ALL ABOUT MOM
With Mother’s Day on the calendar, May is the season to celebrate all the mothers in your life—maybe a neighbor taking on the challenge of foster parenting, a sister raising your niece or nephew, or even your own mom. This month, Talk of the Town is honoring all of them, with films that capture the beautiful mess of motherhood and restaurants and experiences that you can share with the moms in your life.
The best Mother’s Day meals are the ones she didn’t have to make—and the Chicago area has no shortage of worthy options. Here are just a few.
In the West Loop, The Allis strikes a perfect balance of industrial edge and cozy warmth—exposed brick, plush seating, and a breakfast menu to linger over. For something truly singular, Hanabusa Café introduced Chicago to the Japanese soufflé pancake: impossibly light and beautifully presented.
Now with a third location in Ravenswood, the Bryn Mawr Breakfast Club puts a creative spin on the morning meal any day. Come the weekend, Chef Manny Mejia’s special brunch menu is packed with flavor and surprises.
On the North Shore, Convito Café & Market offers an extensive brunch menu—from beignets and classic breakfast fare to pastas and sandwiches. If the mom you’re celebrating is more of a Pilsner woman than a mimosa mom, Double Clutch Brewing Company in Evanston pairs their German-style craft beers with a hearty, weekend brunch menu—a relaxed, flavorful alternative to the usual Mother’s Day spread.
With three suburban locations in Naperville, Tinley Park, and Lincolnshire, the aptly named Avocado Theory offers a creative avocado-centric menu with pancakes, wraps, soups, salads and, of course, avocado toast.
This Mother’s Day, give her something she can’t display on a shelf—an experience you can share and cherish!
How about a new perspective on her hometown? Fly Heli lifts off from the city’s Near West Side for a helicopter tour over Chicago. Three different routes include the Skyline Snap Tour past iconic landmarks like Soldier Field, or a City to Shoreline Tour with stunning views of Navy Pier, Lincoln Park, and the skyline. Few gifts land quite like this one.
On the ground, the Chicago Mosaic School offers workshops where you and the mom in your life can create something beautiful together—choosing colors, cutting tile, and walking away with a one-of-a-kind piece you made side by side.
Or turn up the heat at Ignite Glass Studios where you can join a professional glassblower for a hands-on session creating two or three glass objects of your choice—paperweights, wine stoppers, small vases, and more. Everything is provided; you just show up and make something beautiful together.
If you’d rather bond over a cutting board, Taste Buds Kitchen in suburban Bannockburn offers hands-on cooking classes with menus built around different culinary traditions including Thai, Mexican, French, and Argentinian.
For the mom who appreciates the truly unexpected, the Chicago School of Shoemaking and Leather Arts offers workshops for every level of ambition—from a two-hour beginner session where she’ll walk away with a handmade cuff, clutch, or belt, to a two-session, 16-hour course dedicated to crafting a pair of desert boots from scratch. Now that’s a gift with sole.
Some of the most powerful stories of motherhood live on screen—equal parts heartache, humor, and hard-won understanding.
Start with a classic switcheroo: Freaky Friday has charmed audiences across generations, from the beloved 1976 original with Barbara Harris and a young Jodie Foster to the 2003 hit pairing Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Both versions mine real comic and emotional gold from the question: what if you could spend a day in each other’s shoes?
The Joy Luck Club (1993) weaves together the stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters —a moving, multigenerational portrait of sacrifice, silence, and the love that persists through both.
In Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn anchor a story about a daughter finally reckoning with her complicated mother’s past—and the fierce sisterhood that shaped her.
For something more recent and wildly inventive, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) uses a multiverse-hopping adventure to explore the weight of immigrant motherhood, unspoken disappointment, and radical acceptance—and somehow makes it hilarious along the way.
This Mother’s Day, consider honoring the moms in your life by lifting up the ones who need it most.
EveryMom Chicago connects expectant mothers in underserved communities with comprehensive new baby kits—packed with essential newborn, postpartum, and breastfeeding supplies—distributed through local hospitals and community health centers to families who need them most.
Mother and Child Alliance (MACA) has spent more than two decades working to ensure no baby is born with a preventable, life-threatening disease, providing prenatal and postpartum support to vulnerable mothers and their newborns across Illinois.
Housing Opportunities for Women (HOW) has been a Chicagoland leader in ending homelessness since 1983—offering affordable housing, prevention strategies, and wraparound support services to help women and families take back control of their lives.
