Bored with finance, Kevin Dolce went into the cheesesteak biz. His next stop: Philly nightlife and a cheesesteak empire
“Philly has good cheesesteaks — don’t get me wrong,” Dolce said, rattling off his favorites such as Angelo’s, Cafe Carmela, Pat’s, Geno’s, and Dalessandro’s. “But when you look at every single one of those cheesesteak locations, you’re just coming up ordering, taking out and going. Nobody really gets to sit down and actually have a cheesesteak with a cocktail. They go hand in hand. I wanted to do something specifically for us that hasn’t been done.
Dolce worked as a vice president at two business-development companies and started a consultancy called 1990 to help fledgling entrepreneurs get set up in business. Last year, he spent a month in Southeast Asia, stopping in Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore. “Long story short, I came back from Bali. I’m extremely bored,” he said. “All the time I was gone, I had delegated my business. It was automated. I called my friend and said, ‘Let’s do something.