Our Story
In 1983, Deb Ferebee opened a small sandwich shop on Glenwood South. Five or six tables. A storage loft you reached by a wooden ladder in the kitchen. At the time there were no bars or clubs on that street — mostly boarded-up windows…and Sunflower's.
Deb made everything from scratch, because she wasn't willing to make it any other way. The chicken salad that ended up in the magazines is her original recipe: chopped that morning, real lemons squeezed into it, pecans in, grapes halved. It hasn't changed since.
Her kids grew up in that loft. Quinn and his sister Ellen built forts out of napkin boxes up there and spied on the dining room through the lattice, convinced they were getting away with something.
Sunflower's then moved to Seaboard Station and continued to feed downtown Raleigh. Seaboard Station was sold and slated for redevelopment, and Sunflower's served its last lunch there on December 21, 2019 — thirty-seven years after it opened.
As an adult, Quinn continued to work in kitchens, and went to culinary school. He also built a successful business creating custom wood and metal furniture. In early 2025, he and his wife Rae were looking at commercial spaces, thinking about opening a bar with a little food. The more he thought about it, the more obvious the answer got—he wanted to bring Sunflower’s Cafe back to downtown Raleigh.
“I missed it. I missed the food. It was older than I was when it closed, and I'd grown up with it and in it."
- Quinn
Sunflower's Cafe reopened in 2026 on the south side of downtown, in the Rockway building. The chicken salad recipe is untouched. So is the focaccia, the veggie sandwich people order without looking at the menu, and most of what was on the board in 2019. The rest of the menu is Quinn's creation—including the “Bon Mimi”, a banh mi named for what his kids call their grandmother Deb.
Everything is still made here. Italian flour, unbleached. Soups, dressings, the pesto mayo, the spicy mustard. The desserts are baked every morning by James, Quinn and Rae's fifteen-year-old son. Deb, Quinn, James: Three generations in one kitchen.
At night the room changes. The lights come down, candles go on the tables, the cover comes off the pool table, and there's a full bar with local drafts from Trophy Brewing and delicious cocktails. Same room, same kitchen, later hours. We call it Sunflower's After Dark.
“I want everybody to feel welcomed here, like the kitchen table of the neighborhood. Somewhere people can come hang out.”
-Rae
We want to continue and build upon what Deb built first. Come here with the people you love. Come here alone and end up talking to whoever's at the bar. Come often enough that we start making your order when you walk in.
Raleigh looks nothing like it did in 1983. But here at Sunflower’s The chicken salad tastes exactly the same.
The question we get more than any other is whether this is the same Sunflower's that used to be at Seaboard Station, and before that, Glenwood. Two generations and over 30 years later—it still is.
Thank you for supporting our family business.
-Quinn, Rae + The Whole Family
