Sunny Street Café Customers Come Back More Frequently. Here’s Why.

Sunny Street Café®, the breakfast and lunch franchise with 22 units, has cracked the code to guest loyalty and securing repeat revenue, thus leading to double digital comp sales growth in 2023. From the get-go, Sunny Street has hyper-focused on its family atmosphere, innovative pancakes, and made-from-scratch approach to give its guests a better breakfast experience. 

“When you’re doing a ‘wow’ dish, you can get a lot further if you’re willing to take the extra time and effort,” said Mike Stasko,  president of Sunny Street Cafe. “It’s not always easy to prepare things from scratch, but the product speaks for itself and creates those craveworthy items.”

Most notably, Sunny Street Café is famous for its fancy pancakes. The brand’s limited-time and seasonal offerings, like the highly anticipated Pumpkin Pancakes, topped with cinnamon butter and a tres leches drizzle, have developed cult-like followings, and guests are always asking when the LTOs will return.

Consistent menu development allows Sunny Street Café to offer other exciting new flavors that bring guests swarming, even outside of Pumpkin Pancake season. For example, it recently launched “It’s Your Birthday!” pancakes, filled with homemade vanilla cookie crumbles and topped with a buttercream glaze and rainbow sprinkles. 

At Sunny Street Café, though, it isn’t just the LTOs that are special. Even the stacks that are on the menu permanently pack a punch.

“One of our best-selling items is the cinnamon roll pancakes. We get countless reviews and guests asking for the recipe — it’s been wildly successful,” added Stasko. “Another favorite is the Wildberry Crumble Pancakes. We make a berry compote in-house, and there is streusel cooked into the pancakes.”

Supplemented with lite bites, omelets, combos and benes, the Sunny Street Café menu has something for everyone, but it doesn’t stop there. In a brunch segment cluttered with boozy, less-than-family-friendly concepts, Sunny Street Café offers a refreshing, truly welcoming atmosphere where families can gather to share a meal. 

A major contributor to this atmosphere is the care that franchisees and team members have for the brand. By building a strong internal culture, Sunny Street Café ensures that store-level operations are both efficient and cheery, and guests take note.

“We’ve created an awesome culture,” said Megan Ada, a Westerville, Ohio franchisee. “Everyone has a good time, and it truly is an environment with a culture that people notice because we really enjoy our jobs.”

Guests’ perception of the brand is made even sweeter by the connection that takes place in the cafés. The people around the table are just as important as the pancake stacks on it, and it is not lost on the team that, in many communities, Sunny Street Café is the go-to breakfast or lunch spot.

“We have employees that have worked for us for 15 years. When you have that, you know the food and service are going to be great, consistently,” said Stasko. “Having employees that have been there and recognize folks, and guests who come to us out of love and make us a part of their day … That really does mean something. That’s not lost on us.”

Whether it’s a group meeting for coffee and breakfast or a late lunch after sporting events on Saturdays, Sunny Street Cafés have become the go-to spot for connecting over a delicious, fluffy stack of pancakes, and owners are encouraged to foster that connection beyond their four walls.

Stasko explained that owners can build on the connections they make at the café to support their guests with more than a great meal. These acts of good faith further strengthen the relationship and loyalty built by an unbeatable breakfast experience.

“As a community-centric restaurant, our ‘advertising’ budget includes funds to support local organizations, whether that’s schools, churches, Cub Scouts, or animal shelters,” Stasko said. “Our guests are loyal to us and support our businesses, and we see an opportunity to be loyal to them and what matters to them.”

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/sunnystreetcafe/info.