‘‘I’ve been here a long time,” Dorsey said while waiting for his meal order, his hand wrapped around a mug of coffee. One of the reasons he kept coming back over the years is its location. ‘‘It’s the convenience of it all; right here in town.”
He said he has been eating at Olde Town since the 1950s and can remember when Mount Airy Elementary School was a high school and the restaurant, then under a different name, was a popular place for students to hang out after school.
‘‘All the cheerleaders used to be here,” he said.
‘‘We like Dan and everything,” he said, before joking with the owner that they needed a bell to ring when the orders were ready.
Dorsey was such a regular at the counter that he even noticed that the height of the footrest was slightly shorter than it used to be.
‘‘They think my foot was going to grow,” he said with a laugh as he swung his legs just above the foot ledge.
Latta said he has been going to the restaurant for about 11 years, adding the eggs and toast he ate Tuesday tasted the way he remembered. ‘‘Yeah, I guess about the same,” he said.
The inside of the restaurant was a different story. ‘‘It’s 15 times better than what it was,” he said.
Since the fire, Latta said he spent most Wednesday mornings at a place in Woodsboro; other days, he cooked for himself.
‘‘My cooking is a whole lot different,” he said, getting his jacket and heading for the door. ‘‘Now I’m going to go get a walk in.”
Dorsey and Latta weren’t alone in the restaurant.
When Richard Mullinix walked into the restaurant at 7:13 Tuesday morning, arms outstretched, he exclaimed ‘‘Thank God you’re open,” before settling on one of the long wooden benches fashioned by local craftsman Greg Waite who owns Heirloom Woodworks.
Mullinix, who was having breakfast with his father, Russell, said he had eaten at Olde Town on a number of occasions prior to the fire.
‘‘When I came back and I heard Olde Town was gone, I was upset,” Mullinix said. ‘‘Where am I going to eat breakfast now?”
He said he’s found it easy to get back in his Olde Town groove.
‘‘Last time I was here, I think I had the omelet and that’s what I had today,” he said.
A few minutes later, head waitress Jenny Ross handed Mullinix his bill and informed him that he was the first official credit card payment for the restaurant.
‘‘It went great,” Ross said of her first day back, after her shift ended later that afternoon. ‘‘It was really neat seeing the old regulars.”
She found other employment, including exercising horses at Pimlico Racetrack, while waiting for Olde Town to reopen.
New staff joined some of the regulars, Dan Caiola said.
Conversation flowed easily throughout the day, in between bites of pancakes and sips of soda, and customers shared stories and photos of grandchildren.
Judi Robinson, whose interior design business Homescapes was also displaced, helped with the interior, the Caiolas said.
The dining room’s soft yellow walls with black trim and plaid window hangings give the room a cozy feel, and Staci Caiola said that with the new tables and furniture arrangement, they can actually seat one more person than before.
‘‘We still wanted it to feel like a home,” Staci Caiola said.
Not everything in the restaurant is brand new.
Most of the decorations on display were from the restaurant’s days before the fire, including a sign that once hung above the door leading to the street, which boasts: ‘‘There’s no place like home but Olde Town.”
