| Rowan brothers bring
Rome to South Street
 usiness alumnus Angelo Pinti ’05 has a Rowan-flavored
recipe for success: blend a large serving of entrepreneurial
studies with a healthy measure of ambition and family tradition
to create Core De Roma, an Italian restaurant at Second and
and South Street in Philadelphia.
Along with his father, Luigi, and his brother, Joseph (a Rowan
business management senior), Glassboro resident Pinti opened
the restaurant in September.
Core De Roma is a trattoria-style establishment specializing
in Roman cuisine. It offers such items as homemade gnocchi,
fettuccine and bread, using ingredients bought fresh daily from
the nearby Italian Market. The cozy restaurant seats 50. Its bar
seats 10 more.
Pinti, 23, said he wanted to open a restaurant since he decided
to start a business in his junior year at Rowan. Armed with
eight years of work in the field—from washing dishes to managing
a small operation—he went from student to entrepreneur,
putting in 80 to 90 hours a week. “I’m tired, but it’s been a
great experience,” he said. The business, which includes catering
services and private parties, has been doing well, Pinti said.
“We are seeing a definite steady progression as far as clientele
in the neighborhood,” he said. “There’s a lot of buzz going on
in Queen Village, Abbott Square Condominiums, around Society
Hill, which is what we wanted. That’s really our bread and butter
at this point. We have a lot of neighborhood regulars. People are
bringing their friends. People are sending their friends.”
Pinti credits the skills he mastered at Rowan for part of that
success. “What I really got out of the entrepreneurship program
was you have to plan, you have to look ahead, you can’t just
jump into things,” he said. Pinti said he also learned about assessing
risk and recognizing opportunities for times when planning
was just not enough.
Pinti was a fan of a number of entrepreneur classes in the Rohrer
College of Business. He’s happy to see his academic efforts come to
fruition. “Rowan couldn’t prepare me for all the specific challenges
that came up in starting my own restaurant, but it did give me a really
good foundation for the business world,” he said.
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