Lisa Schroeder of Mother’s Bistro: Portland’s Jewish Mother of Mother’s!

Companies That Care

Read more and view photos on my website.
Lisa Schroeder is executive chef and owner of Mother’s Bistro & Bar. She is a mother, grandmother, chef, restaurateur and author devoted to providing better-than-authentic renditions of traditional home-cooked dishes at her popular, award-winning restaurant. Mother’s has grown over the years from a charming 90-seat restaurant on Stark Street to a gorgeous 200-seat Portland institution in the Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel. Chosen Restaurant of the Year by Portland’s Willamette Week; Best Comfort Food, Best Brunch, and Best Lunch Spot by numerous publications; and one of America’s Top Restaurant Bargains by Food and Wine, Mother’s Bistro & Bar is a destination spot for Portland.

Mother’s was not an overnight success, even though it opened to rave reviews. Back in 1992, while juggling a marketing career and raising her daughter, Lisa realized no restaurants were making comfort food. She dreamed of a place that would serve “Mother Food” – slow-cooked dishes made with love. Lisa was determined to open such a restaurant and spent the next eight years working toward that dream.

She enrolled at The Culinary Institute of America, where she was selected as one of the Top Ten Student Chefs in America by Food and Wine. After graduating with honors, she continued honing her skills at two four-star restaurants, Lespinasse and Le Cirque. Her education continued in Provence, France at Roger Verge’s Moulin des Mougins and at Mark Veyrat’s L’Auberge de L’Eridan in Haute Savoie. At one point she was working 90 hours a week in two jobs, as a chef and a waiter, so she could afford to live in New York City.

While working all over Europe, she realized the only way to truly understand regional cuisine was to go into the homes where mothers cooked. When she met her husband, Rob Sample, she relocated to Portland and continued planning her restaurant. She opened Mother’s in 2000. The first year she received “Restaurant of the Year” award from Willamette Week.

“Mother’s serves home cooking from mothers around the world, and each month we feature the cuisine of a different mother...I wanted to have motherly staples, pot roast, chicken and dumplings, meatloaf and matzo ball soup, chopped liver, pierogis. So basically, if a mother would make it, we would serve it.”

Lisa has been providing health benefits for her staff from day one, way before Obamacare. She also provides vacation and a 401K with a 3 percent match.

Lisa read about the pandemic and began to make preparations for providing takeout food. But after staying open became untenable, on June 5, 2020, she made the decision to close the restaurant. Even though they were closed for over a year, most of her staff has returned as they’ve reopened.

I asked Lisa what it’s like to be a woman in the food industry. “Everybody doubts you. They think you're not capable. You won't be able to lift...you always start from a disadvantaged position where people have preconceived notions about your abilities, and then, especially working in four-star kitchens as an older woman in my 30s."

We also spoke about the future of downtown Portland (it’s coming back!), her philosophy of sustainable food systems (like a good mother, she lets nothing go to waste!), how she gives back to her community.

I asked Lisa what advice she has for people who want to create companies that care.

“Well, you have to care...be a human being and don't treat your people like a number, or that they're disposable or replaceable. Cherish each one and what they can bring to the company and the cause…Treat people with humanity…if you treat people well, they will respect you and treat you well…you'll get their devotion and loyalty.”