HELENA - Dining out is typically a popular option for families when it comes to celebrating Mother's Day.
But the bouquet you might want to buy, or the restaurant you may want to treat Mom with might look a little different this year.
Pamela Lee owns The Floral Cottage in Helena. She says, "Probably 30% of my business comes from Mother's Day week. It's probably a 3-4 day period, it carries me through the summer."
Lee says Mother's Day is second only to Valentine's Day when it comes to the floral industry, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has faced some big challenges this year.
Lee added, "the hardest part has been actually getting the product in, because a lot of the places we buy from like Florida, Washington, California, they're still under quarantine, so we are not able to say 'yes we'll have peonies' or 'yes we'll have tulips', it's what we can get, we'll have for our people."
According to a survey by the National Restaurant Association in 2018, 47 percent of moms wanted a restaurant meal, 15 percent of moms wanted a bouquet of flowers, and 87 million adults went to a restaurant on Mother's Day.
This year, things will be much different .
Micah Eller is the Director of Sales at the Smokejumper Station, inside the Helena airport. She says, "Typically for Mother's Day at the Smokejumper Station, we do a large buffet and it is a huge piece of our business, because we usually get hundreds of people in that day."
Governor Bullock's phased reopening allowed restaurants to open on May 4th with specific distancing requirements, but the Smokejumper is still closed to customers wanting to dine-in on Mother's Day.
Instead, the Smokejumper Station decided to team up with other small businesses in the area and provide gift basket deliveries.
Eller says, "the Smokejumper Station gift baskets are trying to be as Montana-centric as possible, we are working with Montana Book Company for some of their puzzles, we will have these great alpaca socks from Alpacas of Montana, or we have just a wine basket, because every mom deserves a little wine right now."
Tricia Romero owns Los Cazadores inHelena. She says her loyal customers are what have kept them afloat the past few months.
Romero added, "I think they worried we were going to go under, and they wanted to keep us here so they kept on going for us."
She says the phone has been ringing off the hook, but now that they're dining room is open, she's hopeful people will choose to come in and sit down to eat.
Many restaurants are having Mother's Day specials, be sure to check out the best deals in your area.
