One unfortunate Friday evening at Osteria Mozza, we had to call each of the 275 covers to notify them we were closing for the evening because the hoods were down. All due to a simple fan belt breaking which could not be replaced till stores opened the following morning.

Luckily, my friend from hospitality school Caroline would still be up 10 hours ahead in London to hear me rant.

Thankfully she didn’t fully tune me out (as she probably should have) and said, “you need to talk to my dad.”

As it turns out, her dad Gary had recently sold his grease & waste management companies Russel Reid & Mr. John on the East Coast, beaten cancer & was expecting his first grand child in Los Angeles.

In my dozen years managing restaurants, I noticed one area that consistently felt like a black hole of issues (and money): the hoods.

I tried just about every company in Los Angeles and was always left disappointed.

So instead of continuing to complain that “no one does it right” and “I could do this better myself”… I decided to just do it better!

I figured someone in this business just needs to think what restaurant operators (like myself) need, how to make their lives easier & more cost effective.

Gary agreed and so hoody was born!

Hopefully, we can make your life easier as well.

Cheers,

Sean Maloney