Mother-and-child owned restaurants across Long Island

The family-owned restaurant is a living, breathing organism that takes a little extra patience, and a whole lot of love, to operate. In celebration of Mother's Day on Sunday, we took a look at four of our favorite eateries where mothers and their children are working side by side in the daily hustle of feeding hungry diners. To all the mother-and-daughter teams out there, and to all the mothers and sons: a very happy Mother's Day. We hope you have the day off!

Sunflower Café & Bakery, Bayport

825 Montauk Hwy.

For nearly a half-century, the historic building on Montauk Highway had been occupied by Le Soir, but when Stacé Hansen walked into the French bistro for the first time, she envisioned the cozy spot bursting with natural light as her first full-service restaurant, Sunflower Café & Bakery.

Working together with her daughter, Kathrine Hansen,  Stacé opened the restaurant nine days after the deal was signed. Originally from Costa Rica, Stacé and her family moved to New York when she was 8 years old, and settled in Freeport. With a background in fashion and design, she studied in Paris, which informed her palate and inspired her restaurant.

Though she cooks French food, she initially specialized in Scandinavian fare, opening Northport’s Copenhagen Bakery with her ex-husband, Flemming Hansen. Sitting in the restaurant, she and Kathrine trade compliments about each other. Hansen is driven, while Kathrine is "tremendously organized" and helped get the business off the ground. Hospitality being a family affair, Stacé’s son, Espen Hansen, who learned to bake at Copenhagen, has taken over the pastry program at Sunflower.

French classics like French onion soup ($15) and Nicoise salad ($23.50), Blue Point oysters ($20) and steak frites ($44) abound, as do frogs' legs ($20), duck l’orange ($39), plus a local striped bass in beurre blanc. Don’t miss the daily ice cream ($12), which Stacé prepares in the style of French glacé by adding eggs, which thicken it like frozen custard. 

"I’m a single mom and I'm doing this for my family. I’m doing this for my children. I’m doing it for me too, of course, because I do get a great deal of joy from it," Hansen told Newsday in 2024 when she opened. "I'm setting up for the generations to come. They’ll always have this place."

More info: 631-472-9090, sunflowercafebakery.com

Lucia, Mattituck

13000 Main Rd. 

Estela Palacios and her son, Melvin Recinos, are the mother-son team behind this warm, inviting little spot that is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Named for Melvin’s grandmother, and Palacios’ mother, Lucia — both of whom he credits for his culinary prowess — its sunny, painted walls, colorful seating and a chalkboard full of Latin specialties created such a following that Recinos spun off a second location, in Middle Island in 2021.

Recinos moved to the U.S. when he was 18, but back in El Salvador, he and Palacios, a classically trained chef, used to dream of opening their own restaurant. "I’ve always been working with her, helping her, doing a little here and there with her, since I’m very young," he said. The pair also worked alongside one another for a few years at North Fork Table and Inn, assisting co-chef-partner Claudia Fleming in desserts and breakfast. When they found the space in Mattituck, it just felt obvious. "Why not?" he reasoned. Palacios agreed.

Lucia’s menu is Pan-Latin and hopscotches from empanadas to burritos to tacos to tortas and quesadillas, but it’s the Farmer’s Plate ($28.75) — a hearty and traditional Salvadoran dish featuring skirt steak, rice and beans, queso fresco and pico and juicy Salvadoran chorizo that they make in-house — that is most popular. Don’t miss the plump pupusas, griddled corn cakes that are the national snack of El Salvador, that come in 12 varieties from beans, cheese and pork, to squash and shrimp ($3.75-$4.75). Other delicacies include Cuban sandwiches and Mexican huevos rancheros.

Though working together was "hard at first," Recinos learned "how she [Palacios] does stuff and started doing it her way. I’m only in charge when she’s not there," he laughs.

More info: 631-315-5165, luciamattituck.com

Eddie’s Bistro & Bar, Oyster Bay

80 South St.

In late 2025, mother-daughter team Michelle and Elizabeth Reilly opened Eddie’s in the space that formerly housed Taco Bay. Honoring their late family patriarch, Edmund "Eddie," who died in 2014, Eddie’s is a feel-good bistro with approachable food, a light and bright oasis by day that turns cozy after the sun begins to set.

Elizabeth said her father was "a beloved soccer coach in the community," which explains the soccer ball-shaped light fixtures hanging from the ceiling and the vibrant green banquettes and bar tiles — the color of Eddie’s kilt — that accent the white-walled dining room. Born and raised in Scotland, Eddie moved to London, met Michelle, moved to Canada, had three children, and the rest is, well, Oyster Bay history.

There are map murals of London and Glasgow (where Eddie's extended family still resides) and the wallpaper is decorated with thistle, the national flower of Scotland. Eddie’s logo is his signature, which not only graces the restaurant’s exterior, but also the jerseys of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Soccer Club, which the new bistro sponsors.

Bistro classics include starters like lamb meatballs with whipped ricotta ($17), burrata with tomatoes ($16) or a charred cauliflower with white bean hummus ($17). Generous pizzas include a Margherita ($20) and Mo’s mushroom truffle ($26), while green salads range from a lightly grilled baby gem Caesar ($17) to a harvest option with endive, arugula, seasonal fruit, Gorgonzola and candied walnut. Intricate pastas like blue crab torchio ($30) with Calabrian chiles or cavatelli with short rib ($28) are on offer. There is a daily catch plus a more casual roster of sandwiches, plus steak ($49), roasted chicken ($33) to cheeseburger ($23).

Elizabeth, a volunteer firefighter, said she dreamed of owning a restaurant by the age of 25, a dream she has now realized with the help of her mom, Michelle, "who is responsible for all the thoughtful decor."

More info: 516-460-8300; eddiesbistroandbar.com

Front Street Bakery, Rockville Centre

51 Front St.

"As a little kid, I used to go down and make boxes with my grandmother," said Lisa Acerno, the third-generation owner of Front Street Bakery, which celebrates 80 years in business across from Rockville Centre’s LIRR station this year. Acerno’s parents, John Wohlfarth Jr. and Arlene Wohlfarth, never pushed her or her brother to work in the family baking business, but the siblings "always had a hand in it. I went to secretarial school. I worked in the city for a year, but I always would work at the bakery on a Saturday, helping my mother out."

The Rockville Centre native nods to her grandparents Julius "John" Wohlfarth Sr. and Freida Kloepfer for the bakery’s humble beginnings, and now looks to the fourth generation — her son, Robert Acerno, and nephew Jeffrey "J.J." Wohlfarth Jr., named for Acerno’s brother, who died last year after a battle with pancreatic cancer — for its future.

With its Danish crumb and seven layer cakes that patrons clamor for on Saturdays to the famous pink dot cookies, Acerno says she and her brother brought the shop "to the next level." They started serving coffee, making 3D and fondant cakes, and they offered more than "just pink dot" cookies for both special occasions and variety — plus the bonus of a free dot cookie to every child visiting the store.

The best part, however, is working with family. "It has definitely brought us closer," she said of now working with her son. "My other kids will say, he’s your favorite," said Acerno, who credited JJ and Robert with working out the details on the kitchen side, while she remains the face of the shop.

As a rule, "there’s always a family member in the store, be it my sister-in-law, my nephew, my son, me, at all times," Acerno said. She recalled her brother J.J. bringing his son into the business, followed by her son, before his death. Now the matriarch of Front Street, she said "we’re just trying to make them proud."

More info: 516-766-1199, frontstreetbakery.com