She has only changed the menu four or five times in the 30 years she has owned it. The last upgrade she made was a new countertop four years ago — and she did that only because the old one had worn out. The stools and tables are the same ones that were there when she bought the business. The restaurant’s gray cinderblock exterior has not changed either.

Does the restaurant have a Web site? “No,” she says softly, with a bemused smile.

Yet the Morrisville Café, which celebrates its 30th anniversary today with simple cake and punch, must be doing something right. Whatever modern amenities the restaurant may lack, Naomie Jenkins and her one employee, Harold Heath — who says he does “a little of everything” and won’t be pinned down on a job title — have created a winning formula.

Jenkins has a loyal customer base that many restaurant owners would envy. Among them is Jimmy Davis, who works next door at J&D Custom Cycles. Davis, 67, has eaten there regularly since before Jenkins bought it in 1979. He eats there at least once a week.

“Naomie has made more breakfasts for me than any one of my wives,” said Davis.

Jimmy Winters, who also works at J&D, eats breakfast and lunch there every day.

“I like the old-style homecooking,” said Winters, 45. “I don’t like fast food.”

The food is definitely a part of it. Though the Morrisville Café serves the kind of food you can find in a lot of places — ham biscuits, barbecue lunch plates, burgers, slaw — they don’t necessarily prepare it the way everyone else does, especially fast-food restaurants.

“Nothing is precooked,” Heath said. “People walk in here and tell me, ‘Say, what do you have quick?’ And I say, ‘We don’t have nothing quick.’ If you don’t have five minutes to wait for a hamburger, you’ve got a problem.”

Added Jenkins: “If I don’t want to eat it at home, I won’t serve it here.”

And the prices are hard to beat. In 30 years, the price of a hot dog has risen only a dollar — from 50 cents to $1.50. A cup of coffee is $1.25, only 75 cents more than they charged in 1979.

But, by all accounts, the restaurant’s success goes well beyond the food. In some ways, its shortcomings may work to its advantage. Its nondescript exterior is unlikely to entice motorists traveling along Chapel Hill Road — which means customers are more likely to be regulars.

Its small size — the main dining room only holds about a dozen people comfortably — guarantees a cozy atmosphere.

Morrisville Café does not operate like a typical restaurant.

“When I’m busy, the regulars know they can come back here [behind the counter] and get another cup of coffee,” Jenkins said. “I guess they’re not supposed to do that, but they do.”

Regular customers tell Jenkins when they’re going away and won’t be in for awhile.

“You’d better let her know,” Heath said, “because if you don’t, she’ll be on the phone wanting to know where you are.”

Jenkins keeps a stack of business cards by the cash register so she can reach her regulars.

The regulars look after Jenkins and Heath, too. A couple of years ago, Heath had some health problems and ran into financial trouble. Someone put a jar on the lunch counter and customers stuffed it with about $900, recalled Morty Berkowitz, one of the regulars.

While the regulars tend to be people who grew up in and around Morrisville, Berkowitz illustrates that the restaurant’s appeal translates even to newcomers.

“When I first went in there 10 years ago, I got the ‘Here comes another Yankee,’ routine,” said Berkowitz, who moved down from New York. “Now, it’s like a family.” Jenkins and Heath said people will bring visitors to the café from all over. They’ve had customers from as far away as Russia and Australia.

“Most people come in here and say, ‘I love this place. It’s just like places I used to go when I was a kid,’” Jenkins said. She doesn’t plan to change a thing.

And, though 72 years old, she has no plans to retire.

“I like my customers,” she said. “What would I do if I retired? I’d go crazy.”

If the restaurant ever does close, her customers wouldn’t know what to do either.

Said Winters, the J&D Custom Cycles employee, “They just don’t have those old, home-style places like that anymore.”