After popular coffee shop Cup of the Bay closed its Onset location last fall, Onset resident Neil Lawson patiently waited for someone to open a new cafe in the village.

"I needed a place to go for a cup of coffee," said Lawson, a landscaper. Plus, the coffee shop served as a meeting place for residents to chat and catch up on current events, he said.

For reasons he calls "purely selfish," though some may argue otherwise, Lawson took matters into his own hands when it began to look like no one was going to open a new cafe.

"I had no place to go," Lawson said.

Lawson looked into renting the same location as Cup of the Bay, but the rent was too high, he said. Shortly after, he saw a "For Rent" sign in a storefront window across the street. After evaluating the space at 2 West Central Ave., he decided that it would be a good location and opened Sunrise Cafe.

"We needed to fill a void in the community," Lawson said. Fellow Onset resident Caroline Carton volunteered to help get the shop up and running and with the day-to-day operation.

The shop offers coffee, bagels, and pastries. It will eventually expand its offerings to included smoothies and lunch items.

"If we keep it simple, people will come," Lawson said of the cafe.

And Lawson and Carton are doing just that.

"We kind of did this on a shoestring," Carton said.

Many of the shop's furnishings are recycled. Fellow Onset business-owner Kat Jones, of Artisana, painted the mural of a sun on the outside of the building.

Lawson found the sign in the basement of the building. It already had a picture of a cup of coffee on it and read: "Dudley Square Bakery and Eatery," appropriately named for its location in close proximity to the square. Lawson added a sun behind the coffee cup and changed the lettering to say, "Dudley Square Sunrise Cafe."

The tables and stools were taken from the neighboring space in the building, the former location of the Onset Bay Blues Cafe. (The tables have a long history in the building. They were used at the restaurant that was a tenant before the Blues Cafe, at the fish market that was the tenant before the restaurant, and may have even be used before that, a cafe-goer said.)

The appropriately painted yellow interior was done by Dave Willis when he housed Sun-Dog Designs at the same location from 2008 to 2009.

"This whole thing is recycled," said Willis, who stopped by on Sunday to enjoy the coffee shop and strum his guitar on the bench outside.

The wood on the cafe's counters was taken from the cathedral ceilings in his house and re-purposed, Willis explained. The glass case, which now displays pastries, once displayed jewelry.

Willis was excited for the new use of the space. "The bagels are awesome here," he said.

And customers seem appreciative of the low-key, laid-back shop.

"It's a very friendly atmosphere," said Eugene Tracz while enjoying a beverage.

The walls of the cafe provide a display for the works of local artists. Various trinkets are also sold, including handmade products from Guatemala, where Carton lives during the winter months.

The cafe has already lined up a number of happenings. Cape poet Denise Raney will host a "Poetry Corner," a meeting for poetry writers, on the first Monday of every month at 6 p.m. All are welcome to attend.

Sunrise Cafe will also be a stop on the Onset Bay Association's Inn, Hotel, and Home Tour. The tour will take place on Sunday, May 30 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Lawson said he hopes the shop will become that familiar meeting place that residents and tourists alike will visit often. His goal?

"Keep the prices down. Keep the food good," he said.