The Sunrise Cafe in Memphis is a great local find and worth heading to (obviously if you’re a local and perhaps not so obviously if you’re a visitor as it’s not quite on the beaten path. But it’s not far from Sun Studios so it’d be a great breakfast/brunch stop if you were headed there afterwards. It’s an order at the counter, seat yourself kind of place.

Restaurants that serve biscuits, live or die (in my mind) based on the quality of the biscuit. In this case, Sunrise Cafe should live forever. Their biscuits are legitimate southern biscuits, served with some pre-set sandwich choice, or you can roll your own. I rolled my own and had a biscuit with egg whites, cheddar and tabasco honey. The biscuit was fluffy and super good. The tabasco honey it was served with was a perfectly and unique treat – sweet with just the right amount of kick.

I also had a side of hash browns which were among the best I’ve had. They were thick with tender potatoes on the inside and exactly the right amount of crisp on the outside, all served without being too greasy. they were perfect and, a couple months later while writing this, I’m kind of salivating thinking about them.

The only area for improvement, in my experience, was the coffee. They serve “Onyx” dark and light coffee (serve yourself in a mug they give you). I had the dark. On the website it’s described as highly caffeinated which excited me as someone who typically drinks Death Wish Coffee. This was slightly better than standard diner coffee, perhaps a little thin for my taste, but much better than the brown waters I’ve received at other diners all over America.

They also offer a coconut bacon (vegetarian), but they happened to be out of it when we were there so I can’t tell you whether or not it’s good, but it’s cool that there’s a veggie “meat” option.

The dining room is a spacious, nice and comfortable place to eat. It’s nicely decorated with local art and lots of colors. (Though our first seat choice was on a cushioned bench…the cushions probably need to be, err, re-cushioned, as I sank deep into it and was concerned I might sink so low as to enter the bowels of Memphis. So we moved to a table with chairs.

My wife (a gluten-free eater) had the oatmeal made with milk, peanut butter and banana. (We were headed to Graceland so this was her breakfast tribute to Elvis.) Her initial reaction was that there wasn’t enough peanut butter, but she kept eating it and said it seemed fine, especially after she added almonds and honey. The milk she added, by the way, was almond milk (My wife generally avoids dairy as well) and she was happy they had this nut milk as an option. This oatmeal was the dish that the coconut bacon would’ve come on and that would’ve theoretically elevated the dish to a point where she would have been more excited about it.

They have a limited hot tea selection.

Breakfast is served all day. Lunch is added in starting at 11.