In La Cienega stands one of Los Angeles’s most recognizable buildings. With pennant-shaped marquees, a sloping roof, and a long glass window, Norm’s Restaurant is as much an LA diner staple as it is a piece of timeless Googie art. At 75 years old, the restaurant chain is expanding beyond Southern California for the first time to Las Vegas.
The diner, which first opened in 1949 with its distinctive Atomic Age style and plates loaded with pancakes and bacon, will open at 4605 West Charleston Boulevard, near Decatur, before summer 2024, according to its website. It will remake its existing building, a now-closed Applebee’s location.
Its menu features traditional diner classics, with three-egg omelets, steak and eggs, stacks of hotcakes topped with blueberries, whipped cream, or syrup, breakfast burritos, and salads, burgers, and sandwiches.
The company’s CEO Eric Wyatt told FSR Magazine that he plans for the Vegas location to be open 24 hours, and serve beer and wine and possibly liquor. It may also have a counter with video gaming or slot machines. “We’re just really looking to put Norms Restaurants on steroids out there, in a positive way,” he told FSR. He also said the Las Vegas Norms will take on an amplified version of the brand’s Googie architecture, with new lighting and even bolder color palettes.
When Norms opened near the famed Hollywood corner of Sunset and Vine in 1949, it was one of the first 24-hour restaurants in Southern California. It now operates 22 locations — the iconic one in La Cienega remains its longest-operating restaurant, open since 1957. Like other recent California transplants to Vegas — like Randy’s Donuts — Norms may be familiar to those outside of LA due to its pop culture presence. It has appeared in and been mentioned in shows like Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, American Horror Story, and Drag Me to Hell.