To serve as honorary chairs, she tapped her clients and friends, Jeff, Dennis and Mike Mastro. As a partner of Rose + Moser + Allyn public relations, Moser has represented the Mastro family’s restaurants for years. She and Jeff, the CEO of Prime Steak Concepts and co-founder of Steak 48, Steak 44, Ocean 44 and Dominick’s Steakhouse, share an easy rapport and lob jokes back and forth like siblings. So all of the pieces were in place for the 61 st Annual Phoenix Heart Ball to be one for the ages. And then COVID came. “When COVID first hit, we looked at it as a little blip,” Moser said. But as the weight of the pandemic became clear, Heart Ball became one of the first events to reschedule. “We wanted to keep the traditions, because tradition is important to Heart Ball, so we went ahead and pushed it back an entire year,” she said. And so, what was supposed to be a one-year commitment stretched to two, complete with a whole lot of pivoting. The Heart Ball committees started to do more COVID-related messaging, spreading awareness that heart disease remains the number-one killer in the United States. Also pivoting were the Mastros. Though they have enjoyed phenomenal success for years — having built the Mastro’s Steakhouse brand up to include seven restaurants, selling it in 2007, and going on to create seven more white-hot dining destinations across the U.S. — last year served up challenges unlike any before. “It’s been a hell of a year,” said Jeff, who serves as CEO of the company while his brother Mike is president of development. “Some of our stores in Chicago stayed closed for almost four months. Then we opened our Philly store on Sept. 8, after a huge delay, and they closed us down a couple of months later. But we’ll get through it. I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Despite the tough times, the Mastros’ commitment to the Heart Ball never wavered. Like Moser, they feel a close connection to the cause. Dennis Mastro, the family patriarch, had a quadruple bypass years ago. “He was hiking a mountain and felt something,” said his son Jeff. “He never had a heart attack, but he went to his doctor. Two days later, they had him in for surgery.” Jeff calls the surgery “the greatest thing that ever happened” because it spared Dennis the fate his father suffered at the same age. “My father’s father had a massive heart attack at 57. I was like, 12 or 13. It was very traumatic.” Because of that bypass surgery, Dennis has gone on to enjoy his life and his family. “My dad is the greatest dad that you can have,” Jeff said. “I’ve learned so much from him.” Not only do Jeff and Mike have heart disease on the paternal side of their family, but it runs on the maternal side as well. Their mother’s father died of a massive “ When COVID first hit, we looked at it as a little blip. We wanted to keep the traditions, because tradition is important to Heart Ball, so we went ahead and pushed it back an entire year.” For Dennis Mastro, Jennifer Moser, Jeff Mastro and Mike Mastro, raising funds for the American Heart Association is a mission that is close to their, well, hearts. JAN 2021 | 26 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA

Leather cape by LiaMo Despite all of her accomplishments today, Jennifer Moser still feels the sting of her father’s premature death from heart disease. She is shown here with her dad, Carl Stringfellow, in Dec. 2001, less than a year before he died. FRONTDOORS MEDIA | 27 | JAN 2021