Sunny Street Cafe President Mike Stasko

Sunny Street Café®, the breakfast and lunch franchise with 22 units, has announced the promotion of Mike Stasko Jr. to president of the emerging franchise brand. The promotion comes on the heels of near double digital comp sales growth in 2023.

“Mike has done a tremendous job at creating the vision for the business and achieving success as proven by our sales growth,” said Scott Moffitt, CEO. “There is no one better to continue to drive our success forward than Mike.”

Since Sunny Street’s inception, Stasko has led various departments — including menu design, product strategy, the move to a bright and fresh restaurant design, and its family-centric marketing focus. These brand improvements have led to both increased revenue and improved prime cost controls, which have helped engineer Sunny Street as a top breakfast franchise.

“We spent the last 24 months perfecting our menu, our operations and our brand positioning to prepare us to be more competitive in the 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. breakfast/brunch/lunch franchise space,” Stasko Jr. said. “Now we are ready to accelerate our growth plans in 2024.”

Through Stasko’s leadership, the brand will now expand its restaurants into more markets throughout the United States. In 2023, the brand launched a franchise incentive program, where the Sunny Street Café franchise fee is cut in half — now just $17,500, with 0% royalties at opening, ramping up through your first 18 months. This both lowers the barrier to entry and allows new franchisees to keep additional cash on hand for operations as they navigate the early days of ownership.

Standout products have been the driver of sales for the franchise system. Sunny Street Café continues to be known for its fancy pancakes. The brand’s limited-time and seasonal offerings, like the highly anticipated Pumpkin Pancakes, topped with cinnamon butter and a tres leches drizzle, have developed cult-like followings, and guests are always asking when the LTOs will return.

Consistent menu development allows Sunny Street Café to offer other exciting new flavors that bring guests swarming, even outside of Pumpkin Pancake season. For example, it recently launched “It’s Your Birthday!” pancakes, filled with homemade vanilla cookie crumbles and topped with a buttercream glaze and rainbow sprinkles.