Lindsey Nickolich
The Sunrise Social dining room is eye-catchingly bright, adorned with yellow chairs, color-blocked walls, a black-and-white counter and greenery hanging overhead. But the breakfast and brunch spot, which opened in May, is much more than its trendy interior.
Co-owners Lisa Houck and Jeannie Hopkins, who also work at Lala’s in the Lakes, envisioned a cafe that focuses on quality food and locally sourced ingredients. They delivered with made-to-order dishes that include cage-free eggs from McConnell Meats in Oberlin, sausage from Holiday Italian Sausage Co. in Cleveland, Cleveland Kraut that’s used in Reubens and more.
Choose from breakfast basics like pancakes and omelets or from more specialized options like a salmon and capers-topped bagel meal ($16.99) or chicken and waffles ($17.99) with Sriracha maple syrup. “It’s cage-free chicken with some country gravy on it, with a feisty all-natural maple syrup,” Houck says.
Expect some twists on standard dishes too, like the avocado benny ($10.99), which has poached cage-free eggs and seasoned avocado on an English muffin. “Instead of just doing the hollandaise sauce, we do a jalapeno crema on it as well,” Houck says. “People really like that.”
Another popular pick is the coconut milk chia pudding bowl ($12.99), a dish that Houck first had in Costa Rica. It combines house-made granola, honey, semisweet chocolate, peanut butter and berries.
Also find some dishes you might not expect to fit into brunch, like the ultimate corned beef sandwich ($16.99) and the stuffed poblano ($15.99) — but they work.
The sandwich features slow-roasted corned beef, Swiss cheese, pepper jam, cream cheese and kimchi on sourdough bread. “The corned beef is probably the best you’ve ever had,” Houck says. “We roast it long, and we slice it thick.”
The poblano is stuffed with quinoa, roasted chicken and cheddar and seasoned with cumin, chili powder and cayenne before being covered in Italian breadcrumbs and deep-fried. It’s served with cage-free scrambled eggs, creme fraiche, guacamole, pico de gallo and mole sauce, creating a meal with a bite.
“It’s a little spicy,” Houck says. “A lot of the people who have had it said, I would never have ordered this for breakfast, but it is so good.”
Indulge and add a whipped coffee, latte, mimosa flight or house-made cake doughnut to your meal.
“We love to do really great food — everything from scratch,” she says. “We try to do just a little bit different.”
3875 Massillon Road, Uniontown, facebook.com/sunrisesocialcafe
