Seaboard Station loses longtime lunch spot Sunflower’s Cafe amid redevelopment plans
When Sunflower’s Cafe first opened 36 years ago, it was the only restaurant on Raleigh’s bustling Glenwood Avenue, said owner Deborah Ferebee. Now on a rapidly redeveloping Peace Street, the cafe will close to make way for more changes in downtown Raleigh.
The last day for Sunflower’s Cafe will be Dec. 21, with the restaurant’s lease expiring at the end of the year. The closing is the latest restaurant casualty of the planned $250 million redevelopment of Seaboard Station. A large swath of Seaboard Station was sold last year to Washington, D.C. developer PN Hoffman for $34 million.
Hoffman’s plans include 650 new apartments, a hotel and 135,000 square feet of new retail space, according to earlier reporting in The News & Observer. In 2018, property owner Monty Hoffman told The News & Observer that the company expected to break ground in 18 to 20 months.
The hotel will be built on the current Sunflower’s Cafe spot, meaning the three-decade restaurant would have to close or move. Ferebee and her husband, Clay, picked a semi-retirement, with plans to move to the coast.
“We’re losing our lease, they’re tearing down the building to put up a hotel,” Ferebee said. “It seemed like time to call it a day.”
From Glenwood to Peace Street
Ferebee moved to Raleigh from coastal North Carolina for college, graduating from N.C. State with a degree in English education. After two years of teaching English, she decided the classroom was not for her. So she and her husband opened a small lunchtime cafe.
“Running a restaurant is very hard work; you really have to love it,” Ferebee said.
The original Sunflower’s Cafe opened at 315 Glenwood Avenue, where the Hibernian Pub now stands, taking its name from one of Ferebee’s favorite flowers.
“It’s a wholesome, humble flower,” she said.
Sunflower’s spent 21 years on Glenwood Avenue and the last 15 on Peace Street. Ferebee called the closing bittersweet.
“For a lot of people it was like going home for lunch,” Ferebee said. “It’s very casual. We know a lot of first names here. We’ve built a relationship with our customers.”
Ferebee said she will manage a new restaurant on Bald Head Island called The Jailhouse, being built in a former police station.
The closing of Sunflower’s follows this summer’s closing of 18 Seaboard, chef Jason Smith’s popular Raleigh seafood restaurant.
“I’d like to express my thanks to all my customers over the years,” Ferebee said.
Other Seaboard Station changes
There are two other recent changes in the food and beverage world of Seaboard Station that aren’t specifically tied to redevelopment.
Popular craft coffee shop BREW announced around Thanksgiving that it would be closing its original Seaboard Station location. The company recently opened a new shop in the McNeill Pointe shopping center off of Wake Forest Road and will build a new location in Gateway Plaza. The Seaboard Station cafe’s last day will be Saturday, Dec. 21.
“It hasn’t been an easy decision but it’s one we know is right for our company, our employees, and ultimately our BREW family,” owners wrote on Instagram. “We’ve reached the end of our lease and with so many changes and construction coming to Seaboard Station now is the time to move.”
BREW is owned by husband and wife Mike and Cindy Sholar, who also operate a shop in downtown Cary.
Also in Seaboard Station, Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant Papa Shogun will unveil a revamped concept Dec. 11, moving more in the direction of a tasting menu. Chef Tom Cuomo will serve a five-course tasting menu for dinner and offer lunch Wednesday through Saturday, focusing on sandwiches and salads.
The dinner menu will have an optional beverage pairing.
Papa Shogun replaced the former Kimbap Cafe about a year ago and offered dishes unlike anything else in Raleigh. Cuomo has a fine dining resume and a creative mind, making his own mozzarella and unveiling dishes like chicken parm ramen.
News & Observer dining critic Greg Cox found a lot to like in a three and a half star review.
Papa Shogun will roll out its new dinner service Dec. 11 and add lunch the following week.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 8:00 AM.
