Nehme says Harvard is "essential" to the store.

And Younes says working in a coffee shop in any other place could not compare.

"You meet future world leaders," he says of his job in the Barker Center. "It's a beautiful building, and the best university in the world."

"What else could you ask for?" he adds.

So does George Sarkis feel his business is successful?

He cringes at the use of this rather superlative word.

"It might be a success," he says skeptically.

But when he speaks in more concrete terms, the word clearly applies.

"This block has the highest rent in the Square," he says. "We serve several hundred customers a day."

And perhaps it is Sarkis' knack for achieving balance, reflected in his avoidance of superlative words like "success," that allows him to-well, to succeed.

Sarkis has no concrete plans for new stores but says he is not against expanding.

"I won't say no," he responds when asked if there will be a new C'est Bon at sometime in the future.