Happy Monday, folks! I hope everyone had a tasty weekend.

My guess: it involved tomatoes in one way or another. But enough about tomatoes, let’s talk about restaurants.

I’ve been a bit slack on the ins-and-outs of the restaurant scene in Roanoke lately, in part because it hasn’t been a very active front. The economy has affected every business owner in some way, and restaurants are no exception. It seems, at least anecdotally, as if we’ve had less new openings than we typically do in the course of several months.

But it’s not all dry as a bone out here. Jenny Boone has reported some changes recently on her Storefront blog. I’m stealing some of that and adding a bit of my own:

– New York Pizza is not expanding anytime soon, despite a sign advertising that they are. Jenny said that sign has been up for “several years,” but I’m pretty sure it’s been there for going on 10 years. I could be wrong, but I know it’s been a long time since we were first promised a larger venue to enjoy that delicious Italian food. New Yorker cheese steak = pure heaven.

I hope they get it together enough to either take down the sign or move forward with the expansion.

– No Bonefish Grill will go up at Keagy Village.

– Bojangles is either almost open on Peter’s Creek Road or it’s open. My husband is tickled pink about this. He’s been praying for a Bojangles to open somewhere near our house for years. Bojangles, as we have previously discussed, has some of the best (if not THE best) breakfast biscuits in the fast food world.

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It’s less than two weeks before Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 11), which means some of us need to start thinking about the best way to treat one of the special women in our lives.

As an adult, it’s fairly easy to send a card or flowers, call mom or take her out to a nice lunch or dinner. But as a child, it’s a little bit harder to plan a wonderful day for Mom without a little help from Dad or another adult.

And sometimes Dad might be a little short on ideas.

For that reason, I was delighted to receive an e-mail lately from the Fruit and Veggie Guru that included simple recipes for delicious breakfast treats that kids can prepare for their mother on Mother’s Day.

It makes me wish I had made breakfast in bed for my mother at least once.

I’m going to attach a recipe for strawberry breakfast pizzas. I’d love to hear from anyone out there who has a special food-related memory from Mother’s Day, whether you were on the giving or the receiving end!

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Olivia Byrd at Rockfish in Grandin Village sent out an e-mail today announcing that, beginning tomorrow, they will serve breakfast on Wednesday through Saturday mornings. This is in addition to their highly successful lunch and dinner service and the tasty Sunday brunch menu.

The hours for breakfast are 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., and the menu will include fresh muffins, biscuits, egg dishes and espresso beverages. So if you live in the Grandin area and you’ve grown tired of microwaveable 7-Eleven fare, check out Rockfish.

This would be a good time for me to also mention that Rockfish recently opened a wine shop beside the restaurant that is open Wednesday through Saturday until 6 p.m. I want to say that the shop sells more than just wine, but I haven’t had a chance to pop in yet.

In other food news, Roanoke’s unofficial start to the summer season happens the weekend of May 3 when the Community School’s 27th Annual Strawberry Festival and the 28th annual Virginia State Championship Chili Cook-off invade downtown.

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