There’s a much repeated myth that something like 90 per cent of restaurants fail within their first year.

One of those folk tales that’s wormed its way into the woodwork of collective consciousness, the actual figure is closer to 60 per cent – better, but hardly odds to get too cocky about.

With even big name restaurateurs not immune to the precariousness of the filo pastry-thin profit margins it all makes for a fascinating and unknowable science when they don’t just break even, but break away from the pack and actually become a success.

One example of an apparently instantly successful debutant in the topsy-turvy restaurant world is Fatto a Mano.

Opening on London Road less than a year ago it’s a regularly fully booked bastion of the buzzing neighbourhood restaurant. But though its success might look easy, it’s no accident, and there are number of basics that they get so right.

Family friendly is an alarm bell for some to avoid at all costs, the presence of shrieking children not conducive to a relaxing night out. That’s fair enough, and there are plenty of sedate adult-only dining experiences to be had elsewhere. But childrens' presence gives some much needed Continental style vitality, where younguns are blooded into the world of evening food much younger, and probably grow up to be far more sophisticated.

It’s all very well being family friendly, but as Pixar first realised years ago with Toy Story, you need to something for the adults as well. Pizza does make for a great meeting point, with toppings endlessly adjustable. Plus like good kids’ films there are multiple layers of meaning when it comes to this kind of pizza.

Fatto a Mano translates as handmade, with an artisan approach that involves proving the sourdough for at least ten hours. It’s worth noting sourdough is no gimmick and is the way that all bread was made not that long ago before food industrialisation and the misguided quest for soft white utopia. The pizzas are cooked the traditionally in a vast wood-fired clay oven that is one of the first thing you seen as a you walk in, spaded in and blasted at 450C in minutes.

The menu is commendably short and to the point with classic margherita, Napoletana and marinara on offer. Abiding by strict Neapolitan tradition the latter is simply tomato, garlic, oregano and basil, with no mozzarella. But so nonplussed are English people to an absence of molten dairy on their pizza they do offer it.

Things get a bit more fruity with the diavola, which has spianata romana spicy salami and chilli. But it is the white pizzas which offer a less tried and tasted option. The salsiccia e friarielli, is strewn with the intense aniseed fragrancy of fennel and garlic sausage, with Neapolitan broccoli, almost like a kale or cavelo nero, as well as the familiarly enhancing properties of chilli, basil, mozzarella and parmesan.

Rustically shaped, it comes scorched and pillowy on the edges and soft and gooey in the middle. While simpler is sometimes better, the garlicky meat, rich cheese and chilly kick make for an exceptional dish that will make you think twice about the concept of an ‘ordinary pizza’.

The sides and starters have similar brevity. There are big buttery green olives from Puglia; a classic caprese salad of mozzarella, tomato and basil; and Campania fries, jujjed up with rosemary. Wine comes from across the regions - grillo from Sicily, falanghin from Campania and sanvgiovese from Emilia-Romagna. And it’s hard to imagine you could get aperetivos any cheaper, with the Aperol spritz and The Gourmand's personal favourite the negroni, all a too-good-to-refuse £5.

A good feed should end in a good desert with ice-cream expresso combo affogato, as well as scugnizzielli nutella - fried Pizza Doughnut Strips with vanilla gelato - on the menu.

But the real way to end is with the pistachio gelato. It’s become the one of the most popular gelato flavours, but with that has come corner-cutting injections of lurid food colouring and fake powdered. Fatto a Mano has come up with a delightful number which inspires prolonged wide- eye contact, a more natural murky green, but tasting more vividly like pistachio then the nut itself, with hints of saltiness.

English owned but apparently largely Italian staffed, service is relaxed, confident and happy to hoist tables and chairs around if squeezing an extra bum in is required.

Interestingly the restaurant group that popularised artisan sourdough pizza in London – Franca Manca – is soon to open a 130 seater restaurant in the North Laine.

Thankfully for the cause of good pizza, both seem too good to become a statistical casualty of the restaurant trade.

Fatto a Mano,

London Road,

Brighton

Food – Five Stars (Out of five)

Restaurant – Five Stars (Out of five)

Service – Four Stars (Out of five)