ANTHONY WATKINS – Review, Coffee Cup, Pensacola, FL, USA

Its Sunday morning, 10 am. There is a tall lanky guy in his 40s is wiping down tables, bussing dirty dishes to the kitchen, and the funniest thing, he has a running dialog with the tables full of regulars.

We order my favorite breakfast, sausage gravy over biscuits and hash browns. I have never eaten at the Coffee Cup, but when we woke up in our Wyndham hotel property, I told my wife, the downstairs free breakfast would be pretty good, but as we were only in Pensacola for one more morning, I wanted to try the Coffee Cup.

The thing about Pensacola, unlike so many towns, even towns along the gulf coast, has no shortage of good places to eat, and a handful I would stack up as world class. From maybe the world’s best hamburger at the Blue Dot, to Jerry’s joint out east of the Coffee Cup on Cervantes, and at least a half dozen seafood places better than wherever you are likely used to getting your seafood, If you don’t want seafood and you want to get upscale from Jerry’s and the Blue Dot, there is always McGuire’s, that started out as an Irish bar in a strip mall about 50 years ago, but has turned into a serious restaurant. Then there are several places out on the beach that rank high on almost any travel guide for best beach restaurants in America. I’m sure you can get a bad meal in Pensacola, maybe even from a mom and pop place like the Coffee Cup, but the point is they have to be good because each restaurant is nearly within walking distance of a great place to eat.

I lived in Pensacola in the early to mid-1980s. I didn’t have go out to eat breakfast money back then, but I liked to the looks of the Coffee Cup (it still looks very much the same). The thing is, I remember it catching on fire. Turns out it was closed less than a week. It was arson, depending on who you ask, it was a robbery gone wrong, or maybe something a little more sinister, but the point is, it has mostly always been open since 1945.

Jon Coffey is the owner/Sunday morning bus boy. When you talk to him, it feels like he grew up in the place. He didn’t. He’s an Iowa boy who moved to Pensacola a few decades ago and worked from busboy (for real), to general manger at a few of the restaurants owned by the last owner of the Coffee Cup. After managing the Cup for a couple years, he bought it. Its clear from watching the crowds, many of them regulars, the Cup is a gold mine, but its equally clear that Jon loves the place, in fact, he has worked hard to maintain the feel of 1945, even the barstools are original.

The food is amazing, literally the best hash browns I have ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of hash browns in a lot of places all over the USA. The biscuits and gravy were also top shelf. If you are ever in Pensacola at breakfast time, and you don’t go to the Coffee Cup for breakfast, you have just cheated yourself out of not only a great meal, but a wonderful experience.

I don’t know all the secrets to why the place is so wonderful, but I am pretty sure that when the owner busses tables on a Sunday morning, the rest of the staff would follow him through fire to deliver you a great meal. We spent about $30, coffee, a large Diet Coke, two plates full of biscuits and hash browns, and a generous but well-earned tip. When you can pay nearly $20 to feed two people with a drive thru breakfast at McDonalds, for what we got, for what we paid, was an absolute bargain. We will be back, but if we never make it back to Pensacola, we will have a dining experience to remember forever!

Coffee Cup

Ample breakfasts & Southern comfort food are featured at this veteran diner with an old-school vibe.

Service options: Doesn’t accept reservations · Has kids’ menu

Address: 520 E Cervantes St, Pensacola, FL 32501

Hours: 

Phone: (850) 432-7060