The season has arrived when home cooks break out the heavy-duty pots and pans, and turn to their cool-weather repertoires, tantalizing families and guests with delectable aromas wafting from the kitchen.

Time-honored family recipes are brought out and put on prominent display in the kitchen. On the menu are stew, soup, chili, cornbread, chicken pot pie, osso buco and braised short ribs – along with that all-time favorite comfort food, meatloaf.

Meatloaf has been a staple since the mid-1800s, when ground beef first became available as a grocery item in America. For decades thereafter, recipes for meatloaf abounded in women's magazines and cookbooks, where it often was teamed with mashed potatoes, gravy and canned green beans.

The dish was once ubiquitous on the American landscape, then fell into obscurity, disdained as too old-fashioned. It has re-emerged in recent years, thanks to a wave of nostalgia for retro foods.

These days, ground turkey, pork, veal and lamb are often combined with ground beef to reach new depths of flavor. Plus, many meatloaf recipes call for surprising ingredients: dried cranberries, olives, wild mushrooms, cheese, pecans and other nuts, and a garden of fresh herbs. Topping the loaf with a from-scratch sauce opens the door to even more depths of flavor.

What is it about meatloaf that keeps us coming back for seconds? Is it that it's versatile, easy to make and tastes great?

"It's all those things and more," said Molly Hawks, co-owner with her husband, Michael Fagnoni, of Hawks restaurant in the Quarry Ponds Town Center in Granite Bay. "We all grew up with meatloaf, so it holds memories for a lot of people, including myself."

Hawks is a serious, four-star dining destination (916-791-6200 or www. hawksrestaurant.com) that cures its own charcuterie and offers such dishes as monkfish with chablis butter. So what is something as mundane as meatloaf doing on its menu?

Well, technically it's not there. But it does rotate with other classic dishes such as fried chicken and fish 'n' chips as part of Hawks' "Sunday Supper" program, which offers four-course prix-fixe meals for $35 a person on Sunday evenings. (Meatloaf will be featured this Sunday.)

"Meatloaf is something everybody's mom always made," Fagnoni said. "Along those lines, for Sunday Supper we've made homestyle dishes a little fancier."

"At the same time, we wanted to do something dressed-down from our normal operation," Hawks added. "Sunday Supper is more inviting to families and at a lower price point than our normal menu.

"But offering meatloaf here has opened the door to a lot of criticism," she added.

Oh?

"Yes – everyone compares our meatloaf to their mom's meatloaf."

Old favorite, new trend

Like sliders and mac 'n' cheese, meatloaf is a retro dish that has found new favor with younger diners. With that as a starting point, its full-time inclusion on the menus of finer restaurants is almost trendy.

A case in point: Four of the five Bistro 33 restaurants in the Sacramento area offer meatloaf (the midtown location is the exception).

"We make it with lamb and Italian sausage, top it with cayenne aioli and serve it with mashed potatoes (and a vegetable) for $14.95," said Fred Haines, co-owner with his brother, Matt, of the bistros (916-455-2233 or www.sro-inc.com).

The newest Bistro 33 opened recently inside the Rocklin Mercedes-Benz dealership. (For my review, go to www.sacbee.com/ pierleoni.)

"Our meatloaf (represents) good down-home cooking, but (the lamb) allows it to be a little upscale, a little Mediterranean," Fred Haines said. "It's one of our signature dishes and has become a staple. It's in our top 10 most popular items."

At Moxie restaurant in midtown Sacramento (916-443-7585), meatloaf has been a tradition for 14 years

"We believe you should have the feeling of being at home when you come here, and at home you have hearty foods you're familiar with," said co-owner Adam Chaccour. "Our meatloaf is a fun and homey kind of thing. People tend to relate to comfort foods because they represent a lot of emotion and sentiment."

Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.