Ewell knows what you'll eat.

• Author: Pace, Lee
• Position: Mickey Ewell, restaurant owner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Industry Overview

Think of restaurants in Chapel Hill as a battlefield, said my dinner companion as we settled into our seats at 411 West on a cold November night.

"The mortality rate for restaurants in Chapel Hill is 80%," estimated Art, who started his own restaurant more than a decade ago and was tickled to sell out after five years -- his skin and his bank account still intact. It's a tough turf, he said, with restaurateurs all vying with one another for students on tight budgets, alumni in town for a game and business types on expense accounts.

"New ways are invented daily to lose money in the restaurant business," he said, shaking his head over the prowess of the proprietor of 411 West and two other Chapel Hill dining establishments. "Mickey Ewell is amazing. There are a half-dozen restaurants in town that people go to, and he's got three of them."

411 West is Ewell's latest foray into a spirited arena that includes everything from ribs at Ma Dip's to the usual college array of sub shops and pizza joints. And just like Spanky's and Squid's, his other restaurants, 411 West works well.

The atmosphere is bright and lively, the pizzettes are spicy and tasty, and the linguine is beyond reproach, piping hot and bristling with lemon juice, tomato, shrimp, scallops and Parmesan.

There can be a lot of noise and a good wait if you hit it at the wrong moment. But in the dozen times I've visited since it opened in fall 1990, 411 West has done nothing poorly.

"It's a hot place," said Art, who joined me with his friend Linda and his golden retriever, Hurley, who sat contentedly on the sidewalk out front, leashed to a parking meter.

411 West rounds out the powerful Ewell triumvirate of Chapel Hill restaurants. What the Danziger family once was to the Chapel Hill dining scene (Villa Teo, Ranch House, Zoom Zoom and Rathskeller, with only the old "Rat" remaining), Ewell is close to equaling.

Spanky's, with its premier location at the intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets, opened in 1977 and serves not only an excellent bacon cheeseburger but also a wonderful Sunday brunch. It's just the place for a kid with 20 bucks extra to take a date. It's also a late-night haven for law- and med-school students. Squid's, a seafood restaurant on the east side of town, is one of the most-popular watering holes for the non-college crowd and a great place for steamed oysters.

The same partnership that owns Squid's, which opened in 1986, owns 411 West. The group is comprised of...