“It really is about spinning all the plates. You have to be an amazing multitasker.” Chef Lisa Schroeder is the force behind Mother’s Bistro, an essential institution in downtown Portland for 23 years and counting. Among her many awards, she was just named Oregon’s Small Business Person of the Year by the SBA, an honor that last month took her to the White House to meet President Biden.

Schroeder let me follow her through her beautiful restaurant, where we talked about the many ways she works as an artist, directing everything from the visual details of the front lobby, through the changing flavors on the menu, to the logistics behind it all. Running a restaurant post-COVID has her “hustling, more hustling” as she puts it, collaborating with other artists to make experiences that pull people off the couch and back downtown.

Find her work here: https://www.mothersbistro.com