We try to remain optimistic while experiencing challenge after challenge in building out Mozzeria. We had wanted to announce the opening date but are still not confident yet.


Historic Building
Janet Campbell, our architect submitted final drawings to the City’s Department of Planning and to our surprise, we might have to change the exterior facade in order to be consistent with neighbor restaurant, Crazy Sushi. We had originally planned not to change anything except paint the wood frame in black. The building had just been listed as a historical place over the summer. It is going to cost a fortune to take out the existing windows, and build the bottom wood frame up to 25 inches. Not only that, we must install full glass frame with sliders. I called several window shops and they said its measurements were not standard and that we needed to place a special order which takes several weeks for delivery. Gulp! Janet has met with everyone in Historic Preservation Planning, and she is trying to argue that the exterior facade had been there all that time before we took over the space. We will see if we can keep the existing facade.


Proper Ventilation for Stefano Ferrara Oven
This is our biggest challenge to date. The pizza oven from Italy is due to arrive sometime this week. We talked to several mechanical engineers, and none of their answers are the same. The city officials have their own opinion on the chimney pipe. The Stefano Ferrara oven has the Type II hood built in which was one of the main reasons why we went ahead with that oven. When we announced we were going to install a wood burning oven, we knew that it needed proper ventilation, and had researched extensively, and even got Michael Fairholme, the consultant on wood burning pizzas, to back up our findings.


The city officials, however, disagreed with our findings and said we needed to install a Type 1 hood above the pizza oven, even though it is already hooked to Type II. This didn’t make sense as we went to Una Pizza Napolenta and they have an even bigger Stefano Ferrara oven hooked up with just chimney pipe and without the Type 1 hood. That is how it is supposed to be. We have hired a mechanical engineer to research further and make recommendations. We hope to resolve the ventilation issue very soon so we can complete the pizza oven project.

I keep telling myself to continue to fight and overcome obstacles as we move towards the Opening Day. Go Mozzeria!!

 

 

We have been going back and forth on a flooring issue and it has gotten to the point where I would "scream" if I hear any more issue about it.

Really, it gets ridiculous. Let me tell you what we have been through on the flooring issue alone.

We wanted to give the Mozzeria restaurant space a new and fresh life. The previous restaurant had older reddish ceramic tiles. Our vision for Mozzeria didn't really blend in with these red ceramic tiles. We also had other reasons for removing the ceramic tiles, so we removed all ceramic tiles.

While discussing where to place the pizza oven, we checked what was under the cement board and discovered TWO things: original Douglas fir flooring that was quietly lying under high traffic ceramic tiles for years. Secondly, when Russ checked what was under the Douglas fir flooring, we were surprised to see a crawl space across most of the space. Uh-oh, that wasn't good news, as our pizza oven weighs almost 5,000lbs!

Janet Campbell, our architect called a structural engineer to check underneath the proposed pizza oven area. The structural engineer reported to us that we needed to build posts in the crawl space to support the pizza oven. Ok. This isn't bad, and we have Nathan Dingel for this project.

The structural engineer pointed out that Douglas Fir flooring is actually sub flooring and with San Francisco being on San Andreas fault - in other words, earthquake prone - ceramic tiles wasn’t appropriate due to the weight on the floor.

We went through a limited list of choices on what we could do with our flooring. No polished concrete, hardwood or ceramic tiles. Only a few choices of commercial vinyl sheets are approved. We were wondering about Douglas fir flooring. As it turns out, Douglas fir is considered softwood, not hardwood and we need to be careful when sanding it. The hardwood contractor showed me ‘before and after’ photos of actual Douglas fir and it was truly beautiful.

We hope to tackle the flooring issue soon for everyone's sake.

 

 

 

Thor, X-Men, Green Lantern and Captain America have already hit the theaters, and they are America's fictitious Heroes. We have our own version of heroes here.

After surveying the Mozzeria space with Janet Campbell, our architect and Patty Foo Hampton, our interior designer, we determined that we need to make several major adjustments in order to bring the entire space in compliance with both current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and building codes. We have begun renovation, and our main focus is to bring everything up to current codes then we can move into the next phase of beautifying the space.

We have hired Nathan Dingel, a recent graduate of Electrical Program at Wyotech. I have known Nathan for a long time as we have been classmates and friends since 1980. Nathan is “Mr. Can-Do-Anything” and he works fast. He and his wife, Heidi are expecting a baby girl anytime so we appreciate his making time to squeeze us into his busy schedule. We are thrilled to have him on our team.

We are thankful to family members and friends who lent their hands to help at Mozzeria’s new home.  Robbie, Russ' mom, flew in from Austin, Texas and stayed with us for 2 and 1/2 weeks. She is a cleaning guru and can make every appliance look brand new! She wasn't afraid to pick up the hammer and, before you knew it, she was hammering away! Ron and Betty Ann also kept insisting on helping us, and they are such a sweet couple. They helped us apply primer to the walls.

They are truly our heroes. :)

 

 

 

"What? You must be kidding..." was our response to learning about San Francisco building codes. The codes are really complicated and we have to be very careful to abide, or we wouldn't be able to open our restaurant on schedule. Reading and understanding the codes is like a foreign language to us.


We need someone to help us navigate, and make sure we follow the current codes to avoid any costly mistakes. We hired Janet Campbell of Campbell and Associates because of her tremendous expertise in that area and impressive resume. She has run her private practice in San Francisco since 1991 and has 33 years of experience in doing architectural projects in Atlanta, GA and the Bay Area. Her work was published in several publications and more recently, will be recognized in the Dwell Magazine.

Her past clients included Humphrey Slocombe, Canyon Market and Candy Bar. Humphrey Slocombe was so grateful for Janet’s services that he created wall art to show their appreciation (see the photo below).


As soon as we signed the lease for our new restaurant, we surveyed the space. One of our main goals is to bring the restaurant up to codes. The bathroom was found to be slightly out of compliance with American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Installing equipment in the existing wine bar inside the restaurant, would reduce passage making it inaccessible to staff members. We will need to make major adjustments to make that area accessible.

We were surprised with some items that we needed to redo. For example the cove base on the kitchen floor is 4 inches in height. We learned that, according to the codes, they needed to be 6 inches high. It is easy to get overwhelmed and we are fortunate to have Janet as our architect to look out for our interests.



We are excited to have Janet on our team and she has been working hard. Welcome to the team, Janet!