The Story Behind Sunrise Cafe
Owners, Leslie and Paul Stewart first opened the breakfast and lunch restaurant in 2002 after more than a decade of working the island’s food and beverage industry. Leslie was a server and “Stew,” as his friends call him, worked as a chef in several island locations.
The first day, they served 35 people in the restaurant, Stewart said. Now, a decade later, the cafe feeds more than 500 on a Sunday.
What makes our restaurant different is that we literally and figuratively crack every egg. Each egg is cracked, because to make fluffy omelets, air has to be involved.
Start with Fresh Ingredients
We pride ourselves on using fresh ingredients, and that’s what makes our restaurant different. Every day, the crew at Palmetto Bay Sunrise Cafe makes hollandaise sauce, stratas, quiches, soups, crab cakes, salad dressings and sausage gravy. The kitchen staff also hand cuts their steaks daily and de-veins shrimp, which only comes from domestic waters. Care is taken to make each meal homemade, and that adds to the family feel of the food. Lunch options include fresh seafood such as Apalachicola oysters, crab wontons, and a variety of shrimp dishes. Among the most popular lunch items are the Café’s homemade she-crab soup, potato crusted flounder, shrimp Provencal and a slew of fresh sandwiches.
“There really wasn’t a classic breakfast place on the island. We found a place in Palmetto Bay Marina which, back then, was a shell of a building with raccoons living in the ceiling. We knew we could turn it into a special place!”
Like having a dinner party with friends
It’s like having a dinner party with friends. Every day is a new adventure. We are prepared and we love to serve our food and our family of customers. I think we do a great job of both. If we didn’t, our staff, our customers wouldn’t be having as much fun as they do, and they wouldn’t feel like the family that they are.