Loud, locally-driven and loving it.
“We wanted to make something different … and we wanted to keep it fun,” says Kyla Washburn, inside the newly-redesigned Sunshine Café at 145 W. Washington St.
“We always wanted to do a breakfast place. This seemed like the natural next step.”
Kyla and her husband Josh Washburn, the new co-owners of the downtown Sequim eatery, have their hands full with two other businesses — Adagio Bean and Leaf and HMP Construction — but are making it work to offer a revamped menu and atmosphere to serve breakfast, brunch and beverages five days a week.
In fact, the couple have a number of staffers from Adagio, a stop for many coffee aficionados on Sequim’s east end (981 E. Washington St.), to fill out the staff at Sunshine Café.
Enjoy “loaded” scrambles with tumblers at the newly reopened Sunshine Café. Photo courtesy of Kyla Washburn/Sunshine Café
“We have a great team,” Kyla says. “[And] we still have time for our families.”
Regulars of the café that for nearly two decades was overseen by Alan and Dianne Drake and more recently Tristen Beck and Lucas Shifflett have seen a new interior, a waiting area, modified seating and a new menu featuring some of the Washburns’ favorites since the restaurant re-opened on March 23.
Several of the breakfast and brunch items are inspired by the couple’s travels, Kyla Washburn says — including the Loaded Potatoes Tumblers “Ode to Oklahoma” that she says they picked up on one of their long annual trips, one that took them through, unsurprisingly, Oklahoma.
This is mac and cheese? Try Sunshine Café’s pulled pork on macaroni and cheese bites, with a fried egg and sauce on top. Photo courtesy of Kyla Washburn/Sunshine Café
“Everything else is stuff we love,” she says. “[And] we do everything fresh.”
Among Kyla’s favorites are the Mac-N-Cheese Please — a plate featuring macaroni-and-cheese bites topped with pulled pork, a fried egg and chipotle Hollandaise sauce — the Northwest Benny and the Loaded Tumblers.
Other menu highlights include a breakfast poutine, Cinnamon Roll Me Outta Here, the quixotically-named Mountain of Yum (beignet balls piled high and topped with candied bacon, butter drizzle and spiced maple syrup), the Southern Joe (grill cakes topped with Verde pork, a poached egg, chipotle Hollandaise sauce and tortilla strips) and various other culinary delights, from southern fried chicken to sirloin steak to pork Verde tacos and more.
Try a Southern Joe — grill cakes (grilled, homemade cornbread) topped with verde pork, poached egg, Chipotle hollandaise and fried tortilla strips — at the newly-reopened Sunshine Café. Photo courtesy of Kyla Washburn/Sunshine Café
The menu also features a “Kids Corner” for the younger palates.
Check out Sunshine Café’s menu online at facebook.com/SunshineeCafe.
“He [Josh] is really the one who puts it all together; he’s the brains behind the food,” she says.
Customers can also get a coffee or espresso from — you guessed it — Adagio Bean and Leaf, a company the Washburns bought in 2019, and eventually spirits, when the business’ liquor license comes through.
Kyla says the Washburns stopped in and talked with Beck and Shifflett, then the owners of Sunshine Café, to see if they’d be open to selling and the cafe soon had new owners.
In recent weeks, the Washburns have been hard at work renovating both the eating area and some major changes to the kitchen, adding prep stations and re-flooring, and making some changes to the branding — including a new logo.
Co-owner Josh Washburn preps food in the Sunshine Café kitchen last week. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell
Cafe customers can also order to-go meals and drinks, something Kyla says they plan to add at Adagio as well.
Along with the changes, cafe-goers can expect to see plenty of the owners themselves; with Josh in the kitchen overseeing meals and Kyla working the tables alongside staff, something she says was important to the couple.
“[We have a] really solid, consistent, loving team. Not just out here [on the floor] but back there [in the kitchen],” Kyla says. “Everyone really does care about each other.
“It’s a natural extension of what we normally do.”
The Washburns say that they get plenty of help from the four grown children they’ve raised on the Peninsula.
Josh and Kyla Washburn, new owners of Sunshine Café, said they are are excited to offer fun and good food to the downtown Sequim restaurant. Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell
In the two-plus weeks it’s been re-opened, the cafe has been filled, she says.
“People want to get out right now; they’re itching for something new,” she says.
That’s something everyone — even other restaurants — can get behind, Kyla says.
“Community is really important to us,” Kyla says.
“If we’re successful, why can’t everyone be successful?” she says. “And it comes back to you.”
Sunshine Café
Serving: Breakfast, brunch
New owners: Josh and Kyla Washburn
Where: 145 W. Washington St.
Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday
On the web: facebook.com/SunshineeCafe
