ROSIE’S CAFÉ: A RESTAURANT WITH TASTE & RETAIL APPEAL
By Mike May
Location, location, location. That’s the old saying when it comes to the keys to success of a restaurant. It also helps to have great food at affordable prices with exemplary service in a quaint, cozy, and comfortable setting. That’s a great way to describe what you’ll discover at Rosie’s Café in Ormond Beach, Florida, the next door ‘neighbor’ of the more well-known City of Daytona Beach. At Rosie’s Café, you’ll find all the ingredients of a small-town success story in the restaurant business.
What’s truly unique about Rosie’s Café is its location. It’s actually built inside another business – Dunn’s Attic (136 West Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, Florida; 386-673-0044; www.DunnsAttic.com), a trendy, ever-expanding consignment store which is owned and operated by longtime local retail entrepreneur Wes Dunn, whose family has been in the retail trade in the greater Daytona Beach area since 1905.
If you ‘peel back the onion,’ so to speak, you’ll discover that Rosie is actually Dunn’s wife, Rosanne. Just as Wes and Rosanne Dunn have worked side by side to build Dunn’s Attic from scratch, starting when they opened their doors back in 2013, this dynamic duo has also created a successful restaurant business within Dunn’s Attic. At Rosie’s Café, breakfast and lunch are served daily, till 4:00 pm.
“It’s no secret that two of the things that people love to do are shop and eat,” admits Wes Dunn. “At Dunn’s Attic, you can do both.”
At Rosie’s Café, customers will find a small, quaint, and comfy place to relax and unwind before shopping, during shopping, and after shopping.
“We have a wonderful location for people to have a fun outing where they can combine shopping and have a bite to eat and something to drink,” says Wes Dunn.
“The whole concept of eating and shopping is simplified when you visit Dunn’s Attic,” adds Rosanne Dunn. “It’s a one-stop shopping and dining experience. Here, you can pay for your meal and an item from Dunn’s Attic at the same cash register at the same time. And, we offer free parking, too.”
While the symbiotic relationship between Dunn’s Attic and Rosie’s Café is convenient for visiting customers, the high quality of both the merchandise on display at Dunn’s Attic and the food served at Rosie’s Café adds to the appeal of buying from this free-standing retail outlet, which is less than a five-minute drive from the beaches of the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Yes, it’s possible to combine shopping at Dunn’s Attic, eating at Rosie’s Cafe, and spending time at the beach – all in one day.
“We’re on the way to the beach and we’re on the way home from the beach,” says Wes Dunn.
At Rosie’s Café, your breakfast selections range from eggs & bacon to Rosie’s American cheese omelet to the breakfast burger, which is Rosie’s Café’s simplified version of steak & eggs. Also, the cinnamon buns are mouth-watering and delicious. There’s no need to rush to Rosie’s Café for breakfast since breakfast is served all day.
The lunch menu is more diverse and includes many of Rosanne’s family favorites from her childhood days growing up in Michigan. They include Rosie’s house salad, Grandma’s grilled cheese sandwich, Rosie’s red apple slaw, and her homemade chicken, tuna, and egg salad sandwiches. Two of Wes Dunn’s favorites are “The Dunn Bird” sandwich and “The Dunn Burger,” which is tasty and delicious, even if it is served well done!
It’s also fair to say that the menu at Rosie’s Café has a slight international twist to its menu since French toast is served at breakfast. At lunch, the overseas cuisine theme includes a Cuban sandwich, a Reuben, a French Dip sandwich, and a grilled ham & cheese sandwich made with Swiss cheese. Also, mimosas — priced at just one dollar — are served all day at Rosie’s Café. Naturally, the champagne served in those mimosas comes from France.
The desserts served at Rosie’s Café may well be the best in the greater Daytona Beach area. They include crack cake, bread pudding, key lime pie, and freshly baked cookies and brownies. If you have a sweet tooth, those desserts are a good enough reason to visit Rosie’s Café.
If you like soft drinks, a bottle of nearly every kind of soft drink that has been produced in the U.S. is available for purchase at Rosie’s Café. To add to the décor of Rosie’s Café, a line bottles of soft drinks stand sentry along the base of the picture window that separates indoor dining from outdoor dining. By the way, the outdoor dining takes place in the shade. Other beverages served at Rosie’s Café include hot coffee, hot chocolate, iced tea, bottled water, bottles of beer, Tropicana apple juice and orange juice.
As for what’s for sale at Dunn’s Attic, it ranges from rugs to couches to china to lamps to chairs to desks to jewelry to old records to ladies clothing to a frame of a football jersey worn by former University of Florida football legend Tim Tebow. That’s an appropriate item to sell at Dunn’s Attic since Wes Dunn is a 1986 graduate of the University of Florida in nearby Gainesville and his late father Ed Dunn, a former local attorney and Florida state senator, was a long snapper for the University of Florida football team back in the early 1960s.
“I’m a diehard Gator fan so you’ll find some Gator memorabilia on display throughout the store,” admits Dunn.
It is fair to say that every day is different at Dunn’s Attic.
“Our inventory changes daily and now includes online auction and estate sales,” says Wes Dunn.
If you looked at the amount of quality merchandise which Dunn currently has in storage, it’s no surprise that he and his wife are opening up another retail store front which is less than a two-mile drive from their current location. This new store will be called Dunn’s Attic Too.
But, does this mean that the new location will also have its own Rosie’s Café?
“There will be no new Rosie’s Café,” states Rosanne Dunn. “There’s only one Rosie’s Café and there will only be one Rosie’s Café.”
And, that’s because Rosie’s Café has what it needs to succeed: location, location, location, as well as great food at affordable prices with exemplary service in a quaint, cozy, and comfortable setting.
