{"id":274299,"date":"2026-04-18T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/274299\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:06:09","slug":"vegetables-shine-at-mother-midtown-sacramento-favorite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/274299\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetables shine at Mother, midtown Sacramento favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re going to go vegetarian, and I myself was for a pretty long time, it behooves you to learn to love vegetables.<\/p>\n

Many people don\u2019t, perhaps scarred by childhood meals of sulphurous Brussels sprouts, green beans cooked to a gray paste or peas reduced to mush. But treated correctly, vegetables can delight. At Mother, they do.<\/p>\n

The current Mother at 2319 K St. in midtown is actually its second incarnation. The original Mother opened in 2014 on the K Street Mall, and became a much-beloved institution. It closed in 2020, shortly before the pandemic lockdown.<\/p>\n

Chef Mike Thiemann\u2019s friend Robb Venditti was a fan of the restaurant, and after its closure the two began talking over games of tennis about bringing Mother back. When Venditti sold his catering company, it left him the money to reboot Mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were excited about it. I knew that. You know, it wasn\u2019t my dream to own a vegetarian restaurant. But at the time, it seemed like it was something that Sacramento wanted to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He found the current spot in midtown. \u201cIt kind of called Mother to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Venditti brought in Thiemann as chef, and Mother was reborn. Business never quite took off to the point where Venditti could support paying everyone, so he moved from more of an investor role to hands-on work in the kitchen. Thiemann moved to Hawaii not long after.<\/p>\n

Venditti pays homage to many of the customer favorites from the original Mother, but always puts his own spin on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be that mushroom po\u2019boy on the menu. The nut burger is going to be there almost all the time. The chile verde, a few dishes like that, we\u2019ll always keep, and other than that I\u2019m just trying to let it continue to evolve the way Mother always did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"The The oyster mushroom po\u2019boy with iceberg lettuce, remoulade, coriander pickles, hot sauce and chips, is served earlier this month at Mother, a Sacramento vegetarian restaurant owned by chef Robb Venditti. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Venditti doesn\u2019t go in for the new wave of plant-based alt foods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not using plant based proteins, lab meats, you know, stuff like that. It\u2019s pretty much just all natural comfort food, just real ingredients, traditional cooking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned oyster mushroom po\u2019boy ($18) is a highlight, filled with crisp-fried shreds of mushroom and topped with bright slices of pickles with a punchy coriander seed note. Fresh housemade potato chips add a crunchy complement.<\/p>\n

The spring Thai curry ($21) comes as a pool of verdant green sauce with colorful roasted cauliflower, onions, carrots and peas piled on top so you get to eat them first with your eyes. The flavors are true to Thai cuisine, but if you like your green curry spicy, as I do, ask for one of their housemade hot sauces to kick it up.<\/p>\n

\"A A plated favorite dish: Spring Thai Curry with cilantro rice, cauliflower, peas, carrots, red onion and toasted garlic is served at Mother. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Another mainstay is the chile verde ($20), with the heft of white beans and hominy standing in for meat. As with many dishes on the menu, it is vegetarian by default, but can be made vegan on request.<\/p>\n

Save room for dessert. The s\u2019mores pie ($10) is vegan, gluten free \u2014 and astonishingly decadent. A mixed-nut crust frames an extremely rich chocolate custard; the whole confection is topped with brul\u00e9ed vegan marshmallow.<\/p>\n

\"Dark Dark chocolate s\u2019mores pie with almond crust, served with berries, is on the menu at Mother. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Mother hosts a (usually) twice-monthly \u201cchef\u2019s 10\u201d ($44), a prix-fixe menu of on- and off-menu dishes at Venditti\u2019s whim. When Thiemann was doing these dinners, he counted a chocolate chip cookie as the 10th course. Venditti felt that was a bit of a cop out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to use the Spinal Tap reference, so the joke is, this one goes to 11. We do 10 honest courses, and the cookie\u2019s a take-home kind of bonus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is playfully, chaotically colorful with a montage of camp art all referencing the concept of mother in one form or another, from Joan Crawford to Glenn Danzig. It\u2019s a perfect backdrop for Venditti\u2019s vibrant food.<\/p>\n

Mother<\/p>\n

Address: 2319 K St., midtown<\/p>\n

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays<\/p>\n

Phone: 279-273-1353\u200b<\/p>\n

Website: mothersacramento.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Vegetarian options: The entire menu is vegetarian or vegan<\/p>\n

Noise level: Quiet on our visits, but may get loud if busy<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Sean Timberlake is the food and dining reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He has been writing professionally for nearly 30 years, and about food for 20. A variety of well-known outlets have published his work, including Food Network, Cooking Channel, CNN, Sunset Magazine and SF Weekly.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re going to go vegetarian, and I myself was for a pretty long time, it behooves you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-274299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}