Customers fill the Sunrise Cafe on Depot Street in Clarks Summit to enjoy breakfast and good company.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Dawn Williams, owner of the Sunrise Cafe, looks out from the kitchen as she picks up a customer’s order. Dave Kinney is busy in the background cooking the breafast orders.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
As you enter the Sunrise Cafe on Depot Street, a sign tells you to find a seat where ever you would like.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Dave Reed works the kitchen of the Sunrise Cafe in Clarks Summit, making poached eggs for customer.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Along depot Street in Clarks Summit sits a little cafe with a window facing the street – the Sunrise Cafe.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Dennis and Kathy Secor, of Clarks Green, enjoy breakfast seated in the window of the Sunrise Cafe.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Your coffee cup at the Sunrise Cafe on Depot Street in Clarks Summit never goes empty with a waitress carring coffee pots constantly circulating throughout the dinner.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
Dan Reed, of Newton, enjoys his breakfast sitting at the counter of the Sunrise Cafe on Depot Street in Clarks Summit.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
The owner of the Sunrise Cafe in Clarks Summit, Dawn Williams, checks on her customers too see if they are satisfied with their breakfast during a recent morning’s breakfast rush.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
The front entrance to the Sunrise Cafe on Depot Street in Clarks Summit.
Fred Adams | For Abington Journal
CLARKS SUMMIT — Dawn Williams, owner of Sunrise Cafe, opened the small Depot Street diner for business Nov. 1, 2001.
Not much has changed in the last 20 years, she said – customers still start making their way into the diner at 6 a.m. for their first cup of coffee, as their breakfasts are being prepared for them.
If the coffee’s not ready, many of them know how to make their own, she said.
Another thing that has also remained the same, she said, is that she’s still having fun.
“I wouldn’t get up before 5 a.m. every day if I wasn’t having fun,” she said on a recent morning.
Patrons often refer to the Cafe as a spot where truly “everybody knows your name,” and Williams said there are those who come in nearly everyday.
“Some people come in twice a day,” she said.
The Cafe opens for breakfast and lunch.
On a recent morning, with nearly every seat filled, Williams noted that during the last six months, the little restaurant has been increasingly busy.
During the pandemic, staff did everything they could to accommodate patrons, offering a purely take-out menu for several months.
Williams said the business closed completely only for a short time.
Where everybody knows your name
On a recent morning Paul Scheuch was enjoying a hardy breakfast at the business’ counter with a group of friends.
Scheuch, who used to be a teacher, said he now spends part of the year in North Carolina. But when he’s in the area, more often than not, he stops at the Cafe for breakfast.
Places such as the Sunrise Cafe, he said, are becoming scarcer and scarcer, so he appreciates the atmosphere and the service.
Waitresses know many patrons’ names and often are preparing their order before they even take their seat.
He also points to a bulletin board at the front of the restaurant, which lists upcoming fundraisers.
“They are part of the community,” he said.
Ron Addis, who used to own a plumbing business next door, said he remembers people owning the restaurant for a year or two and then closing it.
But, when Williams took the helm of the Cafe 20 years ago, he said, she created a menu and an environment that brought people back again and again.
Addis said he likes the food very much, but what he looks for when he first takes a seat is the coffee.
He even has his own cup at the restaurant which reads, “Grumpy Old Marine.”
“Because that’s what I am,” he said, laughing.
