They live in the same house, they drive similar cars and they are even partners in business.

In fact there is very little twins Walter and Wilmont Simmons don't do together in running Bouchee, The Rotisserie Grill and Double W Home Entertainment.

But that is where the similarities end, with each having their own particular management style — the former being the hard-nosed businessman and the latter preferring to adopt the more measured approach — however, they are both meticulous in their attention to detail.

"We are alike in so many ways, but different in others," said Wilmont.

"For example, we both share the same home — Walter and his family live upstairs and my family lives downstairs, and if my 'neighbour' is making too much noise I go up and tell him to turn it down. Also, we both have an Vauxhall Opel — I bought mine in August and it is green and he bought his a month later and it is blue.

"We both think alike and we probably wouldn't have been where we wanted to be if we didn't have the same ideas and vision.

"But we differ greatly in tastes — Walter is more of a wine connoisseur type and I am more of a Kool-Aid kind of a guy. He wears a jacket and tie and I am always seen in a polo shirt and jeans."

Said Walter: "I like Europe and he is American in his style.

"But at the end of the day, I think even our politics are almost the same and our family values are the same, but when it comes to business I would say I am stricter and Wilmont is more liberal in his approach."

The identical pair, who are now both 45, grew up very close from an early age in a family of six children with their single mother, who used to call them in from playing outside their home in Mullet Bay Park in St. George's and get them to stand next to each other for her guests to guess which was which.

"We hated being twins because for the first 18 years of our lives we were always considered to be the same," said Wilmont.

"But it had its advantages because we used to swap clothes so nobody could tell who was who and to avoid get into trouble."

Wilmont was working at the Post Office when the opportunity arose for his brother to fulfil his dream and run his own restaurant. After an eatery was advertised in the newspaper, the duo discussed the idea further and decided to go for it.

"I always liked the idea of being in business for myself, so I made enquiries about it and it just so happened two days later an ad came up in the paper for another restaurant and I called Walter and said it was available," he said.

"This was a far better deal than the first one and held fond memories for me having been the first place I came to work after I left school when it was the New Barnacle Restaurant, so we ended up buying this one."

That was 13 years ago and since then the pair have built up their small business empire, first setting up Double W Home Entertainment five years ago and the Rotisserie Grill three years later.

During that time, they changed the name of the restaurant from Monty's to Bouchee after 10 years and renovated the place, which paid instant dividends as wine sales rose 27 percent, and most recently relocated the video shop premises across the road to a new location due to increased rental prices, overlapping between each other, with both working shifts at the different parts of the business.

"I have done everything in this restaurant from washing pots, waiting tables and sweeping the floor and that is," said Wilmont.

"That is why Walter and I were successful — we worked hard and established the business.

"I have let Walter take care of the restaurants and I do the video store and we seem to complement each other quite well."

The restaurant and home entertainment trade are very similar in a number of ways, with both being customer-oriented operations, and the Simmons brothers have encouraged their staff, who number 24 in total, to think as business owners and really buy into the concept of running the company as if it were their own.

They also lead by example, on the shop or restaurant floor, but there is one way people are unable to tell them apart in the restaurant, on the street or even on the phone — their identity.

"Every single day someone would call me and assume I am Walter, but I just go along with it and then introduce myself later on, at which point people are either amazed or embarrassed," said Wilmont.

"Walter might meet some guests while working in the restaurant and invite them back for dinner and then they would come back in the evening and see me and assume I was Walter even though I had never seen them in my life before, so we keep a picture of ourselves in the restaurant just to prove who we are if people ask."

Their families are quite used to it all though, with Walter's wife Emma keeping the pair and business in line, doing all the books and financial matters. They even have the same number of children — Walter with two boys and one girl and Wilmont with two girls and one boy.

Even outside of work they do a number of activities together, such as going on holiday — although Walter claims to like the more cultural things in life, seeking out the gastronomic delights of France and fine architecture of Italy, while Wilmont is a real thrill-seeker, more a home in Disneyworld or fishing in Belize.

"For the last 13 years we have worked extremely hard and hopefully now that we are able to just relax a little bit more knowing that we have established ourselves and we are comfortable with running our business," said Wilmont. "We are going to start to do the things we always wanted to do."

The pair, who were born two minutes apart from each other, admitted they have had their fallings out in the past, but they have always been quick to see reason and make up with each other — even if it means having to bring in a thirty party (in the form of Emma) for a second opinion and to resolve their differences.

"We have never had any major issues," said Walter, who is also the chairman of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce's nightclub and restaurant division and has sat on several Government boards in the past. "We have had disagreements, but if we can't agree on something, and believe me, we have — that is when we have to bring in the third party.

"I have been overruled by my own wife before, but when the decision is made it is final, however we will always sit down together after the event and have a good laugh about it."