My companion and i first ate breakfast at the Cove Inn

Coffee Shoppe in Naples 20 years ago, and we had to wait in line to get in.

Some things don’t change. On a recent weekday morning, we again had to wait in

line to get in. And once again, the breakfast was worth the wait.

The Cove Inn is on the water’s edge on Eighth Street South

in Naples, and the coffee shoppe is little more than a hole-in-the-wall. The

tables are crowded together, and the smell of frying bacon and buttered toast

fills the air. The genial staff bustles about competently amid the

conversational buzz. After you’ve given your name to the cashier, you head off

to the inn’s lobby, from which you’ll be summoned when seating becomes

available. It’s first-come, first-served, although the owners say that longtime

customers with physical ailments get priority.

After a 10-minute wait, we were seated at a small corner

table. The clear-plastic, nautical-themed menu doesn’t miss much in the way of

breakfast fare, from steak served with eggs, toast and jelly ($7.70) to creamed

chip beef on toast ($4.20)—although, having gone to a military prep school and

later served in the U.S. Army, I will never vouch for the merits of the latter.

There were also a pork chop served with two eggs, toast and jelly ($6.45), and

corned beef hash served with one egg, toast and jelly for $5.20 (add a second

egg for 50 cents).

One menu feature that stands out is Muenster cheese, a

usually bland offering that goes well with, say, pumpernickel bread. The cooks

have taken the idea of blending Muenster cheese with eggs to impressive

heights.

For example, I ordered a dish called Galley’s Greatest: two

sunny-side eggs atop Muenster cheese and served with sliced tomato, English

muffins and jelly, priced at $4.95. The perfectly cooked eggs combinedstyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> tastily with their supporting slice of

cheese. Muenster cheese is also featured in a variety of two-egg omelets—by

itself, with sausage, bacon or diced ham, and in a dish billed as Rayjan Cajun,

which, the menu assures us, features an “outstanding Creole sauce.”

There are pancakes, of course, priced from $3.45 unadorned

up to $5.70 depending on what complements you‘ order. French toast is $3.45,

with bacon, ham or sausage extra. An order of hash brown potatoes is $1.60; a

sliced tomato comes on the side for an extra $1.10.

You can eat light as well, and cheaply, with items such as dry cereal, an English muffin,

oatmeal and a half-grapefruit for under $2. The menu comes with the appropriate

juices, coffee and tea.

Should eating a good breakfast (meaning delicious as opposed

to just generous in portions) be essential to fuel up for the day ahead, you’d

be hard-pressed to do better than the Cove Inn Coffee Shoppe. The cooking is

superb; the service is prompt, and there’s an amiability that sends you out the

door feeling that you’ve just spent a half-hour among friends.

Cove Inn Coffee Shoppe

Address: 900 S. Broad Ave., Naples

Phone: 262-7161 ext. 5

Hours: Open seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

Reservations: Not taken. It’s a first-come, first-served

basis.