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UNION ELECTRICIAN who just finished a job requiring him to walk on top of the 693-foot-high Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Louis Bratsis doesn't easily lose his cool.
But his heart was pounding three months ago when the restaurant in which he'd invested $35,000 opened its doors.
"As the food came out of the kitchen and the first customer put his fork in his mouth, it was the scariest thing," says Mr. Bratsis, a partner in Ricardo Steak House in East Harlem.
Around the city, a small army of restaurant investors can identify with his jitters. Many more restaurants will open than will close this year, largely because of people like Mr. Bratsis who are dishing out their extra cash.
Eye-opening stats
THE GAP between openings and closings is the largest in five years, according to Tim Zagat, co-founder of the Zagat Survey. He believes that this year's heavy volume of debuts is being fueled by young Wall Street types, who are using their hefty paychecks to back new eateries.
"They are making huge amounts of money and don't want to put it in someone else's hedge fund, since they have their own," says Mr. Zagat. Opening a restaurant can cost anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars-Ricardo Steak House ate...