Mozza general manager David Rosoff is leaving after eight years

By S. Irene Virbila

Feb. 19, 2014 1:48 PM PT

David Rosoff, longtime general manager for the Mozza group of restaurants, has resigned. But he’s not gone yet. He’ll be in command at the restaurants owned by Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich until March 7.

In an email, he states: “It’s been an amazing 8 years. Like being the GM of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. But rather than a toad, it’s 3 titans of the industry.”

“It’s all very amicable,” he stressed. “I love Nancy to death and am very proud of what we built there.”

Silverton praised Rosoff in return. “David did a terrific job for us,” she said. “In the restaurant world, it’s rare to find someone as talented as he is with wine, service and food knowledge. He had all of that as a manager and certainly, he was instrumental in Osteria Mozza’s success. He’ll be hard to replace.”

One of the benefits of having a restaurant empire, though, is having a pool of talent to draw on.

“Fortunately,” Silverton said, “we have someone who was managing the Pizzeria Mozza in Singapore who has agreed to come back to take on the GM job here. He actually started at the Pizzeria here, moved on to the Osteria and then to Singapore. His name is Will Simons, and he, too, is wine-knowledgeable, service-savvy, and great with the numbers.”

As for Rosoff’s plans, “Time to take some time,” he said, when I contacted him about a report of his retirement, via an apparently satirical post on writer (and Nancy Silverton beau) Michael Krikorian’s blog.

“I’m afraid it is,” he fired back in an email.

Sometime later this spring, Rosoff will be taking a long trip to Italy and Spain with his girlfriend and another couple. Guess he won’t have to worry about hurrying back.

By all accounts, running the Mozza group is a bear of a job. After this, running any other restaurant should be a piece of cake.

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