The New Gold Standard for Mother's Day

Tiffany & Co.'s downtown store was doing brisk business yesterday when a crush of shoppers — mostly men — stopped in to purchase Mother's Day gifts.

As a sales associate handed out sparkling wine and chilled water, customers perused gem-filled cases where store employees placed helpful signs urging shoppers to "make her day." On the second floor, a financial planner who works on Wall Street, Michael Weinberg, considered an Elsa Peretti heart pendant for his wife. Two weeks earlier, the father of two purchased a smaller version for his daughter as a birthday gift; yesterday, he walked out with a diamond-studded version of the necklace.

"Cards and flowers don't cut it anymore," Mr. Weinberg said, adding that after 13 years of marriage, "you're hard-pressed to come up with gifts." A lackluster present was also not an option. "She wouldn't be happy," he said of his wife, "and I wouldn't be happy for the next few days, either."

Where cards, flowers, and breakfast in bed used to be the gold standard for Mother's Day gifts, jewelry, electronics, and fine dining are among the gifts mothers may receive this Sunday. Several spas in New York City are offering Mother's Day specials and jewelry store owners and restaurant operators said they are being inundated with customers.

"We tend to be very besieged at Mother's Day," the owner of a Brooklyn jewelry store called the Clay Pot, Tara Silberberg, said. Typically, she said, women shop for their mothers the week before the holiday, while men shop at the last minute. "On Saturday, it will be the men with the strollers," she said, laughing.

Ms. Silberberg said jewelry is a popular gift because it has intrinsic and lasting value.

"People like to give a gift they'll really use and wear and enjoy for a long time," she said.

For the store, Mother's Day sales are a way to gauge the upcoming year's business. "It can be a really strong predictor of the next seven months until Christmas," Ms. Silberberg said.

This year, her stock includes popular gifts for mothers, including a sterling silver necklace engraved with a child's name. "We sent out 60 of those on Monday," Ms. Silberberg said. Diamonds are popular among new mothers, she said. One time, she said, a new father came looking for a pen to give his wife. "I looked at him and said, 'I don't think you should go home with a pen. I think you should get a piece of jewelry,'" she said.

On Sunday, some of the city's top restaurants are offering Mother's Day menus at fixed costs. For $95, the Upper East Side restaurant Aureole will offer a three-course Mother's Day menu with options such as grilled lobster salad, caramelized sea scallops, and white chocolate cheesecake mousse.

"I think it's a fantastic Mother's Day gift," an employee, Wilma Luciano, said. Ms. Luciano, who is in charge of taking reservations, said so far there are 165 for Sunday. "We have a lot of big parties," she said. "It should go over 200, for sure."

The restaurant Eleven Madison Park is offering a four-course menu for $98 on Sunday. The Mother's Day menu features items such as bigeye tuna sashimi, black Angus beef tenderloin with bordelaise sauce, crab cakes, and a Fuji apple tart.

"A lot of our guests kept on asking for it," the restaurant's general manager, Will Guidara, said. "You want to do nice things for your mom, right?"

Mr. Guidara said the restaurant's reservation book filled up several weeks ago. "We're just about full," he said. Mr. Guidara said he plans to spend Sunday with his family. Because he works in a restaurant, he said he envisions a different treat: to "stay home and cook."