Norms Restaurants

Norms Restaurants (stylized as NORMS) is a regional chain of diner-style restaurants in Southern California. Founded in 1949 by used-car salesman Norm Roybark, some restaurants are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. the company operates 23 locations in Greater Los Angeles, with plans to expand into Las Vegas, Nevada.

History


The first Norms opened on Sunset Boulevard near Vine Street in 1949. The oldest surviving Norms, declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument number 1090 in 2015, opened on La Cienega Boulevard in 1957, featuring a distinctive angular and brightly colored style that came to be known as Googie architecture. Key characteristics include angular walls, large glass windows, jutting roof, and a neon marquee. Many Norms restaurants, including the 1957 La Cienega Boulevard location, were designed by the architectural firm of Armét & Davis to look like automobile showrooms. Their appearance has made them the subject of exhibitions curated by the Getty Center.

In December 2014, the Roybark family sold the family-owned Bellflower-based chain, but not the land each of the restaurants had sat on, to an investment firm, CapitalSpring, for an undisclosed amount. "We cut across everything," Mike Colonna, the new president of Norms said in 2019. "We have the blue collar workers, white collar workers with ties getting a quick lunch, ethnic diversity at every table. We get late-night millennials, and our base of baby boomers. We're kind of retro cool and we think the Googie architecture is a big part of the brand." When the real estate under the La Cienega store was sold, Colonna reassured customers that the business would stay. "Norms has committed to the location long term," Colonna told Los Angeles magazine. "We have an agreement with the landlord and plan to be in business for quite some time."

The Norms restaurant on Pico in West Los Angeles was forced to close on Christmas Eve 2016 because the new landlords refused to renew the lease and had other unspecified plans for the real estate. County assessor records showed that the Roybark family had sold the land in April 2015 for $8.25 million.

In 2023, the company announced that it plans to open its first location outside of California, in Las Vegas, in mid-2024.

In popular culture

 * Referred to in the intro to Tom Waits' "Eggs and Sausage" off of Nighthawks at the Diner
 * The location of a popular hangout of the characters of the TNT show Men of a Certain Age
 * Depicted in the 1964 painting "Norms La Cienega on Fire" by Edward Ruscha
 * In the 2015 film Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren, the interior and exterior of a since-demolished Norms Restaurant on West Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles was used.
 * In the film 10 to Midnight, Detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) races past the location at 11001 West Pico Boulevard to save his daughter. Only the exterior is shown and even then only briefly.
 * Recurring location in Amazon's Bosch
 * On-site location for Carl Reiner/Mel Brooks episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
 * Featured in Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee episode with Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner "I want sandwiches, I want chicken"