Photos courtesy of Larry Haplin, Dan Shackleford, Ryan McGlade
Joy usually isn’t one of the first adjectives used to describe working in food service, especially for high school students who are working late nights and on the weekends. In many instances, the primary purpose of a job at that age is to have spending money or a reason to get out of the house. It’s not often that working in the food industry as a teen lays the foundation of a career.
But that’s exactly what happened for Larry Halpin and Dan Shackelford.
Halpin and Shackelford worked together at the Gionino’s Pizzeria in Munroe Falls, an Akron suburb, during their four years of high school. It is there Halpin and Shackelford forged the idea of owning their own pizza place in central Ohio.
In mid-December, Halpin and Shackelford opened Gionino’s Pizzeria at 12983 Stonecreek Drive in Pickerington, one of the franchise’s 47 locations.
“We had always talked about opening up a pizza shop as soon as we had started working at one,” says Halpin, who worked at the Gionino’s in Munroe Falls for six years. “I think it’s because we loved it so much in the time that we spent there in high school.”
Halpin and Shackelford’s friendship began long before they started at Gionino’s, however. They went to the same school from kindergarten through 12th grade and grew up on the same street, which dead-ended into the Gionino’s location where they worked.
Upon graduating from Cuyahoga Falls High School in 2009, Halpin enlisted in the army while Shackelford enrolled at Kent State University, continuing to work at the Gionino’s in Munroe Falls during undergrad. Halpin spent more than three years in the army before attending Penn State University. Shackelford, meanwhile, graduated from Kent State and became a member of the air force for about four years.
The two kept in touch during their college and military days, visiting each other once or twice a year. In fact, when the air force relocated Shackelford, he and Halpin drove together from Cuyahoga Falls to his new station in Tucson, Arizona, a trip of roughly 2,000 miles.
Though the path to becoming owners of a Gionino’s location involved detours, Halpin and Shackelford never lost sight of their dream. Now that they are a few months into achieving their ultimate goal, they have realized there are many perks – even trivial ones – to owning a business with a lifelong friend.
“This is silly, but I don’t like cutting onions because they make me tear up,” says Halpin. “So I told Dan, ‘Hey, if we’re opening up a pizza shop, I’m never cutting onions.’ Dan was like, ‘All right, I’ll cut onions.’ There’s just little stuff like that where I don’t like to do it but he likes to do it, or I like to do it and he doesn’t like to do it. There’s a lot of ebb and flow between the two of us.”
Shackelford says running a pizza place with Halpin has been a true pleasure.
“Larry has a zest for life,” he says. “He really makes an effort to make things enjoyable. He’s always striving to have fun, and he’s a very good leader.”
Shackelford added that seeing their plan of becoming owners come true is a fulfilling feeling.
“It’s been extremely satisfying,” says Shackelford. “For me, at least, this is what I thought it would be. It’s nostalgic.”
Easy-To-Make Cheese Pizza Recipe, courtesy of www.geniuskitchen.com
Ingredients
- 1⁄4 oz. dry yeast
- 1 cup water, lukewarm
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 cups bread flour
- 1⁄2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1⁄2 cup tomato puree
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
- 4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese
Directions
Dough:
- In a glass or plastic bowl, combine yeast, water and sugar.
- Stir to dissolve the yeast and let the yeast bloom for 15 minutes.
- Stir in 1 cup flour, add salt and then stir in another cup of flour (the remaining cup of flour will be your "bench" flour and added flour).
- Dump mixture onto kneading board and work in last cup of flour, kneading until dough is soft and elastic, but not sticky. Form dough into a ball.
- In another bowl, pour in the 1 tbsp olive oil and spread around.
- Coat ball of dough with oil and cover bowl with a damp towel and let dough rise for 40 minutes.
- Punch down dough and knead on board about two minutes. Dough is now ready to spread in the pan.
- To avoid sticking of crust, lightly spray pizza pan with olive oil or vegetable oil spray and then work dough to pan (or use free form pan) – this dough is enough for one 14-inch pizza with a thin bottom crust and enough dough around the edge to munch.
Sauce:
- Combine pureed tomatoes, tomato paste, minced garlic and basil.
- Spread onto prepared pizza dough.
- Top with sliced mozzarella cheese and bake at 500°F for 11-13 minutes.
Ryan McGlade is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
