Mozz
Address: 416 East 900 South
700 South 545 West, Suite 104
Telephone: 385-420-4791
Website: mozzartisanpizza.com
District: Central City (see map)
Granary
“I ask myself this a thousand times a day - am I acting in good faith? Am I being honest, empathetic, forthright, grateful? That’s the rudder I steer my life with now, and it’s how we run our business too.” Jared Neiswender, owner of Mozz, grew up in the suburbs outside Philadelphia. It is an area where New York commuters met hometown tradition, and where, at fourteen, he got his first job in a restaurant. “I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life,” he said, “but I never imagined they would become my path forward.”
That path took a sharp and unexpected turn in 2001 when twenty-year-old Jared followed his high school girlfriend to Utah. She was a member of the LDS Church and wanted to be closer to her community. Jared was not a member. But, young and in love, he packed up and moved across the country, only to have her leave him almost immediately. “I was kind of stranded out here,” he said. But Utah had always called to him in some way; he had come out previously for snowboarding, and something about the landscape and energy stuck. So, he stayed.
A back injury at twenty-five derailed everything. “I developed a pretty severe opiate addiction, which lasted nine years,” Jared explained. “That ultimately landed me in jail, and it was there that I got sober.” He calls it the turning point of his life. “I wanted to live differently, to stop being a taker. I came out determined to be a better person.”
Jared worked hard to rebuild. He lived simply. He poured himself into becoming “a good human.” Along the way, he connected with a woman named Erin Henriod. Their paths had crossed through mutual friends at Sundance Resort, where Jared had worked for eleven years - from 2003 to 2013 - and where Erin had also spent time, though never on the same shift. Their relationship was fast and true. They married in 2017, and today they are raising their son, Story St. Claire, a name rich with meaning. Their five-year journey with IVF had ended in a surrogacy, and the woman who carried their child was named Claire. “She did this out of pure kindness. She asked for nothing. We see her as a saint,” Jared said. “So, we named him Story and gave him the last name St. Claire.”
Around that same time, Jared, Erin, and their friend Brett Ramuno, who had been working in a top-tier pizzeria in Denver, decided to open a place of their own. They had all worked in the restaurant industry for years and shared a vision: something stripped down, soulful, and purposeful. Mozz was born.
The first Mozz opened in Provo in 2018, a cozy space with a wood-fired oven tiled in bright mosaic. That tile now appears again at the newest location on 900 South in Salt Lake City, an homage to their beginnings. “We started with no master plan,” Jared said. “Just a desire to do one thing well and see what could come of it.”
From the start, Mozz stood apart. Every pizza was made with naturally leavened sourdough - a complex, time-intensive process that few others attempt. For five years, they also hand-pulled every ounce of their mozzarella, producing over 100,000 pounds in total. “We finally had to stop last year because we couldn’t keep up,” Jared admitted. “But we still do the sourdough. That’s a non-negotiable.”
Their menu is intentionally small and simple, but very flavorful. “Pizza, two salads, and a killer brown butter chocolate chip cookie,” Jared said with a grin. “The simpler the menu, the fresher the food.” Their seasonal pizzas are a fan favorite: leek in fall, squash in winter, asparagus in spring, and fresh peach or corn in the summer. Every ingredient is as local as possible. They serve local beer, natural and organic wine, and artisan sodas.
With four locations now - Provo, Woodbine Food Hall, Daybreak, and the brand-new 900 South restaurant - each space is unique, designed by Erin with warmth, beauty, and adaptive reuse in mind. “We’re not building cookie-cutter chains,” Jared said. “We take copious notes after every build-out, and with each one, we improve. We want to open ten more by 2035, but I promised Brett and Erin I’d wait two years before the next one. I’m an ambitious fella, but they keep me grounded.”
Scaling up has meant tough compromises. They do not use a wood-fired oven in their latest space. Instead, they have sourced a high-heat stone-floor oven that replicates its effect with more consistency. “It’s not as sexy, but it’s a better experience for customers,” Jared explained. “No roulette wheel of who’s baking your pizza that night.”
Through it all, their team remains central. “Restaurants can be brutal workplaces,” Jared said. “We were determined not to repeat what we had seen in the industry. We nurture our staff, reward them, and invest in their growth.”
Mozz is more than just a place to eat. Jared and his team are building community. During the social upheavals of 2020, they leaned into causes they believed in - racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights - but lately, they have focused their energy on something simpler and more universal: children’s literacy. Inspired by a program from his own childhood at Pizza Hut, Jared launched a book club where kids can earn free pizza for reading. “I remember that feeling, bringing in my signed card from my teacher after completing each book that I read, and getting a personal pan pizza. It was magic. We wanted to bring that back.”
Now a father, husband, entrepreneur, and mentor, Jared carries the weight of his past. “There’s a thread that runs through all of this: my sobriety, our business, how we raise our son,” he said. “It’s about second chances. About being grateful. And about living with integrity. I was lucky to get another shot at life. I want to honor that by being thoughtful, introspective, and doing things for the right reasons. Whether it’s raising a child or making a pizza, I just want to be a good human.”
