The Mothersauce Team

Nick Freshman

Founder

For nearly 30 years, Nick’s heart — and stomach — have been committed to a singular passion: gathering good people around good food and drink.

Nick has worked in every aspect of the restaurant industry, from leading a successful franchise (Five Guys) to creating an acclaimed farm-to-table restaurant (Eventide), to launching one of the DMV’s top-grossing bars (Spider Kelly’s), to opening a 35,000 sf food hall (Upside on Moore).

Throughout his career, he’s been drawn to working with great people to solve big challenges in his industry. Whether it be taking a concept from the back-of-the-napkin to an award-winning restaurant, or helping a client transform their space from passed over to must visit, Nick founded Mothersauce Partners to help great ideas turn into profitable ventures.

Mothersauce serves clients by helping them solve their hospitality needs. From connecting indoor vertical farmers to chefs and restaurants, to helping landlords re-vision their spaces for a post-Covid working world, to traveling the globe and supporting international conferences in Dubai, Mothersauce is nimble and dynamic, and can fill nearly any gap in knowledge for its clients.

A Washington, DC area native, Nick is the former board chairman of La Cocina VA, a nonprofit dedicated to workforce development through a culinary training program and small business incubator. He is a vocal advocate for the restaurant industry and the people that work in it. Nick regularly volunteers his time to causes that support the industry, including efforts during COVID-19 aimed at helping out-of-work restaurant staff.

Nick lives in Arlington with his wife and daughter — where you will find him at home with a glass of Sancerre, or running around town hunting for the perfect espresso.

Adam D. Stein

Partner

Adam Stein is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Eleanor DC and The Eleanor Silver Spring. He is also an in-demand consultant providing services to a number of clients in the Washington, DC area.

A dynamic and seasoned veteran of the industry, Adam brings a skill set to projects that is unmatched in the industry. Chef, owner, general contractor, designer - just a few of the hats that he wears and the resources he can bring to bear.

Adam earned a liberal arts degree from Antioch College and sharpened his culinary chops at Johnson & Wales, which gave him the educational foundation to dive headfirst into his passion: food. He has nearly thirty years of experience in the business with more than twenty years as an executive chef. He is particularly skilled at restaurant openings, with more than 16 project launches over the course of his career.

Adam also brings eight years of hands-on general contracting experience, which helps him see a restaurant through design and construction and offers him the ability to act as project manager, and even does the finish work on some projects himself. Given the frequent challenges in restaurant construction, this is a uniquely valuable asset.

Over his career, Adam has built an extensive network of valuable connections from construction, maintenance, food and beverage purveyors and equipment suppliers, to architects, PR reps, and graphic designers. He has strong ties to the DC bar and restaurant scene as well as with restaurant press, blogs and business organizations.

SAM GROH

Director of Operations

Samuel Groh has over 20 years of operations, sales, and senior management excellence in the food service and hospitality industry.  He is a versatile, profit-driven senior executive with a unique ability to redesign customer experiences and operating models to increase growth and customer satisfaction. An expert communicator and strategist with a long history of turning around business operations to reduce waste, improve sustainability, and boost employee morale.

He has worked for larger corporations and smaller start-up companies. At NoVa startup HUNGRY, Sam developed and opened Hungry’s Café & Coffee Bar locations in multiple markets. This work included creating operational SOP’s for all facets of the business (revenue, POS structure, marketing, equipment, labor, financials) that focus on efficiencies as well as overall profitability including an emphasis on working closely with clients.

As the general manager for Restaurant Associates, Samuel headed the development and execution of the operations and account management for several premier DC accounts: The United States Senate, The World Bank and George Washington University. His responsibilities and expertise have included overseeing P&L, strategy, HR, finance, sales, marketing, equipment management, and general operations.

As an onsite operations expert and point of contact for clients, tenants and landlords, Sam offers these stakeholders singular comfort and expertise.

ALEXIS J. THORNLOW

Creative Director

With over 20 years of experience in the design and branding field, Alexis executes projects on a wide range of visual and digital materials. As Creative Director, she enthusiastically creates logos, websites, print collateral, internal/external corporate signage, advertisements, pitch decks, sell sheets, trade show booths, social media/menu/packaging/brochure/print collateral/apparel design, holiday cards, animations and infographics.

Before joining Mothersauce Partners, Alexis worked as Lead Designer at TIG Global where she developed, refreshed and maintained restaurant and hospitality brands for Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott Hotels. Her experience with the restaurant industry has allowed her to create the branding for many restaurants in the Washington, DC area including Toki Underground, Reverie, The Freshman, The Eleanor, Bar Elena, Red Light, Songbyrd Cafe, Pow Pow, and Dirty South Deli.

Alissa Avilov

Associate

With over a decade of experience in operations and hospitality, Alissa is a dedicated professional who thrives on creating exceptional experiences for customers and employees. She is constantly determined to create intimacy at scale - the feeling of being known. In an ever-evolving digital world, she is deeply passionate about the magic that happens when people gather and connect in person.

Having honed her skills at companies like WeWork and Clover Food Lab, Alissa understands the nuances of the hospitality industry and the importance of a seamless customer experience at scale. She believes that a happy team leads to happy customers, and is fervently devoted to empowering employees and building internal culture alongside customer-focused strategies.

Alissa is known for her innovative approach to problem-solving and her ability to implement creative and effective strategies that enhance both service quality and operational efficiency. She is deeply integrated within the food and beverage community and champions small businesses at every opportunity. Her approach to unique programming, events, and marketing is always rooted in understanding what customers really value and want.

Outside work, Alissa is on a never-ending quest to find the best chocolate croissant in every city (leads welcome). You can also find her at a concert, in a yoga class (or soon teaching), reading, or working on a new baking project at home. She lives in Washington, DC with her partner Erika.

MELISSA SARVER

CFO

As a CPA with over 20 years running her own consulting business, Melissa provides financial support to 15+ clients across a variety of industries.  Financial support includes preparation of monthly financial reports, reconciliation of bank and credit card statements, processing vendor invoices and payments, processing of payroll, monthly sales tax filings, building and monitoring of annual budgets, processing of 1099s, working with tax accountants to get annual returns processed and filed and other accounting/financial responsibilities.  Melissa has often helped new companies get their accounting systems set up and running.  Melissa’s clients include restaurants, start-ups, a venture capital company, construction company, contract furnishings family-owned business, and legal companies. 

Prior to starting her own consulting business Melissa was the CFO and Treasurer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nonprofit, where she worked with NTI’s executives and Board of Directors for all things accounting/finance.  Melissa also worked for KPMG, LLP in the Business Process Outsourcing division where she served as on-site manager for non-profit trade and community-oriented associations, which included overseeing general ledger, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable processes.

Over the years Melissa has lent her skills by volunteering on Boards of her children’s school’s PTAs/PTSAs as the Treasurer and other small community non-profits.

PETER A. DELISO

Counsel

Since late 2008, Peter has practiced law with Executive Counsel PLC, focusing on corporate, commercial, corporate finance, and mergers & acquisitions for early stage to mid-stage clients as well as private equity and venture capital firms that specialize in investing in early to mid-stage enterprises. Peter’s clients range from high-tech ventures, government contractors, services businesses, to firms active in the restaurant and hospitality business. Prior to joining Executive Counsel PLC, Peter served for over 14 years as Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary for LCC International, Inc. (NASDAQ-listed), a leading provider of engineering and network deployment services and related software and hardware products to the wireless telecommunications industry on a world-wide basis. While with LCC, Peter also served in a variety of business and operations roles and led the company’s corporate development and strategy functions. He identified, structured and closed a number of acquisitions, joint ventures and corporate divestitures in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. Prior to LCC, Peter served as Corporate Counsel to Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., also known as SkyTel, an early pioneer in wireless data messaging.  While with SkyTel, Peter handled the company’s in-house legal affairs during a period of rapid growth and international expansion.