Out of the 24 people served before 7:00 am, two-thirds had regular coffee. This means that 2/3 * 24 = 16 people had regular coffee. One-eighth had decaf, which means that 1/8 * 24 = 3 people had decaf. The remaining customers ordered specialty coffee. To find out how many customers ordered specialty coffee, we can subtract the number of customers who had regular coffee and decaf from the total number of customers served:
24 − 16 − 3 = 5
Therefore, 5 customers ordered specialty coffee.