Last week, the Portland Business Journal released an article stating that Mother’s Bistro would be moving locations, and we are happy to confirm!
We are proud to have been a part of the big move to the Embassy Suites; Urban Works Real Estate’s President of Brokerage Services, Dan Bozich, brokered the deal for Mother’s. PBJ’s Andy Giegerich reached out to owner Lisa Schroeder about the move, here’s what she had to say –
Why make the move after all these years? The truth is we have simply outgrown our space. During busy times, it’s hard for people to even enter our front door because it’s so crowded. We have no comfortable place for people to wait for a table, among many other inconveniences, and we would have had to do major renovations to make the space continue to work for us, given our current business volume.
What challenges do you expect in changing addresses? Some people may not want to walk the two-and-a-half blocks to the new location and will be disappointed we’ve moved. To accommodate them we’re looking into providing transportation (think pedicab), and we’ll be keeping the bar side of our existing location as a cafe/bar serving southern comfort classics like chicken fried chicken and waffles.
What are the real estate advantage to the move? For me, none. I just signed a 10-year lease at my existing location one year ago, so I am on the hook for the next nine years! I was going to spend $500k on a remodel at my existing location to improve the hoods and the conditions in our back kitchen, where it’s literally an oven on hot days. I was hoping to do a pop-up nearby while we renovated Mother’s, and came across the restaurant space at the Embassy Suites.
After walking in there, with 7,900 square feet all on one floor and my own loading dock, (versus 4,700 square feet of restaurant divided by a lobby with all storage in basement), I couldn’t see any reason not to move, other than two rents. That’s why I’m hoping to sublet as much of our existing location as possible so I can focus on Mother’s 2.0. I should think there’s a restaurateur out there somewhere who would love to jump on a space that has a built-in flow of people coming to the front door for food.
Will the menu change any, given that there’s presumably more space in which to operate? The main reason why the menu will change is because there is a wood-burning pizza oven at the new location. We have to take advantage of that, so I’ll be bringing back some of my favorite Italian mother food favorites like homemade mozzarella, chicken parmesan, Grandma Mary’s Meatballs and cioppino.
Mother’s will be moving from 212 SW Stark St. for the ground-floor restaurant space in the Embassy Suites at 121 SW Third Ave.
Here is the link to the original PBJ article!