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Sudbury: It's Electric
Welcome back!
Sudbury has cemented itself as the breakfast sandwich capital of the world over the last week or so.
Pay no attention to places like New York City or Salt Lake City which have laid claim to that title in recent years. They may have more people, more egg sandwiches, and a more diverse mix of breakfast sandwich styles. But do they have enough passion for these sandwiches to make their entire community stand still at the mere thought of losing just one of the many available options?
No, no they don’t. And we now understand why the Sudbury Zoning Board of Appeals has to spend roughly ~70% of its time on hearings for chicken coops.
Here’s what we have for you this week:
The Sudbury Weekly Guide to Breakfast Sandwiches
Thoughts In Return? A Q&A With The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.
Sudbury Historical Society to Host Appraisal Day – Saturday October 4
Sudbury to Host Overdose Awareness Event Honoring Lives Lost
A Formula for Misery
Goodnow Library EV Chargers Open; Charging Fees Set Town-Wide
Routine Inspection Uncovered 14 Code Violations at Sudbury Coffee Hut
Sudbury Remembers September 11th Tragedy
Let’s get into it!
The Sudbury Weekly Guide to Breakfast Sandwiches
FEATURES
By Kevin LaHaise
Some say “America Runs on Dunkin.” Nary a soul in New England would say otherwise. But the town of Sudbury quietly marches to the beat of its own drum. Indeed, Sudbury Runs on Egg Sandwiches.
If you’re looking to satiate yourself in Sudbury; you have more options than you might expect. Here’s Sudbury Weekly’s rundown of the delicacies available throughout town.
The Independents
Debby’s Drive-Thru
Following one of the most overblown (and already resolved) sagas in the history of sandwiches, the most famous breakfast sandwiches in Sudbury are found at Debby’s Drive-Thru in the Sudbury Crossing Plaza. This is the only drive-thru in Town, for reasons that Sudbury Weekly documented nearly two years ago here.
While the former Fotomat Hut is humble in size, Debby’s serves up an impressive variety of sandwiches that are equal parts “classic New England” and inventive. The “Plain Jane” is a simple Egg & Cheese, but the “Jon Morely” adds a hash brown and the option to layer in the meat of your choice. If you’re looking to mix things up, you can opt for the “BCT” which drops the egg from the egg sandwich, but adds tomato to a bacon and cheese base.
The business is temporarily closed, but will reopen under new ownership in the near future according to reporting from WCVB.
Sudbury Coffee Works
Sudbury Coffee Works is another Sudbury icon, based on Union Ave. In addition to roasting their own beans, they offer a variety of classic breakfast sandwiches on english muffins, bagels and croissants. For meat, they offer up bacon, ham and sausage.
The twist comes from a breakfast burrito on the menu. While breakfast tacos are iconic in the southwestern United States, the breakfast burrito may be the southwestern original. Coffee Works sells theirs with salsa and avocado, along with your choice of meat or no meat.
The Farmer’s Daughter
Compared to Sudbury Coffee Works and Debby’s Drive-Thru, The Farmer’s Daughter puts a different spin on things. This local gem, known for its farm-to-table approach, is packed nearly every morning it is open.
On the menu are just two breakfast sandwiches, but they are not messing around. “The Stonehill” is a toasted bagel sandwich featuring maple sriracha bacon, eggs, cheddar. arugula, spicy aioli and local greens with honey shallot vinaigrette. If you want something that is a bit more New England themed, the “Croissant-y Cristo” has something for you: Served on a french toast battered croissant, it comes with ham, Beemster gouda and cheddar cheese, an egg, local maple syrup, and you still get the aforementioned local greens with honey shallot vinaigrette.
You can find Farmer’s Daughter in the Meadow Walk plaza on Boston Post Road.
The Big Boxes
Dunkin’
This staple on Boston Post Road is just like, well, all the other Dunkin’ locations out there except for two things. First, it doesn’t have a drive-thru. In fact, it played a central role in Sudbury’s lack of drive-thru restaurants. Second, it has a walkway to the Goodnow Library tucked behind its parking lot.
The sidewalk is like the Bridge to Terabithia, except Terabithia is just an air-conditioned orange room full of mass-produced donuts and you can’t leave all your stress behind. Have fun taking a left onto Boston Post Road after you pick up your order. It’s dicier than an episode of ‘Yan Can Cook.”
The Dunkin’ menu is ever-evolving, but you basically have your pick of meat and bread products, and you can wash it down with bucket-sized iced coffees year-round.
Honey Dew Donuts
If you like a pint of whiskey with your breakfast, you have an option in Sudbury. Located inside of the Stony Brook Market at 29 Hudson Road, you get a breakfast joint, a liquor store and a convenience store all in one. We can’t tell what’s more “classic New England” — the location inside the Town Center historic district, or the extensive selection of mini-bar-sized liquor next to the scratch tickets.
The menu features a variety of breakfast sandwiches, with your choice of ham, sausage, or bacon. But they don’t stop there. Specialty sandwiches include the American Philly Steak Egg and Cheese, as well as the Portuguese Sandwich featuring linguica. The bread options are numerous, as well. They include bagels, english muffins, croissants, ciabatta, and wraps.
Whole Foods
Now for something a little different — Whole Foods in Meadow Walk on Boston Post Road. The Amazon-owned grocer offers grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches each morning in their hot bar. What they lack in customizability they gain in grab-and-go-ability. If you’re in a pinch on the way to work, you can swing through in no time at all, pay via self-checkout and be back on the road in just a couple minutes flat.
On any given morning you can expect a couple options for sandwiches, and perhaps a breakfast burrito. Other hot breakfast options are plentiful, as well.
Starbucks
Let’s say you love living in 01776, but you want a dash of big-city mayhem in your morning routine. Starbucks in the Shaw’s Plaza on Boston Post Road might just be perfect for you.
It has a little bit of everything: coffee roasted so dark that it tastes like charcoal, gelatinous egg bites that remind you you’re eating the unborn, and breakfast sandwiches that have fancy ingredients that you can’t taste.
While the food doesn’t stand out despite it's high-brow appeal, this option is all about community togetherness. The kind of togetherness where every patron parks in the fire lane to pick up their online order. It’s a known fact that when you order food and coffee online, it always comes with a permission slip to park wherever you want. Parking spots are for people who order at the counter. But you don’t have time for lines like that! You’re headed to the city!
Thoughts In Return? A Q&A With The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.
FEATURES
By Sudbury Weekly
Editor’s Note: The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc. is one of the oldest family associations in the country, tracing its roots back to Edmund Rice, who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 and helped settle Sudbury. For nearly a century, the group has gathered for an annual reunion, bringing together descendants to celebrate their shared heritage and preserve the story of one of the town’s founding families. John Chandler, president of the Edmund Rice Association, was kind enough to answer our questions.
The Edmund Rice Association has been active for more than a century. What does it mean to bring the 2025 reunion back to Sudbury, where Edmund Rice first settled in the 1630s?
As a matter of fact, our reunions are generally held not far away from Sudbury — in the last 30 years we have met here six times, more than any other location. The roster of other places includes Lexington, Concord, Wayland, Framingham, Natick, Marlborough, Northborough, Barre, Worcester, Sturbridge, and Westborough; we met once as far away as Salt Lake City. The attraction of Sudbury is, in part, the occasion of getting back to our roots.
Reunions have been happening since 1851. How has the tradition evolved over time, and what remains at the heart of these gatherings?
Sudbury Historical Society to Host Appraisal Day – Saturday October 4
NEWS/EVENTS
By Kevin LaHaise
Sudbury residents will have a chance to uncover the stories—and potential value—behind their family treasures at Sudbury Appraisal Day, coming up on Saturday, October 4, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Sudbury History Center and Museum.
The event, hosted in partnership with Kaminski Auctions of Beverly, invites the public to bring in their antiques and collectibles for a professional evaluation. Appraisals cost $10 per item or $25 for three items, with all proceeds benefiting the Sudbury Historical Society’s programs and preservation work.
Organizers note that jewelry and furniture cannot be accepted for appraisal at this event, but other items—such as artwork, silver, memorabilia, or decorative objects—are welcome.
Participants may pay at the door or reserve their spot in advance through the Sudbury Historical Society’s Eventbrite page.
The Sudbury History Center and Museum is located at 288 Old Sudbury Road.
Sudbury to Host Overdose Awareness Event Honoring Lives Lost
NEWS/EVENTS
By Kevin LaHaise
Sudbury will mark International Overdose Awareness Day with a moving tribute and community event on Thursday, September 4, 2025, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Grange Hall, 326 Concord Road.
Outside the hall, residents will see a striking display of flags representing lives lost to fatal overdoses: 267 white flags for those in Middlesex County, and 1,496 purple flags for people across Massachusetts. Between July 2023 and June 2024 alone, the state recorded 1,763 opioid-related overdose deaths. Organizers say the display is meant to honor those lost while offering hope for healing and prevention.
A Formula for Misery
FEATURES
By Rev. Eric Wolf
Exploring the intersection of sacred and secular.
The action-adventure video game No Man’s Sky was released in 2016 after a massive media push making incredible claims about the player experience — for the first time, a nearly unlimited space-based sandbox, where the main story arc was only the beginning. As it turns out, those claims really were incredible at launch, because from glitching through landscape to it being a massively lonely world without fellow travellers because there was no multiplayer, it was the hottest and messiest of hot messes.
At least that’s what I heard, since it was only on windows and I didn’t own a Gamestation or whatever.
Start Mid, Don’t Taper Off
When I finally played it in 2018 or so, it was already much different. Hello Games, led by the enigmatic and emojiphilic Sean Murray, already gained a reputation because they think different — ly. They think different-ly — I don’t want to be the first Sudbury Weekly contributor to be DCMAd by the fruity folks.
They’d already released four game changing platform updates — some of them complete graphics, physics, and storyline overhauls. By 2020, they’d done something almost impossible on the interwebs — they’d gone from being lambasted by cranky gamers to being lauded for making good on the promises they made and missed at launch. Even more improbably, they achieved a Mostly Positive rating on Steam in 2021! If this doesn’t mean much to you, the internet is full of curmudgeonly juveniles who love tanking people’s reputations for the lulz. Gamers are the worst of them all — second only to scifi fans in vitriolic volume, and then only perhaps, since their vennlike overlap achieves a near perfect convergence.
Goodnow Library EV Chargers Open; Charging Fees Set Town-Wide
NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise
Sudbury residents with electric vehicles now have a new, convenient place to charge up—the Goodnow Library. The library recently became home to four public charging stations, offering a total of eight ports, as part of the Town of Sudbury’s growing EV infrastructure.
The Goodnow Library chargers join a network of 11 public Level 2 charging stations (22 ports total) now available across town. Other charging locations include the Fairbank Community Center, the Department of Public Works, and the Sudbury Police Department.
The Town shifted to a fee-based charging model this summer to help cover the costs of maintaining the network. As of July 1, EV drivers pay $0.42 per kilowatt-hour, with an idle fee of $3 per hour if cars remain plugged in more than 30 minutes after charging is complete. Payments are made through the Red E Charge app, which can be downloaded to start a session.
Routine Inspection Uncovered 14 Code Violations at Sudbury Coffee Hut
NEWS
By Kevin LaHaise
[Update: This story ran on Monday, August 25. On Thursday, August 28, the Town of Sudbury shared a post on Facebook announcing that the parties involved found a code-compliant solution for the business to continue selling egg sandwiches. Debby’s Drive Thru has not yet announced a re-opening date.]
The Sudbury Board of Health met on Monday August 25. Among the items discussed was Debby’s Drive Thru, a coffee hut located in the Sudbury Crossing plaza on Boston Post Road. The business has been the subject of social media uproar following claims by the owner, Debby Johnston, that she was closing the business because the Sudbury Health Department would not allow her to serve egg breakfast sandwiches using a preparation method she claimed to have used for 12 years.
On Saturday, the MetroWest Daily News ran a headline “Just flabbergasted’: Sudbury drive-thru closed by health department: What’s next.” That headline was inaccurate. The Town of Sudbury had already published a statement, two days prior to MetroWest Daily News story, making it clear the Health Department had not forced the business to close.
“Please note that the Health Department did not revoke the food permit for Debby’s Drive Thru. The business was not ordered to close nor to stop serving. Most of the past issues which had been identified were promptly addressed. The Health Department has been working closely with the business owner to address any outstanding issues. Town staff is committed to helping Debby’s Drive Thru find a solution that fits the unique setup of the kiosk while protecting the health of patrons.”
How We Got Here
Following a routine inspection that revealed 14 code violations in early August, Sudbury’s Health Director, Vivian Zeng, was working with Johnston to find alternative methods for making egg sandwiches that would comply with code. Johnston addressed most of the violations that were identified, but the egg sandwiches, according to Zeng, were more complicated due to the extreme limitations of the hut in which the business operates.
Sudbury Remembers September 11th Tragedy
EVENTS
By the Sudbury September 11th Memorial Garden Oversight Committee
The September 11th Memorial Garden Oversight Committee invites the community to attend the Town of Sudbury’s annual commemoration to honor Sudbury residents lost in the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks 24 years ago. A brief ceremony, which will include a Color Guard, bell tolling, and the laying of flowers at the Memorial Garden’s center stone, will take place on Thursday, September 11th, 8:40 a.m., at the September 11th Memorial Garden in Heritage Park.
Parting Thoughts
That’s a wrap for back-to-school week, and we’re already at the first long weekend of the school year! Thank goodness, because summer mode is stubbornly sticking around.
Mercifully, Sudbury’s boards and committees are easing back into their municipal business over the course of September. The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will meet next week to review a draft Community Preservation Plan. That’s the highlight on the municipal calendar, but keep in mind that the project application deadline for the next CPC cycle is September 21. That means committees and boards are now on the clock to apply if they want a chance at those Community Preservation Act funds. Details here.
Onward!