Baby on the hip, eating on the go

With the aplomb of a multi-tasking mother, Diane Gross shifts her 7-month-old son, Marley, from hip to counter as she sniffs a glass of Raptor Ridge Pinot Gris, all the while listening to the cellar master from Oregon pitching New World wines for her modern shop, Cork Market & Tasting Room in Logan Circle.

“I always let him smell, too,” she says as the baby tries to lock his lips on the rim. “It’s about the curiosity.” Marley nuzzles his head into her neck as his mom takes a sip, swirls it in her mouth and spits.

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The arrangement seems to work for the both of them.

“You get to make up your rules,” Gross says about managing the roles of hands-on mom and co-owner with her husband of the market and the restaurant across the street, Cork Wine Bar. “Restaurants are hard, because of the hours and how much you work. But you can bring your baby to work, and as long as he’s not screaming, everybody thinks he’s cute and nobody really cares.”

Gross’s assessment is spot on, as demonstrated by the wine rep tickling Marley’s feet and Cork’s accountant asking, “Can I hold him? I need my baby fix!”

This weekend, Gross, 41, and several other new Washington moms in the restaurant business will mark their first Mother’s Day — most likely on the job. The holiday is yet another thing Gross must fit into her busy schedule. As parents everywhere can attest, a new baby brings major scheduling adjustments. Women in the industry sometimes find it’s easier to manage than other working moms do because of the built-in flexibility. Working and mothering, though, don’t always allow time for cooking and proper eating.

With Marley in one arm, Gross heads down the stairs from the market office (which houses a Pack ’n Play and Jumperoo) and is stopped in the kitchen by chef Kristin Hutter, presenting her with fried duck skin, leftovers from duck rillettes. She takes a bite, muttering “I’m not going to lose my baby fat” as she walks on to meet a second round of wine distributors.

Marley is with Gross at the market by day and helps welcome guests to the wine bar at night, strapped in a BabyBjorn. Gross stays through early dinner service a few days a week before her husband, Khalid Pitts, leaves his full-time job at the Service Employees International Union and takes over.

For dinners at home, Gross takes advantage of her immediate access to top-shelf prepared foods. “I forage Cork Market for a lot of my meals,” she says, grabbing locally made Simply Sausage products, Italian pastas and the market’s own oven-roasted tomatoes.

Eight-month-old Sumi Norris leaves the restaurant life to her parents. Before their daughter was born, Ari Kushimoto Norris and her husband, Darren Norris, would leave together for their new sushi and izakaya restaurant, Kushi. Ari worked in the restaurant’s office, creating graphics and organizing special events, and at the host’s stand, greeting diners. She has worked mostly from their Palisades home since Sumi was born. The baby’s name means “serene” in Japanese.

Although teleworking allows Kushimoto Norris, 34, to stay close to her daughter and to dodge the distractions of working at the restaurant, she’s aware of its drawbacks.