What a pleasant surprise. We were in Newport, stomachs growling for breakfast, and the lines were too long at a couple of our favorite places. But as soon as we walked past Norey’s quaintly homey flower boxes and stepped inside the restaurant, we knew we were not in grandma’s kitchen: an expansive wine rack stood on a wall behind a counter and stools, along with potted plants. The place looked promising.

We took one of two available tables, but in that weird clustering phenomenon that happens, a glance to the entrance a couple minutes later revealed a half-dozen people milling about. There was quite a din, though we could hear each other as well as conversations around us. A mirrored wall above the row of booths makes the narrow room appear wide and mobbed. When I glanced back across the table, Johnnie was in girl detective mode, staring at the flowers in the vase and declaring that they were garden-grown. Goosehead loosestrife, she pronounced, is not sold in flower shops.

This made me look the menu over for personal touches. There was nostalgia in the breakfast listing, with "Mom’s Hot Maypo" ($4.25) under the griddlecakes. They’re five bucks, but you get real maple syrup, a fact not bragged about on the menu, just presented on the tables, taken for granted. The Norey’s Wrap ($6.95) is nothing more than turkey and Swiss with sour cream, as well as lettuce and onions — the signature apparently is just a declaration that Norey really likes it made this way. For me, the eyebrow-raiser among the sandwiches was the Day-After-Thanksgiving ($7.25). Be gone, deli-roll turkey — you have been replaced by slices of actual roast turkey, joined by homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce.

The menus are edifying. Bars do good business with mozzarella sticks? OK, how about an appetizer of fried goat cheese ($6.50) with toasted panini? Even the wine list is telling. This is Newport, so there is Tattinger’s Brut for $63, but there also is a Mathilde pear champagne cocktail for $5.50. Most of the two-dozen or so wines, mainly from California, are available by the glass. There are after-dinner ports and 10 well-chosen bottled beers, including the should-be-everywhere John Courage.

The dinner offerings are limited, with 10 entrées, including a burger. But when Johnnie saw that they served grilled wild Alaskan salmon with orange-ginger butter sauce — and for only $16.50 — she sat slack-jawed until I noticed, too. She wanted to stick around until suppertime. (For months, my counterpart, having been ruined for life by Copper River salmon in the Northwest, has been conducting a one-person boycott of PCB-laden, farm-raised salmon.)

Oh, yes. We did get around to eating. Johnnie felt she could trust the eggs Benedict ($7.50), a preparation that has several ways to go wrong. She passed up the smoked salmon Benedict ($7.95), since her recent prejudice extends even to Nova Scotia lox. Since she also had them hold the Virginia ham, there were only two ways to satisfy: with perfectly cooked eggs on the English muffin and Hollandaise sauce with character. Norey’s got it right on both counts, the whites cooked, but the yolks runny, and an interesting Hollandaise, perked up with a touch of mustard.

The breakfast choices are mostly straightforward diner offerings that don’t go overboard on the boutiquey-cute, from granola ($4) and omelets to "Trucker Steak n’ Eggs" ($8.95). However, the breakfast sandwich ($6.95) is on a croissant instead of an English muffin, and you can also get a large, buttery croissant filled with melted brie and jam ($4.25). I had the "Meat Lover’s" omelet ($7.50) and was pleased. The red bliss home fries were cooked in garlicky oil and herbed. The omelet was packed with bits and cubes of bacon, ham, and sausage, plus cheddar, a cheese with enough punch to work its way through all that competition.

We topped things off with apple raisin-bread pudding ($4.50) — they do a variation every day. Johnnie was about to pour on some cream when she noticed that it had already been done for her — dribbled into the side, so the baked bread cubes on top wouldn’t get soggy. A definitive job — not too sweet, with good textural contrast.

Norey Cullen opened this place four years ago amid mad competition for the Newport breakfast, lunch, and dinner buck. Son Tyler, who used to cook at the Black Pearl, is now the head chef. By now, plenty of local regulars have noticed what she’s up to. It looks like Norey’s will be around for many years to come.