Just as kids come with their own built-in personalities and senses of style, so do moms. This Mother’s Day, meet your mom where she is, and buy her a gift that reflects her interests, her vibe, her je ne sais quoi. Here are a few mom “types,” with two gift options each — one bougie, one budget friendly. 

We’ve included some experiential gifts, too, because moms just don’t like to get gifts, they like to have fun — with you, their friends, and special someones, too. 

Let us know what you might add to this list, so we’re sure our mothers are getting the best that’s out there. (And moms, if you’re the one reading this list — and see something you want — quietly share this list with The Kid Who Gets Things Done. You know which one they are.)

Pittsburgh Gift Shopping for Mother’s Day Based on Your Type of Mom

The Globe-Trotting Mom

For moms who like to travel, having a safe and hands-free place for her phone, keys, wallet, and glasses, is key. Visit Roberta Weissberg Leathers on Walnut Street (or online), for a selection of cross-body bags that are a stylish step up from synthetic. Visit Scribe across the street to pick up a travel journal to round out the gift. 

A gift certificate for an overnight for two in Bedford Springs, less than two hours from the ‘Burgh, is a seriously splurge-y way to celebrate your mom. The Omni Bedford Springs Resort & Spa offers eight natural mineral springs, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, restaurants, a golf course, and more than 2,000 acres to explore. Minutes away is the historic town of Bedford, which is worth the drive itself, with its antiquing and a lovely shopping district. 

The Yogi

Phipps Conservatory started offering Yoga in the Garden to much fanfare, and this year, it begins the series on May 23 and runs select Saturday mornings through September 12. Classes are held in their lush outdoor garden, among the fountains, ferns, and perennial gardens.

Inner Light, a serene shop in Mt. Lebanon, features metaphysically inspired jewelry that pairs well with yogic sensibilities. You can also pick up spiritually themed books, botanical beauty products, locally made art, and organic clothing. If your mom is a “seeker,” you can sign her up for a Tarot or astrology reading or a sound-healing class. 

The Mom Who’s a Foodie Too

With its 1970s Palm Springs motif, its greens and golds, its velvet chairs, swanky light fixtures, and murals of coastal California, Palm Palm enriches you with glamour. The emphasis on small plates — such as mini lobster rolls, tuna sushi tots; fried burrata with pesto and tomato cream — the meal is like a mini-culinary adventure. A night at Palm Palm feels indulgent, yet light and fun. Plus, the cocktail menu will please any cocktail enthusiast, even mom. 

With our buzzing culinary scene, buying a gift card from Big Burrito Restaurant Group will give your mom a lot of options for her next Saturday night dinner (or Sunday brunch). Big Burrito offers more than just Mad Mex, they run Fox Chapel’s veggie-forward, modern take on Italian, Alta Via; the longstanding Shadyside faves Soba and Casbah; Eleven and Kaya in the Strip District, and more.

The Flower Lover

Newer to the CSA block is the Floral CSA, where your mom can get locally grown, seasonal flowers delivered (or picked up at set locations) throughout the growing season. Check out the selections from Eleven Mile Farm, such as a 6-week Summer Bouquet option, and CSAs that are delivered to Sewickley and Shadyside/Squirrel Hill neighborhoods. At their beautiful 50-acre farm, Eleven Mile also hosts many events, including a Mother’s Day Workshop on May 9, where participants create arrangements for — or with — their mom.

Tiny Seed Farms also delivers a 16-week Floral CSA blooming with zinnias, sunflowers, dahlia, snapdragons, and seasonal flowers.

Shopping at Roxanne’s Dried Flowers in the Strip District is like the adult version of being a kid in a candy store. It’s a delight to your senses, with a sumptuous array of dried florals, including the Spring Mist Wreath, with its spray of pinks, greens, and whites. There’s a section of gifts less than $50, including a Lavender Garden Bouquet, framed pressed flowers, and a beautiful set of Healing Plants botanical cards. 

The Bookish Mom

As our city punches higher for our weight when it comes to all things literary, we have several reading series, including Ten Evenings, which concludes its season with quite the finale. Was your mom a fan of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh or Wonder Boys? Pick up two tickets for Ten Evenings’ Night with Michael Chabon — who studied at Pitt and CMU — for May 11, the day after Mother’s Day. If she invites you as her date, treat her to dinner at the Café Carnegie, which hosts a special Arts & Lectures Dinner Series menu. Make your mom proud and buy the Chabon tickets and make reservations for the dinner in advance — like today. 

One of the keynote authors at the 2026 Pittsburgh Book Festival, Catherine Newman, wrote her literary novel, Sandwich, about a woman negotiating menopause, grown children, and aging parents — sound familiar? — set within the backdrop of a week-long family beach vacation. Sandwich quickly hit The New York Times bestseller list, praised for its humor and heart. Newman’s follow-up, Wreck, published in late 2025, reunites readers with the same family. You can pick up her books at White Whale in Bloomfield, Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, or at one of our many of our independent bookstores. Oh, and tuck in discussion registrations for the Pgh Book Fest — a day-long celebration of the love of the book — held May 30 at the Carnegie Library in Oakland. 

The Green Thumb

Buy your mom two tickets to Pittsburgh Botanic Garden (PBG), which offers electric cart garden tours, a wonderful way for Moms with limited mobility to explore the gardens. The tours are led by PBG docents every Thursday from April 23 through October. Your mom and her guest can learn how the PBG transformed their 460 acres, land once used to mine coal, into cultivated gardens, woodlands and a heritage homestead that reflects life on the land in the 1700s. Their Canopy Café is a great stop for lunch, and be sure she visits the gift shop, Forage & Finds, which sells native herbs and plants, gardening goods, and artwork.  

Gardeners work hard for their home-grown haul. Why not give mom a traditional, high-quality basket to carry her celebrated harvest?  We tried to source this locally, to no avail, but this lesser-known item — a hod — is the gardening convenience your mom didn’t know she needed. These mesh-bottomed, pine baskets were originally used by Maine clam diggers as the hod design allowed the diggers to both hold and rinse their catch in the same basket. It makes for a one-stop shopping when it comes to harvesting. Available in three sizes. 

The Loves-to-Stay-at-Home Mom

For Mother’s Day, why not bring a restaurant quality, hot-out-of-the oven meal to your homebody mom? DiAnoia’s allows you to do just that with their Mother’s Day Meal Kit, which comes with freshly baked focaccia, Sicilian cannellini bean dip, gnocchi sorrentina (creamy and cheesy), Tuscan-stuffed chicken, and strawberry shortcake. Order now before they sell out — if they do, check Local Provisions for some of DiAnoia’s frozen pastas, meatballs, and sauces. DiAnoia’s pastry team is also baking pastry trays for the big day.

Cheeks Lingerie shop in Shadyside is home to lots of luxurious, comfy pajama sets and robes. They sell popular brands such as P.J. Salvage, Cat’s Pajamas, Pluto, Eberjay, and VP La Boehme Robe. Loungewear never looked — or felt — so good.  

The Home Chef

Istituto Mondo Italiano is home to all things Italian, including its Pasta Like Nonna series — each BYOB session features a different pasta that you make by hand, then share with fellow classmates at a sit-down meal. Vivianna Altieri, born and raised in Rome, leads a variety of instructionals focused on Italian dishes, from pizzelles and cannoli to mozzarella to gnocchi, as well as a Regions of Italy Cooking Club. Other cooking classes in the ‘Burgh include at In the Kitchen in the Strip District (upcoming offerings include Spanish paella and California rolls) and Crate in Mt. Lebanon (on the docket are cocktails & charcuterie and pierogi). 

The Rosti Margrethe mixing bowl has earned a reputation as one of those must-have kitchen items. Featured by the New York Magazine, goop, Eater.com, and Dwell, the melamine bowl was created in 1954 by Copenhagen-based designer who named their bowl —with royal permission—after Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, It features a non-skid bottom, a lip that makes it easy to pour, an ergonomic handle, and a lid so it’s easy to store your mixables. Available in red, black, curry, and Nordic green, the Rosti Margrethe comes in a variety of sizes (which also nest, of course). Be sure to tell your mom it’s a bowl worthy of a queen. 

The Die-Hard Pittsburgh Lover

Pittsburghers love David DiCello’s now iconic images of our city, many taken from Mt. Washington. You can order from a wide variety of images — downtown in the moonlight, the Duquesne Incline at dawn, cherry blossoms blooming with the backdrop of a Three Sisters Bridge, Kaufmann’s clock a flurry in snow — as a print, ornament, wrapped canvas, and more. Delivery is also quick. 

Perfect for the mom who adores her city and a hip tea towel, the Dear Pittsburgh, I Love You dish towel is a fun, 100% cotton reminder of the place she loves — and of the person who gifted this little delight to her. Find it online or IRL at Love, Pittsburgh, a Strip District, Mt. Washington, and Downtown shop that is chock full of locally made, Pittsburgh-forward goods, like a framed topographic map, a Pittsburgh-neighborhoods puzzle, and a sweet-and-savory gift box with Goat Rodeo caramels, Parma Sausage hot and mild Soppressata, and Steel City Salt Co.’s Everything Salt. 

The Pampered Mom 

If the ambiance at EsSpa feels European, it comes by it naturally, as spa owner, Eva Sztupka-Kerschbaum hails from Hungary. She opened EsSpa in 2002 and knows the business of enhancing beauty and wellness. Spa services include hydrofacials, light therapy, and plasma fibroblasting. They offer a range of massages, such as Thai, hot stone, Swedish, and warm bamboo. For Mother’s Day, EsSpa offers a BOGO that includes two facials for the price of one.

Shadyside’s Evolve Wellness Spa is a place where your mom can receive facials, microdermabrasion, massages, lash and brow work, as well as integrative services such as Reiki, crystal attunement, sound massage, chakra balancing, and somatic breath-work. Evolve’s spa packages combine services to give your mom a full journey into well-being.  

The Jewelry Lover

Shadyside’s longtime jeweler, Henne, features a Mother’s Day Collection, including a Monica Rich Kosann yellow gold-and-diamond infinity charm necklace, a Shy Creation 14-karat Diamonds by the Yard chain, an EF Collection 14-karat white gold-and-diamond bracelet that spells out “MAMA,” and many other pieces at a variety of price points.  

Take a trip towards Hartwood Acres to shop for mom at So Me Artisan Wares and Jewelry Studio. Their curated selection of wearables is crafted by local designers and So Me’s owner, a trained bench jeweler, Amy McGinley. So Me is earthy and bohemian yet upscale, its gold and sterling silver pieces enhanced with natural stones and gems, such as turquoise, quartz, and amethyst. So Me also sells vintage and estate jewelry, plus layering and statement necklaces. With its wide array of gifts, you can find lots of other goodies to pick up for mom, including glass avocado vases, wall art, and hand-poured candles.

Have fun celebrating your mom! And if you need ideas of what to make mom for dinner, we have you covered.

Story by Lauri Gravina
Photo Courtesy of Fujiphilm

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Ilene Levy always wanted to own a store. She just never planned to own six.

Ilene Levy’s Cheeks, Glassworks, and Other Shops for Home Decor and Fashion in Pittsburgh

To her surprise, this retail dynamo known for her trademark oversized glasses has become one of Pittsburgh’s most prolific as well as impactful independent shopkeepers. Over the past three decades, Levy has amassed a portfolio of fashion and home goods boutiques that stretches from Shadyside to Squirrel Hill and into East Liberty, though she never set out to scale. Instead, she followed a buy-and-build strategy, acquiring and shepherding established businesses, then doubling down with an intensely hands-on approach to customer service that’s her calling card.

“I just saw the right opportunities,” says Levy, who champions the pleasures of in-person shopping and the value of walkable neighborhood retail.

Lingerie, Sleepwear, Decor, Luxury Bedding, and More

Levy’s first purchase, Cheeks, established her template. When she bought the store in 1997, it focused primarily on lingerie, sleepwear, and hosiery at its Shadyside and Squirrel Hill locales. Levy expanded the offerings to include bedroom-adjacent fashion—comfy robes, snuggly pajamas, lounge-worthy leisurewear—while ramping up personalized bra fittings. Investing in one of the store’s French-made, $245 Empreinte bras, Levy insists, is “a life changer.”

From there, Levy moved into tabletop, decor, and giftware with Glassworks, a compact jewel box of a boutique now located across the street from Cheeks. Curated with a collector’s eye, it brings together Baccarat crystal barware and vases, hand-painted Italian porcelain plates from Ginori 1736, colorful Smeg mixers and coffee makers, as well as MacKenzie-Childs’s whimsical checkerboard ceramics. Next door, Feathers is devoted to what Levy calls “pure luxury” for dressing the bed, from Scandia Down pillows stuffed with Hungarian white goose down to French-made Yves Delorme sheets and shams in combed cotton and linen.

The Grind Continues…

Levy’s most consequential move came last fall with the acquisition of Contemporary Concepts, two expansive registry and gift stores representing more than 300 brands, including Waterford, Wedgwood, and Le Creuset. To navigate the scale, she enlisted a retail consultant, Anne Dauer, for the first time. The purchase effectively unified much of the city’s high-end tabletop and bridal registry business, bringing brides, corporate clients, and collectors into a single Levy-run orbit of china, crystal, and silver.

Running a half-dozen stores means Levy is working non-stop seven days a week. She freely gives customers her cell number, answers emails at midnight, and texts at dawn. “We match prices, we gift wrap, we hand deliver,” she says. “We do whatever it takes,” including once packing up every candle in stock at Glassworks and driving them over to a frantic customer. For the always-in-motion Levy, retirement clearly isn’t an option—or even a consideration—because “I’m still working on a ten-year plan for the businesses,” she says with a laugh. 

Story by Kathleen Renda
Photography by Laura Petrilla

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