Local Restaurant Provides Balanced Meal

Twice a week, for as long as she can remember, Callista Click has ridden to Trader Joe's with her mother to pick up groceries for their restaurant, .

Sunflower has been established in Fair Oaks since 1978 and prides itself on serving a natural, balanced meal to its patrons.

"The idea is to try to have food as close to its natural form as possible. Without extra fillers and processors. We like to supply live enzymes in our food,” said Rebeckah Click, co-owner of Sunflower. 

Rebeckah Click founded Sunflower with her husband and co-owner, Dennis Click. The initial idea behind the restaurant was to try fast food, vegetarian style. 

"Unfortunately, when we were trying to buy the little drive-in restaurant we couldn't get a loan," Rebeckah Click said. "So we borrowed a little money from mom. But in order to buy the supplies and products we needed to open the store - we sold our Lincoln - the car we drove away when we got married."

From the beginning, nutburgers and nutty tacos were the top two orders of the restaurant. Rebeckah Click said the reason they named the restaurant "Sunflower" is because sunflowers are the most dominant nut in the nutburgers. 

Sunflower is not necessarily an “organic restaurant,” because in order to carry this label everything used must be certified organic, Callista Click said.

“Even when it's labeled organic, it's hard to be sure it really is organic,” she said. “We were spending a lot of money on organic carrots for a while – come to find out they weren't even organic.”

Nonetheless, Sunflower uses organic material as often as possible and natural material always.

“All the employees know us at Trader Joe's,” Callista Click said. “The one on Sunrise even has our sun logo in their window.”

Callista Click said one advantage to eating at Sunflower is that the employees work with their customers' food allergies.

“We always try to figure out some alternative for the customer. Like offering rice tortillas as well as corn and flour,” Callista Click said. “Also, we work with vegans by offering avocado instead of cheese; just things like that.”

The environment surrounding Sunflower is serene. It is tucked slightly off the street by a hill, with plenty of outdoor seating and around the restaurant signs read, “We Recycle,” “We really appreciate your patronage” and “We're really happy you're here.”

Matt Rainey, 29, is a Fair Oaks resident and has been frequenting Sunflower for 12 years.

“The food is healthy and it just makes you feel good,” Rainey said. “Beyond that it is just nice. Fair Oaks is where the hippies come. People drive up in their Subarus and you have the chicken park and river right across the street.”

Callista Click agrees and thinks a big part of Sunflower's environment can be attributed to its location in Fair Oaks.

“Although Fair Oaks has changed quite a bit over the years, it's the same low-key, happy place and people really want to protect that,” she said.

In the same sense, Callista Click said, the reason Sunflower's clientele is so loyal is because the product never changes.

“People come to Sunflower wanting the same nutburger or taco they had last week. That's why they come back – so why would we want to change that?” she said.

Callista Click said Sunflower has not had to advertise much throughout its history for this reason.

“The sign and logo we have up in the window is only two years old,” Callista Click laughed.

Rainey said he would like to see more restaurants like Sunflower in Fair Oaks, but only if it did not take away from Sunflower's business.

The clientele of Sunflower has grown quite a little bit over the years.

“We've always had the hippies, but recently we've been drawing in a young crowd as well,”Callista Click said. “It may be because being green and healthy is cool right now, but I also think it is because people are just starting to take control of their own lives. And in order to do that you need to take care of yourself first.”

Callista Click said her favorite part of working at Sunflower is the “future aspect.”

 “I love being able to help people stay healthy because it will only positively affect their future,” she said. “Being a mother of a 3-year-old, I love helping kids start eating healthy early. My favorite thing is when we are closing and children come running up the window, throwing a fit because they can't get their nutburger.”