BOARDMAN -- Rick and Darlene Morocco and Darlene's sister Davene Garvey brought their diverse tastes

BOARDMAN -- Rick and Darlene Morocco and Darlene's sister Davene Garvey brought their diverse tastes and talents to the table, and the result was a Market Street cafe with a distinctly Italian flare.
Morocco's Gelato, which features a frozen Italian confection, opened in September 2002.
Rick Morocco does much of the behind-the-scenes work; his wife, Darlene, handles public relations, as well as hiring and training the cafe's 10 or more employees; and Garvey does much of the marketing, advertising and design work.
The cafe serves a variety of soups, salads, gourmet coffees and sandwiches and delivers various party trays, but is perhaps best known for carrying about 24 flavors of gelato, a smooth and airy Italian ice cream.
How it came about
A 20-year veteran of the Air Force Reserves, Rick Morocco often thought of running his own business. He had his first taste of gelato in September 2000, when he and a friend found themselves on a 30-day temporary duty at an Air Force base in Aviano, Italy.
Morocco said the men wandered up to a gelato stand where the ice cream was displayed in pans and looked like pudding.
"I love chocolate, but can't speak Italian," he said. "I pointed at the chocolate stuff, got a cone, tasted it and it was so creamy."
When he returned home, Morocco checked the Internet but found little information about gelato businesses. After a year of research, he eventually found someone who teaches classes on the subject, as well as a book that gave him ideas on how to run a business and a mentor who helped him get started.
Morocco said his experiences in Italy influenced the look and feel he tried to create with Morocco's Gelato.
"I took what I saw in Italy and tailored the business to be patterned after it," he said. "It has a European look, and I tried to duplicate the look of cafes there."
Did their research
Darlene Morocco said she and her husband visited several cafes, collected many menus and took note of numerous details regarding how those businesses operated. She said she is pleased with the atmosphere they came up with for Morocco's Gelato, much of which Garvey helped create.
Darlene Morocco, who also works as a full-time registered nurse at St. Elizabeth Health Center, said the cafe is in an ideal business location, with the new St. Elizabeth Health Center in Boardman, the new YMCA and other growth areas nearby.
Garvey, who has degrees in art history and graphic design, came up with many of Morocco's Gelato's color patterns and designs, including a 5-foot-by-7-foot tile mosaic of the store's logo on the floor inside the entrance. The window sills are a showcase for some of her artwork, which include sanded pieces of coffee cups and plates embedded in the surface.
Starting next summer, Rick Morocco said he plans to market his product at some of the Italian festivals around the Mahoning Valley. Opening a second store in Niles near the Eastwood Mall is another goal, he added.