mozzeria

You know what my favorite pizza restaurant is? Not Rowena's Brooklyn Artisan Parlor of Perfection, not anymore, anyway. In fact, I've never even stepped inside my new favorite pizzeria -- but I am totally in love with it. Meet Melody and Russell Stein of Mozzeria in San Francisco.

Sure they've got the wood-burning brick oven, the red wine, and the cute red bistro chairs. But the soul of this restaurant is its owners. Melody and Russell happen to both be deaf. Not only that, the cooks and waitstaff are also deaf. And they're on fire.

Of course this would be a very comfortable restaurant for deaf people -- but Mozzeria attracts all kind of people, anyone who's in the mood for Neapolitan pizza, really. Sometimes they're a little taken aback when they find out everyone working there is deaf. I think my first thought would be -- how am I going to order?

"We just have to prove to them that we are here to serve them delicious food," Russell says of his new, hearing customers. "And they can ultimately forget our deafness, in a way, because that's not really part of our vocabulary. We focus on our common interest in food." Russell says this in the video below while the camera pans over a gorgeous little pie with what looks like artfully-arranged mushrooms and asparagus. And, well, yeah -- if you're serving wonderful pizza like that, it simply doesn't matter.

I'm not saying people should eat at this restaurant just because the owner and staff are deaf. It's that Melody and Russell had so much passion for their dream of running a restaurant, they wouldn't let anything -- not even challenges with communicating with customers -- stand in their way. That just sounds like an exciting, love-filled place to eat.

 

What makes a restaurant special to you?

 

Image via AOL