Colleen Mazzella knows better than most that going into business is a gamble.

In the early 1990s, she was studying at Atlantic Cape Community College, planning a career in physical therapy.

At the same time, she worked at Italian Affair in Stafford Township, N.J., a restaurant owned by the man who would become her husband, Dominick Mazzella.

Once the two became a couple, Colleen left college and stepped fully into the restaurant world.

At 19, she and Dominick, who was originally from Staten Island, opened A Slice of Heaven in Beach Haven in 1995. Back then, they had no idea how long the business would last.

The gamble paid off. With a loyal mix of Jersey Shore visitors, locals and hungry kids spilling in from Fantasy Island next door, Slice of Heaven became one of Long Beach Island’s

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