Melody Stein grew up in a family of foodies. Not only did her parents own and operate a Chinese eatery in San Francisco, but the family also constantly went out to eat. Stein still gets excited to recall her first encounter with Japanese, Vietnamese and French food. There was only one thing she wanted to do was attend the California Culinary Academy and start her own restaurant
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Her deafness almost defeated her dreams. An Academy refused her application because she was deaf. Stein is 45 now. It took her about 20 years, but Stein proved herself.
Today, she co-owns and runs Mozzeria, a Neapolitan-style pizzeria in San Francisco, with her husband, Russ Stein, 47, who is also deaf. It is not just a pizza joint. In order to ensure that others do not suffer what they did, the couple employed only deaf individuals to run their pizzeria and its two associated food trucks.
Steins’ pizzeria is all set to come up to Washington. Bolstered by an investment of several million dollars from the Communication Service for the Deaf Social Venture Fund, Mozzeria is coming up with a second restaurant at 1300 H St. NE in spring 2020.
Mozzeria may be run by deaf people, but it caters to its customers of all kinds. Orders are communicated to waiters either by sign language, pointing or using paper and pens, which lie ready on every table.
There are roughly 30 million Americans with severe hearing disabilities, and the Washington area is home to a significant deaf population. Employment rates among the deaf lag far behind those among hearing individuals. However, only 48 percent of deaf people are employed, compared with 72 percent of the hearing population, according to a study conducted by the National Deaf Center and the University of Texas at Austin.
Deaf people confront damaging stereotypes in the workplace that can disrupt their careers and even prevent their hiring. People think because someone cannot hear, they are incapable of handling high-stakes jobs which is false in most cases. After a lot of practice, and a lot of time spent raising money from friends and acquaintances, the two opened Mozzeria’s doors for business in 2011. It proved popular among diners and critics, earning rave reviews from local news outlets and 4.5 stars out of 5. It also required 18-hour workdays.
Now, things are a little less hectic. The couple can trust their well-trained employees in San Francisco to manage most daily tasks, though both still love spending time in the kitchen. So, now they are thinking of bigger scales. They want to expand to other cities.
