There are two kind of cafés: cafés placed in the heart of a downtown populace and local cafés in small towns...
Sunrise Café is a warm restaurant in a small town.
Welcome to Yellow Springs, Ohio! A small town a few minutes away from Wittenberg University. I’m not from this area, but everyone I know has been calling it a “hippie town”. I have only been to Yellow Springs once before this trip by our class, but that was at night and only for dinner. So I’ve never actually seen this town for what it is. When we arrived in Yellow Springs, I could honestly agree with calling it a hippie town. I’m from Cleveland, and the only thing that I can come up with that is similar to Yellow Springs is the Little Italy district of Downtown. Although, I find Yellow Springs to be very nice and welcoming. That day was a bitterly cold winter day with little snow on the ground and a bright blue, cloudless sky. We parked not too far from where we would be eating, and those few minutes we spent between the small café and the car were awful. However, once we were inside the Sunrise Café, everything was warm.
We shed our layers of coats and were quickly greeted by our waiter for the day. Our table was a booth right at the entrance behind a wall with a tall case on top of it. Inside the case were several rows of various styles of tea cups, which I found to be interesting. The lamp shades of the restaurant were replaced by old rectangular cans. Above our table dangled a can of olive oil written (from what I could see on my side) in what I believe is Greek.
Now when I looked at the menu, printed clearly on the back was the statement that they make the food to order and from scratch. They have no microwave in the back and all of their ingredients are fresh. One thing our teacher told us was that because they keep fresh ingredients, the menu changes with the season since they use the local farms in the area. So basically, I would not be able to enjoy a strawberry cheesecake for desert in the middle of January. Either way, my parents have taught me the basics of skepticism, so I was looking forward to trying the food to find out if their claim was indeed true.
I ordered an apple cinnamon hot tea for my drink. It came out to me in a mini metal kettle with the tea bag inside and a small white mug. For my food I ordered a New York Reuben with a side of chips. The NY Reuben was made with turkey, sauerkraut, and Swiss chess all placed between two toasted pieces of rye bread. Honestly, even though I’m not a foodie, I could tell that the small café had kept its word. That sandwich was as fresh as far as I could tell, and very delicious. I couldn’t finish the whole thing so I kept the other half for a midnight snack later on that day. I enjoyed my time at the restaurant.
It was a small building, and you could see into the kitchen easily. I liked the style, and the people working there were nice and unlike at other restaurants, they were not checking in on us every two minutes. However, they weren’t so far away that we were left waiting on ends just to get extra napkins or a refill on our drinks. Another thing I noticed while we were there was a nice little sign in the window at the end of our table. In short, Sunrise Café takes a week vacation in the middle of February, which is new to me. How many restaurants do you know take a mini hibernation in the middle of winter? While we were only there for brunch, I feel like we didn’t learn much about this little treasure in Yellow Springs. To be honest, I would come back to this little café at the next opportunity because for a great price, you can get an awesome meal that is probably much healthier than what you can get at a cafeteria.
So if you’re going through Ohio with the grumbellies and happen to be close to Yellow Springs, I highly suggest stopping by and enjoying a meal at Sunrise Café!
Welcome to Yellow Springs, Ohio! A small town a few minutes away from Wittenberg University. I’m not from this area, but everyone I know has been calling it a “hippie town”. I have only been to Yellow Springs once before this trip by our class, but that was at night and only for dinner. So I’ve never actually seen this town for what it is. When we arrived in Yellow Springs, I could honestly agree with calling it a hippie town. I’m from Cleveland, and the only thing that I can come up with that is similar to Yellow Springs is the Little Italy district of Downtown. Although, I find Yellow Springs to be very nice and welcoming. That day was a bitterly cold winter day with little snow on the ground and a bright blue, cloudless sky. We parked not too far from where we would be eating, and those few minutes we spent between the small café and the car were awful. However, once we were inside the Sunrise Café, everything was warm.
We shed our layers of coats and were quickly greeted by our waiter for the day. Our table was a booth right at the entrance behind a wall with a tall case on top of it. Inside the case were several rows of various styles of tea cups, which I found to be interesting. The lamp shades of the restaurant were replaced by old rectangular cans. Above our table dangled a can of olive oil written (from what I could see on my side) in what I believe is Greek.
Now when I looked at the menu, printed clearly on the back was the statement that they make the food to order and from scratch. They have no microwave in the back and all of their ingredients are fresh. One thing our teacher told us was that because they keep fresh ingredients, the menu changes with the season since they use the local farms in the area. So basically, I would not be able to enjoy a strawberry cheesecake for desert in the middle of January. Either way, my parents have taught me the basics of skepticism, so I was looking forward to trying the food to find out if their claim was indeed true.
I ordered an apple cinnamon hot tea for my drink. It came out to me in a mini metal kettle with the tea bag inside and a small white mug. For my food I ordered a New York Reuben with a side of chips. The NY Reuben was made with turkey, sauerkraut, and Swiss chess all placed between two toasted pieces of rye bread. Honestly, even though I’m not a foodie, I could tell that the small café had kept its word. That sandwich was as fresh as far as I could tell, and very delicious. I couldn’t finish the whole thing so I kept the other half for a midnight snack later on that day. I enjoyed my time at the restaurant.
It was a small building, and you could see into the kitchen easily. I liked the style, and the people working there were nice and unlike at other restaurants, they were not checking in on us every two minutes. However, they weren’t so far away that we were left waiting on ends just to get extra napkins or a refill on our drinks. Another thing I noticed while we were there was a nice little sign in the window at the end of our table. In short, Sunrise Café takes a week vacation in the middle of February, which is new to me. How many restaurants do you know take a mini hibernation in the middle of winter? While we were only there for brunch, I feel like we didn’t learn much about this little treasure in Yellow Springs. To be honest, I would come back to this little café at the next opportunity because for a great price, you can get an awesome meal that is probably much healthier than what you can get at a cafeteria.
So if you’re going through Ohio with the grumbellies and happen to be close to Yellow Springs, I highly suggest stopping by and enjoying a meal at Sunrise Café!