WV Living Super Women Articles written by: Bowman Mills, Wendy Holdren, Holly Leleux-Thubron, and Taylor Maple
Feeding the folks in her community comes naturally to Lisa Cooper.
She grew up with good cooks on both sides of her family; but it was her mom, Helen Burns, who really paved the way when she opened a restaurant offering home-cooked meals in 1990. Named for her late husband, Mike’s Place was open for 13 years. When her mom was ready to retire, Cooper bought her out and changed the name to Mom’s Place.
The Wirt County location operated for 10 years before Cooper relocated to Calhoun County and called the new space Mom’s Place Too. Many of Burns’ recipes are still on the menu, including creamed tomatoes and biscuits, homemade jam, fresh-baked pies, beans and cornbread, old-fashioned cornmeal mush, and all-day breakfast. A few additions pay tribute to other family members, including her late son, Denny, his wife Amber, her daughter Erica, and a grandkids’ menu.
Cooper started offering a free Thanksgiving dinner at the first location and carried the tradition forward at Mom’s Place Too. “My mom always had a big dinner, so I told her, ‘Why don’t we use our kitchen and serve it there? Anyone without a place to go, they can come here.” Her food distributor, Gordon Food Service, donates the turkeys for the feast, which also includes hams, pies, cakes, and all the fixin’s.
“It’s a lot of work, but I’ve found that I get so many volunteers, it’s unreal.
Sometimes I don’t have enough jobs for everybody.” She adds, “If you do good things, it’ll always come back to you.”
Aside from being a restaurateur, Cooper is an author and the executive director of Cabot Recycling Station. She has written a recipe column, poems, and children’s books, and her recycling center has been awarded grants and received an award for local litter cleanup efforts.
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