You can treat Mom to brunch Sunday — and by now you know what you’re supposed to do for social distancing — so you and your family do your thing. Stay in or go out; you have options.

Among places open and serving brunch are the Half Shell locations; owner Danny Sumrall can seat about 50-60 people safely in his Mendenhall spot and more in the larger restaurant on Winchester. If the restaurant goes to a wait list, you’ll be asked to stay in your car, and you’ll get a phone call when your table is ready.

Flight, Coastal Fish Company and Southern Social will have brunch to go or to eat in the dining rooms. Porch & Parlor, part of the Flight group, might be open but isn’t as of now. The patio is open at Ronnie Grisanti’s, and they have meals to go, too. 

Elwood’s will serve up its regular menu and steak specials on Saturday night and on Sunday; you can’t dine in, but there are a few picnic tables outside if you want to hang around. At Jim’s Place Grille in Collierville, you can order large meals or from the menu, all to go. Folk’s Folly has a Mother’s Day to-go special all week; you order by 1 p.m. and pick up after 5:30 p.m. You can pick up on Sunday, but if you want lunch, you’ll need to get it Saturday night.

At Restaurant Iris, you can pick up your to-go order on Saturday or Sunday. Same at Sweet Grass. Char has a special; so does the Beauty Shop and The Peabody. Celtic Crossing has a lamb lunch to go; SOB and SOB East (which is operating at Interim) have a brunch to go that has to be picked up Saturday. Owen Brennan’s is doing to-go (if you happen to see people in the restaurant on Sunday, they’re invited guests there to eat and give the staff a little training before it reopens next week).

Other restaurants that are open might have specials, but these are the ones I know about right now. Some menus are ready and some aren’t, so I’ve given you plenty of links to websites or Facebook pages and you can click to see what’s available and the deadline for ordering and pick-up. I’d give you all the information if I had it, but as one restaurateur told me, “I can’t keep up right now. I don’t know if the menu is ready or not.” 

Keep in mind that all open restaurants will continue to maintain 6 feet or more between tables and only seat at 50% capacity. There is no seating or standing allowed at bars inside restaurants, and the same rules apply to patios that are in play as dining rooms.

Speaking of …

Iris: Hot food delivery has started. Up until now, the takeout meals have been heat and eat, but starting Wednesday, May 6, you can get some of your favorites from Restaurant Iris and The Second Line hot and ready to eat. Click here. And look for a Quarantine Cuisine review of Kelly English’s po’ boy kit in the next couple of days — the brisket was fabulous.

Sweet Grass: Hot food here, too; it starts Thursday, May 7. One of my favorite things in town is the corn dogs at Sweet Grass, and I don’t even eat corn dogs elsewhere. No hot dogs on a stick at the fair for me; not a fan. Anyway, on Saturday, Ryan Trimm fried up these gorgeous things and I picked up enough to store a few in the freezer (though I have no idea how they’ll taste when I bring them out). Be sure to keep up on Facebook to find out when he’ll make them again. I’ll tell you if I get any notice, but I only found out when someone texted me; things move fast these days. 

Elwood’s: This steak deal is crazy good. A few weeks ago owner Tim Bednarski started selling steaks and ground beef, raw most days but cooked to order on weekends. My favorite piece of meat is a ribeye cap — I’m content to eat the cap and leave the rest of the steak for someone else. There’s not much there, but the flavor is so intense that it’s a fair trade. Anyway, Bednarski is trimming his own meat and rolling the caps, something you don’t find every day. That looks like a photo of a filet, but it’s a rolled ribeye cap and it was like buttah. And yes, that’s iceberg lettuce and Thousand Island dressing. It’s homemade, but if eating like a kid helps me get through this, let me do my thing. Pass the Oreos, please. 

The hate to hear it

I haven’t reached anyone to confirm it, but the word is that Sear Shack may not reopen. This local burger chain served great burgers, fries and shakes, and now appears to be a casualty of the COVID-19 shutdown. Phone numbers have been disconnected and the manager of the Collierville Sear Shack, the original store, posted this on Facebook. RIP, Sear Shack, you and your salted caramel milkshake.

A sweet ending

Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman are going back to Chicago, at least in spirit, and once again as finalists for Best Chef: Southeast. This duo has made the final cut six times now; let’s wish them the best of luck as they, like almost all the restaurateurs who are in the running, prepare for a bittersweet award.

For all of them, this has been a crazy year, one some will financially survive and one that will end the dream for others. But even before the crazy COVID-19 crisis, Ticer and Hudman were in a wild year, opening both Eight & Sand and Bishop in Central Station Hotel and suffering a complete loss of Hog & Hominy in a January fire. Can this please be their year?