Home-Cookin' Done Right

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas - Norma's Café on Beltline Road in Farmers Branch serves up the ultimate Blue-plate experience that's batter-dipped, fried to perfection and smothered with a whole lotta love. This place isn't just another hole-in-the-wall roadside Texas diner. With food this side of moma's kitchen and personable wait staff, Norma's makes you feel right at home.

We first discovered Norma's one afternoon while looking for a comfort food place to cheer Janice up. Aside from the retro 50s theme and good eats, we were won over by the super-cheerful wait staff. You won't hear too many sentences that don't contain the words "sweetheart" or "hon" or both. Norma's became our staple eatery for curing the blues. They can take a frown and fry 'er sunny-side up.

Anything you grab of the "Today's Specials" chalkboard is bound to become a favorite. For first-timers, Norma's recommended the signature chicken fried steak: big hunks of chicken, lightly seasoned, fried crispy gold brown and ladled with thick gravy. Also try any number of tasty vegetable sides like the squash casserole or fried okra. Of course, this place does breakfast, available all-day, like nobody's friggin' business: Enjoy runny eggs smeared on crispy bacon and sandwiched in buttered white toast, or how about thick Maple syrup poured over a fluffy short stack. Uh, can I say: "Num?"

When asked what to serve folks with dying-wish or last meal requests, Norma's recommended their braised pork with beans, corn bread, a side of purple-hull beans. The pork is slow cooked all day and is super, melt-in-your-mouth tender. And for dessert: the peanut butter pie.

The dessert case alone is enough to knock you over, chocked full of homemade pies and cakes all made from scratch. I ordered a slice of the peanut butter pie and a hot cup of coffee that "Jamie" (the waitress serving me) put on fresh. I dabbled in it gingerly at first, thinking that peanut butter-anything might be a little too rich. It wasn't: Think of a Reese's peanut-butter-cup soufflé topped with ample whipped cream and peanut butter florets. Yeah, I ate it right up.

If you like 50s décor, you'll love the old fashioned soda bar stools, checkerboard tableau, and enjoyably tacky decorations like giant hanging bananas and pancakes. As it is with any older establishment, Norma's has a certain "lived-in" feel, with dust on the jukebox, fingerprints on the menu and boxes of office supplies shoved into a corner. But it's easy to forgive.

While the walls are decked with black-and-white stills of Hollywood icons — Marylin, James Dean, Rita, Bette — its only claim to fame is actual signed headshot of Chuck Norris, thanking them for use of the place. Hollywood descended on Norma's one day for a filming of "Walker, Texas Ranger" in the late 1990s. The wait staff points out the CBS "Filming-In-Progress" placard proudly displayed near the restrooms.

But part of Norma's charm is in it undiscovered quality, a roadside diner that's off-the-radar, known mostly to local residents, and exists as a welcome departure from more populated commercialized diners. You can have your Denny's, IHOP, Waffle House all your want. If ever I'm in Farmers Branch, it's Norma's for me, all the way.

Getting there
Norma's is located at 3330 Beltline Road, between Webb Chapel and Marsh Lane. From 35-E southbound: take the Beltline Road exit, turn left under the underpass and keep driving for 2.5 miles. Norma's will be on the right. From Dallas North Tollway: take the Beltline exit and turn left and keep driving for 3 miles. Norma's will be on the left.