Sunrise Café in Meridian serves up popular eats for more than 30 years

( EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally published in the 2024-2025 Treasure Valley Living, a publication of Idaho Business Review. )

As consistently as the sun rises each morning, the Sunrise Caf in Meridian heats up its kitchen each day energized by five profound words: “When you’re here, you’re family.”

“We truly do everything we can to stick to that because we want people to come in here and feel like family,” Emma DePriest, regional manager for the iconic restaurant, said.

Since July 1988, the original Sunrise Caf in downtown Meridian has served as the restaurant’s anchor location, eventually expanding to two additional sites, one in Middleton and the other on Fairview Avenue in Boise.

Three times the original caf has been voted Best of Meridian, an honor reflected by a sign hanging above the front counter seating that reads: “Good food, good friends, good times.”

For DePriest, who started out working as a server for the caf eight years ago, there is no substitute for the original location and its signature selections such as the bacon avocado breakfast tacos or wild chorizo and cheese omelet.

“Meridian is prime, it’s the busiest and it’s truly an original,” she said. “It’s been here for so long that you get family coming in with kids and they want to do the same for their children. There is a lot of nostalgia to this restaurant here in downtown.”

That strong sense of nostalgia flourishing in the community is fostered by a longstanding tradition DePriest described as the Pay it Forward wall. Customers can make a monetary donation symbolized by a heart placed on a wall in the diner that is made available to anyone in the community who ventures in without the funds to pay for a hot meal.

According to DePriest, circumstances matter not for any individual who may be having a hard time and needs a bit of assistance.

“If someone comes in, we don’t ask any questions,” she said. “They can take the heart off the wall and have a hot meal. We started this about five years ago and it has been a beautiful process to watch. This is 100% donation to the wall and 100% donation to someone’s belly.”

The monthly Mug Club is another unique tradition of the Sunrise Caf. For $1 each month, patrons can rent a slot to house their personal coffee mug, with all monies raised donated to local charities. Special Olympics of Idaho and the Boise Rescue Mission are two of the many groups to have benefited from the mugging operation.

“That dollar goes 100% to the charity and we give them 50 cents off their coffee each time they come in,” DePriest said. “So, if you come in twice a month, you get your dollar back. The best part is that it’s all for charity, and people definitely know that.”

A love for people is what makes the Meridian Sunrise Caf such a unique gathering spot. And that love extends both ways, not just from the customers, but also the employees.

When original owner Bob Godsill opened the restaurant 36 years ago, he lived by a simple philosophy: “I don’t have employees, I have family. I don’t have customers, I have friends.”

Longtime staff members are also a staple of the operation. One employee has spent three decades at the Middleton location, while Ana Reyes, the lead server in Meridian has notched 25 years with the business.

“I love my job, and I especially love the people,” Reyes said. “What more can I say? I love the ownership because they have treated me so well.”

“Caring about the community, and the community caring back” is how DePriest reads the menu for this mutually beneficial relationship between the caf’s employees and its patrons.

“We truly have love from the community, we know it, and we love them back,” she said. “I believe it contributes to our success. I especially love this restaurant. It’s just so different and unique.”

Copyright © 2024 BridgeTower Media. All Rights Reserved.

For top headlines, breaking news and more, visit idahobusinessreview.com or sign up for our newsletter .