Every successful business in a small rural town in America is a triumph and small miracle.

Jeanie and Todd run the Country Gals Diner, a/k/a the Cambridge Diner, and any aspiring small business owner could learn from them: be present, be nice, work day and night, stand over hot stovers for hours, get up and 4 a.m., work many nights. Yes, and make good, inexpensive food.

Small towns like ours are not full of rich people who patronize fancy restaurants that charge obscene amounts of money for taking other people’s money. They tend to love the food their parents love, come to the diner their parents came to, and bring their grandchildren.

The walls have local photos, banners, homemade art, and school awards.

Todd and Jeanie’s diner is a go-to place in our town for breakfast and lunch; the street in front of the restaurant is full of cars the second the diner opens.

On Tuesdays, when the diner is closed, the street is empty. Country Girls’ runaway success can teach us a lot. The new-from-the-city people come there, as do the locals, whose families have come to the diner for decades, even before Jeanie and Todd arrived.

They value the old traditions, but yes, they even serve veggie burgers. It helps to be loved by your community.

“Todd And Jeanine are the best of the best, the heart and soul of the community they love, which loves them back!,” messaged Ruth, a reader of my blog.

Our Sundays are marked with a visit to our local diner.

As I got to know Jeanie and Todd, I was charmed by their warm personalities and impressed by the very good food and affordable prices, a sentiment shared by many locals. Jean and Todd know who they are, who they serve, and what their customers want. It sounds strange, but it’s also a rarity.

I wrote this because these two belong in my Portrait Journal, but also because for the third year in a row, they have won the Best Breakfast Of Washington County Contest poll. Good for them, fresh and tasty food, very nice people who greet everyone who enters, prices that don’t sting.

Indeed, there isn’t much competition, but they don’t seem to take anything for granted. They couldn’t possibly work harder or be more popular.

They’ve got the formula and customers down. There are not a lot of small business successes in our town, this one is a big  hit. There are lots of lessons in that.

The diner won’t make the Gramercy Tavern in New York City tremble, but this is our beloved, fancy, and very popular restaurant in Cambridge, N.Y.,  all rolled into one.

If we can’t get there by 10 o’clock on most days for breakfast, we could bring a book while waiting for a seat.

Jeanie knew my name well before I knew hers. That’s what it’s like in there.

Congratulations on your best breakfast award, Jeanie and Todd. You have worked hard for it.