The Herald-Dispatch
Kenney Grant, the founder of the Gino’s chain of restaurants, died this week. His passing was a reminder of a generation of Huntington-area entrepreneurs who succeeded through determination and self-education. It’s also a reminder of the need for such people today.
As noted by HD Media regional business reporter Fred Pace, in a March 2021 interview about the 60th anniversary of Gino’s, Grant said as a kid growing up in Huntington he was influenced about business at an early age.
“My parents Arthur and Myrtle Grant owned Grant’s Market on 8th Avenue, and I had the dream of owning my own small grocery store,” he said in the interview.
Grant said he attended a Marshall University football game in 1960 that changed his dream.
“I got a pizza at a 4th Avenue pizza place,” he said. “They were very busy. I went home and told my wife that I knew what I was going to do. I was going to open my own pizza place.”
Grant said his wife told him he couldn’t even fry an egg.
“I told her that I could learn,” he said.
And learn he did from people who knew how to make them and sell pizzas.
