The Three geNeraTiONs

Charles Carlisle usually eats breakfast at Norma’s Café on weekday mornings, but not on weekends.

“It’s too crowded on weekends,” the 86-year-old says. His son, Doug Carlisle, meets him at the restaurant a couple of mornings each week. This has been their tradition for almost five years.

Norma’s Café

1123 W. Davis

214.946.4711 normascafe.com

“It’s been about that long since my mother died,” Doug says. “He used to eat there off and on with her, but now he’s there more often — pretty much five days a week. And I was able to start taking time and meeting him there.”

Charles traveled when Doug was younger, so because of Norma’s, “I’ve probably spent more time with him over the last five years than I did the first 16,” Doug says. “That makes a difference if you do it on the back end.”

Doug, a Kimball ’66 graduate, grew up in Oak Cliff, but “I didn’t go to Norma’s until I worked at Goff’s Hamburgers in Wynnewood when I was 15,” he says. Still, even though the restaurant isn’t nostalgic for him personally, “when you’ve grown up in that area all your life, it’s always good to go back and do something,” he says. “I think as much as anything, what gets people to go is the atmosphere and the history going back to the ’50s.”

They are sometimes joined by Charles’ grandson

Byron, who is Doug’s nephew. He works overnight shifts at Zale Lipshy hospital, so he heads to Norma’s after work.

The table discussion usually revolves around “what we’re planning to do that day, or what happened the night before, or what’s going on with the Rangers or the Cowboys or the government or North Korea or whatever,” Doug says.

Their waitress may be “Pam or Sherry or Pat or Lovie or any of them” because they don’t have a regular table, Doug says. “You can’t really do that there” because it’s too busy, he says.

But as often as they dine at Norma’s, the Carlisle men know pretty much all of the staff, and vice versa. The waitresses know “Mr. Charles,” as they call him, especially well.

Charles says that since he’s retired, “I don’t have to do anything, but I have to do this — I wake up every morning starving.” And Norma’s hits the spot.

His son is happy to be along for the ride.

“At his age, every day is good,” Doug says, “so the fact that I can catch some time with him, that’s important.”

Order like a regular Charles Carlisle orders the No. 2 — two eggs over easy, bacon and tomatoes instead of potatoes, since he can’t eat potatoes. Doug orders similarly, usually some version of bacon, eggs and toast. “Their whole breakfast menu is really pretty good, so you can’t go wrong,” he says.

Celebrate Norma’s anniversary for $1.79

Norma’s Café celebrates its 57th anniversary on Tuesday, June 25, with throwback prices for three of its all-time most popular dishes — chicken-fried steak, meatloaf and chicken and dressing. Each dish will be served with green beans and mashed potatoes and can be ordered for $1.79 beginning at 10:30 a.m. (dine-in patrons only, one per person).

This anniversary special is such a hit that Norma’s stocks well above its usual amounts of food for the occasion. Here are last year’s anniversary sales by dish:

Chicken-fried steak: 2,071

Chicken and dressing: 593

Meatloaf: 473