual to be under a microscope for a year, but all in all it has been a positive experience for us,'' he said. ``We opened ourselves up, and thankfully there was more good than bad, and we hope it stays that way.''

BEATING

THE ODDS

The

Bowl still isn't in the clear. Conventional wisdom has it that 90 percent of all restaurants never make it past the first two years. However, a recent study by the University of Ohio found the failure rate closer to 60 percent over three years. Still, the odds aren't good.

And a single month of profits is not a glowing track record, admits Josh: ``From a financial standpoint, we are still far from being successful.''

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