When you combine the energy and enthusiasm of youth with the wisdom and experience that typically comes much later, amazing — and delicious — things can result.

Such is the case at Broad Street Kitchen and Coffee, a new joint on Route 1 in Pawcatuck with a father and son team — Thomas and Tommy Messina — in the kitchen.

The elder Messina has been feeding locals for decades, most memorably for me at the former Whistle Stop Café, not the one from "Fried Green Tomatoes" but the one that was hard on the railroad tracks on Palmer Street in Pawcatuck. This now sorely-missed breakfast and lunch spot served traditional fare at prices that made it possible — even propitious — to eat there as often as your sense of propriety would allow.

I remember little Tommy, bussing tables and checking the clipboard to summon whoever was next on the list when a table opened up.

Well, time marches on. Now both Messinas are in chef coats in the kitchen, delivering a breakfast and lunch menu punctuated with homemade everything — sausage and roasted meats, breads and bakery items, ketchup and even mayonnaise.

On a recent Friday morning, the shop was bustling with more activity than the number of customers in the shop would seem to demand. Clearly, catering is also happening out of this small but efficiently laid out and well stocked open kitchen.

The small menu of breakfast and lunch options — eight each — is posted outside and colorfully written inside on blackboards. Four stools line a counter in the front window with another four at a counter that runs along the right wall. An array of bakery items — apple turnovers, muffins, banana bread, cookies — and a counter of coffee options frame the space. There is room to move around or to wait to order even if the seats were full, but space is at a premium.

From the breakfast menu, we selected sausage gravy over a buttermilk biscuit, $4.95, and a New York State sharp cheddar omelet with housemade breakfast sausage on a kaiser roll, $5.25.

We helped ourselves to coffee and headed outside, to one of two lime green, iron two-tops on the narrow, shady, cement porch that separates the storefronts from the parking lot. On this lovely summer morning, we sipped our coffee and watched the world drive by. It was delightful.

In no time, our order arrived. If it's true that we feast first with our eyes, then this would be a satisfying meal. The sausage gravy was served in a handsome, brown take-out box, with a paper napkin and sturdy plate below. The flaps were folded back to reveal brown knobs of sausage swimming in a pool of white, pepper-specked gravy. And after that kind of introduction, it did not disappoint. A thick, tender biscuit, nearly the same dimension as the box, waited below and yielded gracefully to my plastic spoon. The gravy was thick and creamy, with just the right amount of salt and sage. The sausage was plentiful and tender.

When it became apparent that I wouldn't be relinquishing my spoon anytime soon, my dining companion darted inside to get his own. "I was jealous the minute he set it down," he mumbled between purloined bites. It's a good thing he helped because I never could have finished the whole thing. What a scrumptious bargain.

In between sausage and gravy mouthfuls, we bit into the cheddar omelet sandwich to find that same sausage surrounded by aged cheese, fluffy eggs, and a pillow-soft yet sturdy homemade roll. Nothing to complain about here.

On our next visit, we homed in on lunch, choosing a grilled cheese with ham, gruyere and housemade pickles on sweet bread, $7.95, and a cold meatloaf sandwich with onion jam and housemade ketchup, also $7.95. We couldn't leave without a selection of pastry that included an apple turnover and a slice of brown-speckled banana bread.

The thick slices of bone-in ham and the rich and nutty gruyere played well with those sweet pickles — thickly sliced, crinkle cut. The bread was not sliced thick but was very large, which made for a generous sandwich.

The meatloaf was dense and flavorful. The two slabs, with onion jam above and ketchup below, between slices of "our daily loaf" happily filled us up. The pastries would have to wait for breakfast the next day. Indeed, they were a great way to wake up. The apple turnover's flaky exterior surrounded a filling of tender, apple slices tinged with cinnamon, and the banana bread was moist and nutty.

At Broad Street Kitchen and Coffee, the food is simply delicious, but the atmosphere may be just as satisfying. It's like a master class in contemporary restaurant operations where young professionals hone their skills by paying attention, working hard and producing creative, earnest fare that the rest of us get to enjoy.

j.blanchette@theday.com

Twitter: @2Petunia

Broad Street Kitchen and Coffee

210 S. Broad St., Pawcatuck

(860) 535-0444; www.bskcstonington.com

Cuisine: Breakfast and lunch sandwiches

Atmosphere: Coffee shop, sandwich counter deluxe

Service: Joyful and bustling

Prices: Breakfast, $4.95-$7.50; lunch, $6.95-$8.50

Hours: Monday through Saturday, 6:30 am. to 3 p.m.

Credit Cards: Yes

Reservations: No

Handicapped access: Several steps to enter, tight space and stool seating only inside.