Sleepy Bee Cafe creates a buzz in Oakley

Oakley’s newest restaurant, Sleepy Bee Café, opened its doors the week of December 16 at 3098 Madison Road. Dr. John Hutton and Sandra Gross, owners of Oakley’s blue manatee children’s bookstore and decafé and Brazee Street Studios, also own the café.
 
The idea for Sleepy Bee came from the recent dramatic decline in the honeybee population. Hutton and Gross wanted to get involved, and to them, a restaurant seemed like the best way.
 
Sleepy Bee serves breakfast, lunch and brunch with a focus on local, organic, and hormone-free produce, meat and dairy products. The menu, created by chef Frances Kroner, also caters to the health-conscious eaters with the Buff Bee lineup and offers creative, “real” food for kids. Some of the restaurant’s signature dishes include “Killer Bee” cookies, gluten-free Bee Cakes and the Queen City Bee breakfast, which features locally made goetta.
 
The restaurant showcases bee-centric art made by artisans from Brazee Street Studios of Glass and C-Link Local. Sleepy Bee boasts unique bee-inspired kiln-formed glass light fixtures and local artwork, including custom tiles in the dining room and restrooms that feature vegetables that are fertilized by hardworking bees.
 
Hutton and Gross plan to offer catering services and host annual bee-themed fundraising dinners to do their part for bee conservation and awareness.
 
Sleepy Bee is open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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