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THE PIZZA GUYS
Vincent Gentile, 25 & Joe Schinco, 23 Co-Owners, Blackboard Pizza & Kitchen
Vincent Gentile is a creative and passionate 25-year-old. His 23-year- old cousin, Joe Schinco, is logical, regimented, and determined. Fuse these two young Long Island natives—and self-proclaimed opposites— and you get Blackboard Pizza & Kitchen in New Rochelle, a modern, gourmet take on the New York City-style pizzeria.
According to the duo, one piece of common ground between them is an entrepreneurial spirit. That’s why, when Gentile, who had worked in
pizzerias starting at age 14, graduated from the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center) in 2011, he was too impatient to think about the arduous climb through a Michelin Star kitchen that nor- mally marks the path to culinary greatness. It’s also why, when Schinco graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and spent a year consulting for Accenture, he felt his time was better spent climbing a ladder of his own making, not a corporate one. Schinco says he was excited about “the idea of creating something from nothing, creating a brand.” So the two opened Blackboard in 2012 and, shortly after, an off-premise dining service that includes portable pizza ovens and high-end food options, paving what they saw as the quickest route possible to master chef and CEO.
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