In the current economy climate, funds for public education keep shrinking. Teachers and parent teacher associations (PTAs) find themselves working hard to raise funds to continue or maintain activities so kids do not get disappointed. As parents of two kids who attend public schools in San Francisco, we have seen how the PTA and teachers try to find creative ways of raising funds. It’s really hard.

We were approached by Adam Zolot, who spearheaded the Taste of Potrero event, about participating in this event. We were honored by his request and as parents, we completely understood and said Yes!

How does it work? All restaurants and bars donate food and drinks and 100% of funds raised at the event go directly to Daniel Webster Elementary School. We were told to expect 800 attendees. After some thought, we came up with two items - veal-pork meatballs from Mozzeria’s dinner menu, and one of our best-selling small plates, fresh mozzarella roulade from Mozzeria’s catering menu.

The event was being held at SOMArts gallery so we wanted our presentation to be “artistically tasteful.” We enlisted our friend, Susie Lai who loves scrapbooking. She and her husband, Gabe Leung helped me create this toothpick flag for our veal-pork meatballs. Thank you, Susie and Gabe!

During the event, we worked out a strategy on how to plate and serve food to customers, thanks to our past experience at the San Francisco Street Food Festival. It went really well and we all had a great time meeting new and familiar faces.

I must send a shout-out to two wonderful American Sign Language interpreters, Cindy Noble and Beth Grigsby, courtesy of Convo Relay.

The Taste of Potrero event was a success! We beam with pride knowing we were part of the great contribution to Daniel Webster Elementary School.

 

 

 

With my kids' spring break coming up, we were not sure if we would be able to make time to go somewhere. We ended up taking an informal trip to Los Angeles and combined business and pleasure. We were so glad L.A. is only a five and half hour drive.


We were excited to meet a dear friend, Matt Daigle who just released a book, “That Deaf Guy book.” We have been following his hilarious comic strip. You gotta check it out … and you’ll also fall in love with Matt's ‘Laugh-at-Life’ humor!

Robert Arnold, another author was also there. He also has a new “si5s/ ASL Writing” textbook - http://www.si5s.org. Can you imagine how fascinating it was to be around the authors during dinner time? Note: During on our return trip home to San Francisco, we were surprised to see Mozzeria appear in Matt's comic strip. Aww, thank you, Matt!

Credit: http://www.thatdeafguy.com/?p=480

Credit: KODAWest

While in Los Angeles, my family joined a dear friend, Dyan doing a storytelling session in ASL at Barnes and Noble as part of KODA West (Kids of Deaf Adults) event. Our daughter, Taysia had attended the KODA West camp last summer and loved every minute of it. She plans to return again next summer, this time with her brother, Rylan who will attend for the first time. Well, we sort of twisted Rylan's arm into attending the summer camp. :) http://www.kodawest.org

We also got to visit our friend Jonathan Weiss’s new cafe in Playa Vista. Big Mango Cafe opened seven months ago. We enjoyed having lunch. If you happen to be in the area, you may want to swing by! Big Mango also does catering locally. http://bigmangocatering.com

We also met with the president of Vera Pizza Napoletana's U.S. Chapter (http://www.pizzanapoletana.org/index_eng.php) to discuss the VPN certification process. We visited VPN’s school in Marina del Rey and had fun comparing notes with Peppe, the president, who owns a pizzeria in Pasadena.

We were able to squeeze some family time in between. We had a wonderful time biking on the beach as the weather was perfect; not too hot nor too cold! We had only one complaint that four days in LA was still not enough.

We returned from our trip reenergized and excited about prospects, ideas and plans for the future! It was great visiting our friends, family and acquaintances while in LA area, we were glad to see them and thank them for their great hospitality!

 

 

 

Click to play DeafHope PSA

 

DeafHope, a non-profit agency working to end violence in Bay Area, has produced four public service announcements - brief video reports – to raise awareness on domestic violence, and how to stop it. Scenes for one of these four PSAs were done at Mozzeria.

Domestic violence can happen to anyone, anywhere. You may not notice the little things that people do to you in daily life that turns out to be a form of domestic violence!

 

Click to play DeafHope PSA

 

When you watch this PSA, you may scratch your head and thinking that won't happen in public. No one would dare to do this in public. But it does happen at home, and behind closed doors. You don’t see what is going inside the house, and could remain ignorant. Take away the closed doors from the house, and you would be able to see everything. You would react instantly and offer help.

If this does happen in public, people would jump in right away to stop the violence. Why don't we do something when the same thing happens behind closed doors?

Domestic violence should not happen to anybody. Ever. But if this has happened to you, or you have family or friends who are experiencing it, offer them help and resources. There is a lot of helpful information available on the internet on how to get help.

 

 

 

Now that MOZZERIA has passed the crucial first year marker, we are in a better position to evaluate and compare our performance during a month this year with that same month last year. With more data available, come more questions.

If you want to take a page out of my life as a restaurateur right now, you will get to see that I am having several dilemmas.

MOZZERIA is in its second year of operation, and we need to take another look at our inner operational goals. During our first year, we had signed with some companies we thought would fit well, but later on, we are realizing that our needs are not always being met.

We need to keep an eye on everything this is going on and not become complacent. Being complacent is one of the major causes of business failures. For example having detailed reports are very helpful especially when it comes to make plans and we'd know what to anticipate in next few months.

I know I may be somewhat cryptic here but I do not want to go into specific details. We know MOZZERIA has resources and opportunities but deciding which steps to go and in which direction are our challenges. We have to think really carefully because whatever direction we choose, would it translate into better mode of operations, productivity or efficiency? There are always certain pros and cons for each situation.

If you happen to have the crystal ball, I would love to cheat and see the future. That WOULD help making decisions much easier!

 

 

 

Sonnet 29 is one of 154 sonnets penned by William Shakespeare. I can never really follow any of Shakespeare sonnets. But Rowan Brooks decided to portray one of his Sonnet 29 short stories in American Sign Language. Watching the video, I finally can understand!

Miranda Medugno, currently a Theater major at Gallaudet University, played the main character.

 

Rowan's "Sonnet Series: Suite 2" short film premiered at Scary Cow, an indie film co-op at Castro Theater last weekend.

If you missed the film, Rowan was kind to share the link to his film. All three short films are shown with captions. The third film, which starts at 6.46 minutes, you may see a familiar setting. Yes, the scenes were shot at Mozzeria!

It was fascinating to watch the actual process of making the movie.

Play Sonnet 29 video - http://vimeo.com/60785303

 

 

 

To our customers who either know, use, are learning, or wants to know more about American Sign Language (ASL), I am excited to share that Switched at Birth, which appears on ABC Family cable on Mondays, will air an all-ASL episode this coming Monday!


This approach definitely ranks among one of the first in TV land! Switched at Birth, which launched in June 2011, is a drama revolving around two teenagers who were switched at birth. One is Deaf and was raised by single mother, and the other is Hearing and lives in a wealthy family.

Both teenagers were brought up in different environments and then when the switch was discovered, both families meet and struggle to live together.

Sean Berdy (l), deaf 'Switched at Birth' star
with Mozzeria co-owner Russell Stein (r).

Switched at Birth is one of the few TV shows that my whole family can watch together regularly. It is really cool that we have this show as ASL is the primary language in our household, even with two children who are hearing. Each one of us can relate to Switched at Birth. And we know our friends also watch the program religiously!

Dyan Sue Kovacs (l) and Kristen Weiner
sets up food placement at Mozzeria

I would like to send a shout-out to my dear friend, Dyan Sue Kovacs who will make her first appearance on Monday's episode. You probably have already seen Dyan Sue's photography work as she took photos of our menu items! This is my favorite photos of Dyan's work.


We encourage you to watch this special ASL episode of Switched at Birth on Monday. More details on this show can be seen at http://beta.abcfamily.go.com/shows/switched-at-birth.

 

 

 

Last week we were preparing for Valentine's Day, one of our busiest night. It was sentimental for another reason – it marks the second Valentine dinner at Mozzeria since it opened!

I remember last year's Valentine event very well because it was also Chef Bryan Baker's first day of employment with Mozzeria.

This time we decided to offer a special Valentine prix fix menu, so our customers could dine a set menu at a flat rate. We were not going to offer the regular dinner menu during Valentine's Day. But I wondered: would our customers be okay with that? What if we had walk-ins, and would they be turned off with only the Valentine prix fix menu being available?

I looked at reservations that had been made for Valentine's Day and became nervous with time slots being really tight. I hoped that all customers come in as scheduled on their reservations, still have enough time to enjoy their meals, and complete their meal just in time for the next reservation. It would be a balancing act!

To prepare for the special day, Chef Bryan Baker prepared Valentine dishes for us to sample. My goodness, it was so good! Russ and Jesse also practiced making heart-shaped pizzas and nailed down their techniques.

Valentine’s Day came and it was time to play the music. I knew we needed to play romantic songs, but what do I know about romantic songs? I was like “Please Help Me!” Thank goodness for Pandora... it lists songs in categories such as indie romance and classical romance. I was able to choose indie romance songs at random, and when I looked at the faces of our customers, they seemed to take in and enjoy the music. Whew.

When customers completed their meals, we asked how they liked it. To our delight, all customers loved every course of the Valentine’s prix fix menu! It was simply divine! They asked if we would offer it again next year.

With such positive responses, we have decided to continue offering this special 4-course Valentine’s menu next year. We thank these customers for making Valentine’s Day extra special for us as well, and we definitely felt love was floating in the air.

 

 

 

We started off this exciting week with a catering gig for a private event in downtown San Francisco. It was really nice to be in another part of the city for a change! It has been awhile since I was in the SOMA area.

When I was there last week to check out the venue, it brought back some good memories of when I was a teen. I used to spend time walking around that area in SOMA/Financial District when my parents operated a restaurant at the Rincon Center. Much has changed since then.

People were wowed by the food and beverage stations during our catering event. They kept remarking how amazingly delicious the food tasted. I even recognized some of the guests who had previously dined at Mozzeria. It was really nice to see them again.

After the event ended, while we were carting our stuff back to our vehicles, I took a moment to look at the buildings during the night time. Wow, they looked really beautiful with the lights on. I always loved to look at the night skyline. After all, I was born in Hong Kong and I love the glitters of lights.



Here you will see a photo with the skyline behind us. As usual, Russ was goofing around :)



We look forward to Thursday - Valentine's Day. We are booked solid, but may still have tables opening up due to cancellations if you want to make a reservation. Just contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Chef Bryan Baker is having fun creating a special Valentine menu for you, and is excited to present a modern twist on some Italian dishes. Jesse, our pizza maker, will create an adorable heart shaped Margherita pizza! I will take some photos of these Valentine dishes and share them with you next week.

Happy Valentines-fully yours,

 

 

Winter vegetables (Credit: jalibaba.com)

Winter began on December 21. Although it was a good time to release the winter menu, we wanted to wait until the holidays were over. Some of our team members were still getting back from their long vacations. With the full Mozzeria team back, we are ready to launch the Winter 2013 menu.


A new addition to the Winter 2013 menu is vegetable plate. We had offered a charcuterie plate for a while, and we feel bad that we weren’t accommodating vegetarians. Like the charcuterie plate, the vegetable plate will change depending on season and availability. Our servers can brief you on specials of the day.


I read a customer's comment on our potato gnocchi and bolognese dish after posting a photo announcement on Facebook that it would be available only for a limited time following our 1st anniversary event. I am very pleased to inform that customer, and everyone that loves this dish, that potato gnocchi with bolognese had made its way back into the menu!

I cannot promise if potato gnocchi with bolognese will stay on the Spring menu, but I can say you gotta come to Mozzeria as often as you can during the winter months and enjoy :)


Arancini also made its way back to the Winter 2013 menu. Chef Bryan Baker prepares innovative dishes that have been well received. We also have some new pizzas. Take a look at the Winter 2013 menu!

We kept some popular dishes including the Mozzeria Bar, Kale Salad and Beet Salad. We made some changes to the Kale Salad and Beet Salad, and we hope you like it.

We invite you to try our dishes and share your thoughts with us.

Buon Appetito!

 

 

 

When a large envelope arrived with the Michelin Tire logo on it, I thought it was a letter trying to sell tires. My subconscious, however, told me to open the envelope so I went ahead and opened the envelope. To my surprise it wasn't an advertisement at all.

The letter was from Michelin Travel and Lifestyle North America.

"Congratulations to the entire team at Mozzeria for your recent Recommended rating in the MICHELIN Guide San Francisco, Bay Area and Wine Country 2013. This honor places you in an elite group of restaurants and hotels rated and selected by Michelin's local, anonymous inspectors."

My reaction? Wow!! Of course, I am ecstatic! This is definitely the highest honor and recognition from the food industry to date. I must congratulate how proud we are of the entire team at Mozzeria. Congratulations, Mozzeria team!

What is Michelin?
Michelin Guide was first created in France and eventually introduced additional guides for other countries. At this time, only 3 U.S. cities are listed in the Michelin Guides - New York City, Chicago and San Francisco Bay Area.

Michelin publishes two books series: Red and Green. Michelin Red Guide focuses on restaurants and hotels only. Michelin Green Guide is for travel and tourism.

Michelin has secret inspectors who take their jobs seriously – they don’t even tell their family what they do for a living. And officials in the Michelin company, itself don’t know them either.

Out of over 5,000 restaurants in San Francisco, Michelin’s local and unknown inspectors selected 539 restaurants to be featured in the 2013 Michelin San Francisco Bay Area Red Guide. And this year they included Mozzeria!

This is truly an honor for Mozzeria, and we are proud to display the Michelin certificate on the menu board and the Michelin recommended rating decal in the front window.

Although I will never know who our Michelin secret inspector was, or if I would even meet him or her again, I wanted to post this note:

 

Dear Michelin Secret Inspector,

We cannot tell you how excited and honored we are to receive this amazing recognition from you. It shows we make great food … you have overlooked our being Deaf and found our food impressive. For this, we thank you and we will continue to provide great food and service to all customers. Please come and visit us again, and sign "Hello" to us.

 

 

 

 

We celebrated a milestone last weekend: Mozzeria’s First Anniversary! Wow. So much has happened over the past year. I have definitely learned A LOT!

The First Night We Opened...

I look back to December 9, 2011. We didn’t know what to expect when we opened the doors to the public for the first time. We were so pumped up with anticipation and excitement … I remember worrying about thousands of little details: Would our rookie servers do a good job? Would customers like our unique pizzas? Do we put enough change in the cash drawer? I didn’t realize the magnitude of details needed to reflect our image, operations, quality and service.

Photo credit: Samantha Benedict

As we got closer to 5:30pm dinner service, we saw a long line form outside the door. We were touched to see our friends who were rooting for us actually stand outside waiting for us to open our doors. Their support meant everything to us. Naturally, our first dinner service wasn’t our best; we made some mistakes and we saw where we could improve some things.

Although I am a third generation restaurateur, there is no magic formula for running a successful restaurant. We have to keep responding to the multitudes of things happening inside and outside the restaurant.

Our Customers
Many people ask if we have hearing customers at Mozzeria, and how we communicate with them? Many hearing customers entering Mozzeria for the first time had no idea that it is owned and managed by a Deaf couple with many Deaf employees. Some customers felt awkward, and others were open-minded.

 

Photo credit: 3Matsumoto Photography  

It becomes our job to make them feel welcome, and show how they could communicate – by pointing to menu items. It is much the same as when you are in a foreign country where no one speaks English. Some even were interested in learning a few signs such as "Thank you" and "Pizza". One customer suggested we add notepads. Then customers began writing questions, comments and telling stories about themselves. Kids found these notepads delightful as they could draw pizzas. Cute. The customers' feedback helped us along. We thank you!

The Menu

Photo credit: Dyan Sue Kovacs

The menu has evolved over the past year, we tried different ingredients based on seasonal availability and what worked and didn't. Looking at our first dinner menu, we had 6 or 7 pizzas as compared to 10 pizzas on the current menu. We had wanted to start small and see customer reactions. As our confidence grew, we introduced unique pizzas either to the regular menu or as weekly specials.

When I discovered that Chef Bryan Baker is an expert in making pasta and cheese in-house, we decided to make everything in-house, not just the pizzas... even house-curing pancetta, our own Italian sausages, and roasting our ducks in the wood-burning oven. Aged cheese is an exception. We do make fresh pasta daily. As well as our desserts!

And Our Staff

Photo credit: Megan Malzkuhn/Dyan Sue Kovacs

I cannot tell you how proud I am of our team at Mozzeria. Nearly everyone came to Mozzeria without any restaurant work experiences. I wanted to give everyone a chance to work, and we provided training. Whenever I hired hearing people, they were usually a child of Deaf parents (CODA), sibling of Deaf adults (SODA), ASL students or had a Deaf girl/boyfriend or spouse. Having a “Deaf connection” is key. We also teach ASL to hearing employees. We all share a mutual goal – to ensure that every customer has a superb dining experience. We faced challenges in managing food and labor operational costs, and had to make significant changes but we all pulled together. They have come a long way in a short time, and they truly show their love for Mozzeria.

As I reflect on our first year, we have had an amazing year!

With deep gratitude,

 

 

 

Mozzeria is owned and managed by Deaf people. Some people may already know this but the funny thing is they don’t always realize that when they call us, they have actually spoken to Deaf folks.

When I greet guests at the entrance and ask if they had a reservation, they would say yes, they had called us. And if I respond by saying “Yes, I just talked to you on the phone,” I would often get a puzzled look on their faces. I bet they are wondering “really, did we just talk to Melody who is Deaf? And how?!”

If you have also wondered about the same thing, you are about to find out how this could even be possible! These phone calls happen, thanks to Convo, a video relay service (VRS). Now you’re thinking... but what is a “video relay service”? Think FaceTime… where you get to convo directly with your friend - in our case, we communicate with an American Sign Language interpreter face to face who relays the conversation with the hearing caller.

And now the media are getting onboard… in a recent New York Times article on Mozzeria, our staff’s use of Convo Relay was mentioned - New York Times article.

Photo credit: New York Times

 

Video Relay Services
You may have seen different VRS companies out there. Convo is an unique company because it was founded and is operated by Deaf people. Convo will have been in the VRS industry for 4 years this spring.

Photo credit: San Francisco Business Times

Why did they start Convo? The main reason why Robin Horwitz, Wayne Betts, Ed Bosson and Chad Taylor started their own company is to provide natural and organic traffic to Deaf people. After all, they understand our needs because they are also video relay service users. Convo is based in Pleasanton, California with several call centers across the country.

Mozzeria is proud to be in partnership with Convo because we have been advocates of Deaf-operated AND local businesses. We look forward to continue providing better service to our customers who want to make reservations or order their food to-go via phone.

Cheers,

 

 

 

A cold crisp autumn air has rolled into the city. Fallen leaves lie scattered on the ground. The sight of pears, apples and pumpkins are everywhere. While walking through the produce section at the grocery store, I was inspired by produce in season and ideas started swirling inside my head. Chef Bryan Baker was also inspired and has created new dishes for 'Small Plates', 'Pasta' and 'Desserts'.

Gnocco Fritti. Photo: Carrie Vasios/Serious Eats

Roasted Peppers on Crostini. Photo: Carrie Vasios/Serious Eats

Chef Baker keeps coming up with new ways to use our Stefano Ferrara oven by baking nearly everything inside the oven. His Autumn Themed dishes were profiled recently in “Serious Eats” - http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/10/mozzeria-san-francisco-restaurant-fall-menu-pizzas.html.

 

Lamb Curry pizza

Here is a lovely picture of our Lamb curry pizza. It was one of the original pizzas I created before opening Mozzeria. Now that the Fall season is here, I thought timing was perfect to introduce the Lamb Curry pizza!

We prepare the curry sauce in-house and slow-braised the lamb overnight. We had created Hosui Pear and Brie pizza as a weekly special. We baked a bacon slab in the Stefano Ferrara oven to take advantage its smoky hardwood flavor. I wanted to see how customers responded to this weekly special and they raved over the Hosui Pear pizza! Both “Hosui Pear and Brie”, and “Lamb Curry” pizzas will make their first appearance on the Fall dinner menu.

The Fall Dinner Menu will be unleashed on Wednesday, October 24th. We will continue to offer the 3-Course Menu special on Wednesdays. Be the first one to try our autumn-themed dishes, and tell us what you think.

Cheers,

 

 

Bex Freund has a gift and talent in visual arts. She contacted me through the website asking if she could do a painting for Mozzeria. I looked at her collection of paintings on her website, http://taproot-coccyx.tumblr.com. I was like, "wow", and contacted Patty Foo Hampton, Mozzeria’s interior designer. She also agreed that Bex is indeed very talented.

Bex was born and raised in Los Angeles, not far from Venice Beach where many street artists roam and try out different art techniques. She started dabbling in art when she was 2, and got started in oil painting when she was about 6 and continues to create art. She took art education courses at California College of the Arts in the Bay Area.

When Patty and I met with Bex to discuss doing an art project for Mozzeria, Patty had some ideas. Bex was ready to take on the challenge, and eager to see how far she could go as an artist. Wow, she actually did a truly beautiful job with the new painting.

It is an abstract concept that incorporates elements with consistent colors -  red, silver/gray and black. You get a glimpse of our shiny red vintage chair, our silverware and, of course, our famed Stefano Ferrara oven.

I loved how Bex incorporated all in this great painting.You just have to come and see her work!

I asked what her future plans were. Bex hopes to display her entire collection of paintings at a larger studio, and possibly isolate herself in a cabin to focus more on her art projects.

I have a feeling that her artwork will eventually be recognized by a larger audience. I am already a fan of her art work.

Cheers

 

 

 

When BlackBoard Eats approached me a few months ago and asked if we would consider doing a special promotion to BlackBoard Eats subscribers, this is when we introduced “Italian Feast for Two” which was a huge success. The BlackBoard Eats promotion brought subscribers to Mozzeria for their first time and they obviously loved our food because they returned to Mozzeria at other times to try other dishes as well! This is where the idea came about to create a “Chef Tasting Menu.“

Chef Bryan Baker at Mozzeria worked at famed New York City restaurants before moving to San Francisco almost one year ago. Chef Bryan, who has a great palate, loves playing up different features of food to its maximum advantage with interesting spices. I told Chef Bryan to showcase his talent through his food so we came up with this “Chef Tasting Menu on Thursdays” promotion. He suggested serving goat meat at Mozzeria.

This is new to me, I, myself have not had the opportunity to try goat meat before, and I thought it was a great idea. I am all for adventurous eating!



Taking A Trip to Half Moon Bay
Chef Bryan wanted to handpick a goat for his Chef Tasting Menu, and we researched goat ranches. Only a few ranches sell goat meat and we eventually chose a reputable ranch where Chef Bryan and I went. It was an interesting experience.

Why Goat?
Did you know that goats are widely consumed around the world? Goat meat is popular in southern Italy. A few restaurants in San Francisco have started serving goat dishes. Bill Niman, a famed pork and beef rancher of Niman Ranch, has just come back from retirement to raise goats on his land in California. Goat meat is also healthy so you can throw away your guilt when eating goat meat! In fact, take a look at this chart, below. Wow!

So what are you waiting for? Come and try our "Chef Tasting Menu" at Mozzeria tonight, Thursday!

 

 

Diversity art is what I have been seeking for Mozzeria. I keep looking for unique Deaf artists, local or afar and asked our interior decorator, Patty Foo Hampton to help me coordinate this art project at Mozzeria.

Field Trip to Mozzeria

While talking to a group of Deaf high schoolers from John O'Connell High School in Mission District visiting Mozzeria one day, Katie Cue, the teacher of the Deaf students mentioned Linda Ponce de Leon, a talented artist. I invited Katie and Linda to a meeting with myself and Patty. We asked Linda about her art style and learned her strength is Charcoal Drawing which drew my attention. I was excited about displaying different art styles at Mozzeria. Patty came up with concept for a particular space. Linda spent a month working on the art project and completed the project just in time before her school closed for the summer break.

Defining Linda's Art
Patty suggested that we borrowed "patterns" from our interior lighting – the glass chandelier and wall scone. We also included, of course, the pattern of our Stefano Ferrara oven. We chose black and white colors to be consistent with Mozzeria color scheme. The art concept is abstract. We had Ron Trumble assemble a picture frame to protect Linda's artwork piece. Yes, we do have customers who may go overboard sometimes with their glasses of wine and spill some on the wall art!

Who is Linda?

Linda, then 15 years old, is our youngest Deaf artist displaying her work at Mozzeria. She was a sophomore at John O'Connell High School and has now transferred to my alma mater, California School for the Deaf in Fremont. I told her that she should take art classes under David Call, who also did the art work at Mozzeria. She is one talented young artist. I thank Katie Cue for introducing her student, and Linda's art teacher at John O'Connell High School, Elahe Shaideh. Thank you!!

Please come and view the latest artwork addition done by Linda at Mozzeria.

Cheers,

 

 

Visit the Mozzeria Store at Mozzeria.com!

Everyone loves receiving a gift... who doesn't?  Many of you have been asking when Mozzeria T-shirts would be available. I am very pleased to announce that Mozzeria T-shirts are now available!

We are now selling Mozzeria T-shirts in two brands:  American Apparel, and Hanes Comfort – for Ladies or Men, sizes Medium, Large and X-Large. We can also take special orders for XXL or larger sizes.

Here you can see the Mozzeria gang wear Mozzeria T-shirts in both Hanes and American Apparel brands.

Makes Great Gifts
If you are looking for a souvenir, a memento to mark your visit to Mozzeria, or simply for a memorable gift, the Mozzeria T-shirt is a great buy! You can purchase it next time you are at Mozzeria, or email your order to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Ordering information is available at http://mozzeria.com/gifts-list/store.


Wait, don't go... there is more! David Call, a very talented artist has been getting requests from our customers wanting to get the Mozzeria linocut painting that hangs on the wall. Our original plan had been not to sell linocut paintings as we wanted it to be a keepsake for us only.

As several customers had also approached me to inquire if they could order one and how they really love the look. I totally agree, as I thought it was truly beautiful work. I have just made the decision to let David Call sell copies of the Mozzeria linocut painting. David has arranged for a limited edition of 50 prints. You can place your order at http://mozzeria.com/gifts-list/store or through http://www.eyehandstudio.com/Mozzeria.

I can't wait to see everyone wear Mozzeria T-shirts with pride. Let's spread the Mozzeria cheer everywhere, it’s contagious! It is not just for us, for also for all of you to show the world that anyone can open a restaurant, and serve fabulous food!

 

 

 

What an amazing experience! Great turnout at San Francisco Street Food Festival!

I am still recuperating from activities during the past week. It was nervous wrecking for me as I knew the San Francisco Street Food Festival, now in its fourth year, usually attracts as many as 80,000 patrons. My goodness... do we have to make 80,000 burratas?!?

To my relief, I was told that the vendors do not make tens of thousands of items. We still, however, have to make enough for hungry patrons at the festival. Some of us pulled an all-nighter "making cheese parties" at Mozzeria. We had volunteers help make lots of la mia oca burratas into wee morning hours.

When we got to the SF Street Food Festival in the early morning, I was in awe when I saw the Mozzeria signage. Wow it was beautiful, and I became excited for what the day would bring us. We had everything set up, and waited for the health inspector to give us the green light. As "11 am" passed, I became nervous as we couldn't start selling until the health inspector arrived at Mozzeria’s booth which happened just a couple minutes later. Yay, we got the green light and proceeded to sell burrata to customers!


Our goal was to introduce, and showcase, one of our best-selling dishes - la mia oca burrata to new customers. Wow, we couldn't believe it when we were sold out of la mia oca burratas a couple hours before the event ended at 7 pm. As my hubby Russ loves playing with numbers, he figured we were selling at rate of 2 burratas per minute. I am proud of how we handled food preparation, serving and interacting with customers. We definitely want to return to the festival and I already have some ideas for next year's festival!


Now I want to express thousands of gratitudes to our volunteers who all pitched in and helped us prepare successfully for our participation in a food festival for the very first time. You all did great! Thank you so much!



Lastly, but not least, Mozzeria wants to thank La Cocina and Whole Foods for giving us this opportunity to be part of this amazing experience. Congratulations for another successful event!

 

 

Credit: San Francisco Street Food Festival

We are super excited about our winning the booth space at San Francisco Street Food Festival! There was a contest and the top four to get the most votes receive a booth space with support services. To our surprise, you all helped us vault to the top 4!

We are grateful for your amazing support, enthusiasm, and continued support. Thank you!!! We were invited to an event hosted by La Cocina and got to mingle with peers in the food industry. We were inspired by La Cocina's mission to encourage talented female immigrants to showcase their food speciality and help them turn into economically self-sufficient food entrepreneurs. La Cocina hosts the San Francisco Street Food Festival which is in its fourth year. You will get an opportunity to meet and taste their food products this weekend.

Credit: San Francisco Street Food Festival

There were other winners along with Mozzeria: Little Red Dot Kitchen, Rice Paper Scissors and Banh Mi Love You Long Time. Our booths will be next to each other during the San Francisco Street Food Festival. We cannot wait to try their food.

 

Credit: San Francisco Chronicle

The Mozzeria booth will be on Folsom Street between 21st and 22nd streets. We will sell our house-made 'la mia oca' burrata which has been garnering attention among the food media. Please stop by our booth and try our creamy 'la mia oca' burrata. Note: our version of la mia oca burrata during the event will be smaller.

I would like to share some details on the SF Street Food Festival. We recommend you use public transportation, as several blocks will be closed for this large event and there will be changes to some bus routes. Please check www.sfmta.com for updates. If you are going to ride BART, the closest Bart station is 24th Street and Mission which is about 2 blocks away.

There is a guide and map at http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/downloads/sfsff_2012_map.pdf.

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What?
San Francisco Street Food Festival

When??
This coming Saturday, August 18th!!!

Hours:
11 am - 7 pm

Where:
Folsom Street between 20th & 26th Streets

What do you need to prepare mentally for?
1. Your stomach has to be empty
2. Bring cash
3. Have fun!!!
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Mozzeria will open for Dinner service at 5pm on Saturday August 18th. There will be no Lunch service that day. We look forward to meeting you.

Cheers!

 

I love food festivals! People are able to sample food from restaurants and food trucks in the same place which makes it a lot of fun. For several years, I enjoyed jumping from one food booths to another during the San Francisco Street Food Festival. I completely forgot the fourth annual San Francisco Street Food Festival coming up in August until I received an email from them.

I was like yeah, that's right; it’s that time of the year. I wanted Mozzeria to participate and, to our disappointment, found out that we were too late.

But there is another way to get in. They are running a “Local Forager Contest” where they invite you “to help us find and select the best four Northern California has to offer to participate in the 2012 San Francisco Street Food Festival.” This would be an opportunity for “folks who are looking to take their next food step: informal vendors, launching food trucks, owner-operated, chef-driven restaurants…”

What’s the catch: We need to be among the top four vote-getters.


We would love to sell our pizzas, but we do not have a portable pizza oven. It is one of our goals to have this portable wood burning oven. Someday.... yes. We would love to showcase one of our best-selling dishes – house-made burrata.

Vote For Us!
Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese. The outer shell is fresh mozzarella while the inside contains ricotta. The name means "buttered" in Italian. Delish!! If you want to try our burrata, please vote for Mozzeria at http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/local_forager_contest.php. Find “Mozzeria” and click the ‘vote’ button next to it.

Please help us get this opportunity to serve house-made burrata at the San Francisco Street Food Festival on Saturday, August 18th. Please tell your friends to vote!