Mother of The Month

ABOUT M.O.M.

Through her travels, Chef Lisa came to realize that the best meals of a country are not found in its restaurants. They’re found in its homes, made with love by mothers cooking for their families. So, in addition to Mother’s regular menu where she serves food from mothers around the world, Chef Lisa highlights a different mother each month and features some of her special dishes.

The special mother is called the Mother of the Month (or M.O.M.™), and her photograph, story and menu take a prominent place at the beginning of Mother’s menu. We choose a mother that allows us to take advantage of the seasonal availability of ingredients, such as a Greek mother in the summer months and a Polish mother in the winter months.

If you’d like to nominate a mother to be the M.O.M.™, CLICK HERE and tell us something about her and her special dishes.

M.O.M. Menu

MARY GRILLO SAMPLE

MARY GRILLO SAMPLE

Lunch & Dinner

Fried Zucchini

lightly battered, Pecorino Romano cheese, tomato-basil sauce

10

Grandma Mary’s Meatballs

Painted Hills natural beef meatballs,
mozzarella cheese, tomato-basil sauce, grilled bread

11

DINNER

Grandma Mary’s Sunday Gravy

Painted Hills natural beef meatballs, Carlton Farms pork,
Italian sausage, slow-cooked in tomato sauce, rigatoni

24

Chicken Cutlet Parmesan

pan-fried, mozzarella, tomato-basil sauce, linguini

23

Dessert

Tiramisù

ladyfingers, Kahlúa, brandy, espresso, mascarpone, whipped cream

8

CURRENT M.O.M. STORY

MARY GRILLO SAMPLE

MARY GRILLO SAMPLE

Mary Grillo, aka “Grandma Mary” was born in Pennsylvania to Italian immigrant parents in 1896. When she was just a toddler, a disgruntled nephew murdered her parents (he put dynamite under their bed). Mary and her two sisters were sent back to Sicily to be raised by their aunt and uncle. When Mary was 16 her older brothers paid for her and her sisters to move back to America. A few years
later she married Giorgio Zampaglione (who eventually changed his name to George Sample since no one could pronounce his name), and they had four children. They owned a small convenience store attached to their home in Bakerton, Pennsylvania (near Johnstown), and raised four children in the rough and tumble coal country.

Their son Tony and his wife Carolyn moved two hours away to West Virginia and had four children of their own. When their youngest (Rob Sample, co-owner of Mother’s Bistro & Bar) was born, and since they were both working and could use the help, they invited Mary and George to move into their home in Kingwood, West Virginia. Mary and George moved in and Mary happily took over the cooking, delighting everyone in the family.

When Rob was around twelve years old, Mary and George moved down to Florida, but would return to Tony’s house for the summer to get away from the Florida heat. Grandpa planted a garden full of tomatoes, cucumbers, and “googootz” (zucchini), while Grandma Mary made bread and pies weekly and cooked her specialties for family dinners. Her children and grandchildren remember her food fondly, drooling as they recall some of her best dishes. Rob remembers helping her pound the meat for the cutlets and shaping the meatballs for the sauce. His eyes sparkle when he talks about how she’d fry up some of the leftover breadcrumb and egg mixture into a patty and give it to him as a snack. He recounts stories of how he and his siblings fought over leftover meatballs and stovepipes (rigatoni), resorting to guerilla tactics when necessary to get their fair share. She was loved for many reasons, but forever remembered for her cooking.

Click here to See Former M.O.M.S

Nominate A M.O.M.

The M.O.M. menu has been an important part of Mother’s since we opened in 2000.  This allows our guests to experience both new flavors and dishes from around the world and meals prepared with love by mothers cooking for their families.  Our past M.O.M.’s include a wide variety of individuals- mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, friends, and wives- and we’ve even had a few honorary male M.O.M.’s!

If you would like to nominate somebody (or yourself) to be a future M.O.M. at Mother’s, please fill out this form and return it to the host at Mother’s or [email protected].  Once we receive your form, we will contact the nominee (if possible), or you, (if it’s you or if you’d like to be the intermediary) to discuss potential dishes for the M.O.M. menu.

When making menu suggestions, please keep in mind that our M.O.M. menu typically includes an appetizer, salad and/or lunch item, 2-3 entrees (usually a meat, poultry, and/or vegetarian/fish dish) and a dessert.  When making suggestions, feel free to make your list as long as you’d like, but don’t suggest dishes that replicate those on our main menu (even if yours is the best meatloaf in the world, meatloaf is on our regular menu, so couldn’t be offered on our M.O.M. menu).

It’s likely we’ll have a bit of back and forth where I may ask you to list ingredients in a dish to gain a clearer idea of how it might taste, but keep in mind that we won’t need any recipes until after we finalize the menu.

Thanks again for your interest in the M.O.M. program.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you have!