One in a series on iconic New England eateries.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — It’s unlikely that Brian O’Rourke’s mother ever admonished him not to play with his food. Few people have more fun with breakfast (or brunch or lunch) than the head man in the expansive kitchen behind this rebuilt Mountain View diner from the 1940s. O’Rourke resists the title “chef,’’ but he truly enjoys reinventing breakfast every day.

Certain O’Rourke dishes have grown so popular that he can’t take them off the menu — for example, the banana bread French toast or the Dubliner omelet containing corned beef hash and Irish cheddar served with Irish bacon, fingerling potatoes, and Irish soda bread. But there’s always a long list of specials based on Brian’s whims and whatever is in season at local farms. Adventurous diners make an act of faith and order Brian’s Breakfast. It will always have an egg or two and something sweet but will otherwise come as a complete surprise, even to the serving staff. No two are ever alike.

O’Rourke started helping his uncle at the diner as a kid in the late 1950s and began working steadily at the grill as a high school student. In 1977, he and his cousin John Sweeney O’Rourke bought the diner when Uncle John retired. In the early 1980s, Brian broadened his culinary horizons in kitchens in New Orleans, Ireland, and the Caribbean. “To take the diner to the next level,’’ he says, he bought out his cousin in 1985 and has been experimenting and tweaking the menu ever since.

In the process, he has made O’Rourke’s Diner a Middletown institution — so beloved that when the diner had a fire (without fire insurance) in 2006, the community held fund-raisers to help rebuild. The city recently declared June 24 as Brian O’Rourke Day. Limited seating at counter stools and a few booths means that the line frequently extends out the door on weekends, but the servers (all dressed vaguely like leprechauns) do a masterful job of juggling the crowds.

On a Saturday morning we found ourselves overwhelmed by the multipage menu plus two additional pages of specials, so we ordered a Brian’s Breakfast for two. While we waited, the kitchen sent out the juice special (banana-mango-peach-plum), a slab of zucchini bread topped with caramel sauce, and a dab of crème brûlée, and a scoop of blueberry clafouti with fresh blueberries. This clearly wasn’t going to be a scrambled-egg-with-toast morning.

O’Rourke haunts flea markets and tag sales to find the elaborate platters reserved for serving a Brian’s Breakfast, a meal he prepares personally in the kitchen where Irish music plays. Our breakfast was a wonder to behold. An oversized margarita glass held a double serving of Clams O’Rourke. From the top down, it contained scrambled eggs and ham, chopped braised kale, whole steamed clams on a clamshell, and a pool of spicy gumbo on the bottom. On the side was potato lasagna, zucchini bread French toast with crème brûlée, and big rounds of baked zucchini stuffed with pulled pork and a poached egg on top. That’s not counting the sundry slices of fresh fruit and vegetables mixed with some of O’Rourke’s homemade hard sausage.

O’Rourke pops out of the kitchen to see how his food is being received. Most people can’t talk because their mouths are full. “Every day I want to kick it up a notch,’’ O’Rourke says. “I’m still learning. Good lord willing, I’m going to do this for another 20 years.’’

O’ROURKE’S DINER 28 Main St., Middletown, Conn. 860-346-6101, www.orourkesmiddletown.com. Open daily 6 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (until 1:30 p.m. holidays, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas). Breakfast and sandwiches $2.49-$18.

Patricia Harris and David Lyoncan be reached at harrislyon@gmail.com.