Mother's Bistro & Bar: "You Should Eat So Good"

Mother's Bistro & Bar

“Just like Mother's” has a dual meaning at this downtown favorite dedicated to all things Mom. In addition to chef Lisa Schroeder's comfort-food greatest-hits menu—featuring such standards as slow-cooked chicken and dumplings, braised pot roast and Strawberry Mountain beef meatloaf—recipes from a real live “Mother of the Month” are featured on a rotating “M.O.M.” menu. Inclusions during a recent visit were a spot-on Caprese salad with housemade mozzarella and balsamic reduction, and sautéed chicken breast and broccoli in a Thai coconut-peanut sauce. Service in the chandelier-studded shabby-chic dining room is quick and attentive, and anyone who's seen the groups milling about out front on Saturday and Sunday mornings knows Mother's is a popular weekend breakfast spot as well, beloved for both standard scrambles and decadent specialties like cornflake-battered challah French toast. Also be sure to stop by the attached Velvet Lounge for $3 happy-hour snacks Tuesday through Friday, featuring everything from mini-burgers to chopped liver and crackers. Proof Mother always knows best.

IDEAL MEAL: Stewed white-meat chicken and herbed dumplings, crème brûlée.

409 SW 2nd Ave. 464-1122. www.mothersbistro.com