Investigating The Graveyard Shift At Norms Restaraunt

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:01]Welcome to Graveyard Shift, the show where I review 24-hour restaurants after midnight. Allah during the Graveyard Shift. I'm here at the Gloria Norms restaurant. Open 24 hours, baby. It is currently 12:17 a.m. in the middle of the night. And I'm here to sample the food, to talk to the people, to get a little hint, to get a little whiff of what goes on here in the middle of the night. Norms is a regional chain, which means there's some of these, but there's not so many of these.

[00:00:29]I'm here for one reason and one reason only. To find out what makes the graveyard shift tick.

[00:00:37]Without further ado, let's clock in, baby.

[00:00:46]Man, it's good to be back in the seat, to be back in the saddle and another diner, no less. The magic of a diner is not lost on me. There's something about this that just feels inherently so time travely. The more I do this show also, I feel like I'm getting worse at being up late, not better.

[00:01:03]>> You I agree.

[00:01:05]>> It's collabor time. Where life happens, the late night menu, 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Special menu alert. Nick, thanks so much for being a server. Um, would you consider yourself a night owl even before this or did this turn you into that?

[00:01:18]>> Yeah, I've been a night owl my whole life. I've always worked kind of the night scene in restaurants and bars.

[00:01:22]>> To me, the night signifies like a very uh kind of a magical time. Like I think there's like a certain magic in getting eggs at a diner at 3 in the morning.

[00:01:31]>> It's definitely unique and a unique crowd at that. I love it though cuz you get you get all sorts of customers.

[00:01:37]People traveling, people on break from work, people after the bars.

[00:01:42]>> Sure.

[00:01:42]>> That's the interesting crowd. It's not as busy, so you kind of can go one-on-one with your customers a little bit better. And you get a normal crowd that comes in here. So I have a lot of regulars at night and it makes the night really easy. I love it.

[00:01:53]>> Outside of uh norms, uh what are you passionate about? What is sort of like your, you know, >> I'm a big animal lover. I have a little dog right now. I just got her a year ago when I moved here to LA.

[00:02:03]>> Oh, wow. Nice.

[00:02:04]>> And she's my everything. I have my partner, too. We do everything together.

[00:02:08]>> I love that the dog was mentioned first.

[00:02:09]>> Oh, yeah. I'm going to get in trouble for that one probably.

[00:02:13]>> We're going to start with coffee.

[00:02:15]>> Okay.

[00:02:15]>> Um would be wonderful. And then I think I got to start with the lumberjack rice.

[00:02:18]>> Lumberjack it is. And I got to ask you, how do you want your eggs?

[00:02:21]>> Ooh. How would you take them?

[00:02:22]>> Over easy.

[00:02:23]>> Then that's how I want.

[00:02:23]>> Okay.

[00:02:24]Normally the coffee is like an accucha.

[00:02:27]It smells like coffee. It tastes like sort of coffee but watery. This I would say tastes like coffee shop coffee.

[00:02:33]>> I will say the last time I did have this coffee it felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. It's >> my eye did start twitching um earlier today cuz I've sort of overcaffeinated.

[00:02:43]There's nothing that comforts me more than the feeling of hot porcelain on my skin. And that's not a kink thing.

[00:02:51]>> All right, lumberjack time.

[00:02:52]>> Awesome. Jasmine and George, what brings you here tonight to Norms?

[00:02:57]>> We clearly work at a restaurant.

[00:02:59]>> Sure. You're here off shift.

[00:03:00]>> Yeah, there's not that many things open right now.

[00:03:03]>> Would you guys consider yourselves night people or night owls?

[00:03:06]>> Absolutely.

[00:03:06]>> Yeah.

[00:03:07]>> Yeah.

[00:03:07]>> What time do you normally go to bed?

[00:03:09]>> Lately, I've been going to bed a little later cuz I don't know, certain certain life events have been leading to later evenings.

[00:03:16]>> What does that mean?

[00:03:19]>> It's a little vague.

[00:03:19]>> Are you a spy?

[00:03:21]I guess like there's just been more like friends around like wanting to hang out.

[00:03:27]So then there's been a lot of like 5:00 a.m.

[00:03:30]>> 5 a.m. going to bed at 5:00 a.m.

[00:03:32]>> Sunrise. Yeah.

[00:03:33]>> Sunrise. Watching the sunrise.

[00:03:35]>> Not a lot of people are up during that time. It's a much closer time with those around you as well.

[00:03:41]>> I don't want to start necessarily with the pancakes, but I feel like they're right in front of me, so I just got it.

[00:03:45]>> Oh, your butter fell.

[00:03:46]>> Oh, my butter fell. Don't worry, I'll bring the butter back.

[00:03:50]I'm bringing butter back.

[00:03:53]>> Yeah. You know what I like this too?

[00:03:54]They gave me a real weapon. A real knife with wood on it. That's how you know this place is classy. A wooden knife.

[00:04:01]Ceremonial almost. You know what's funny about pancakes is they're just [ __ ] cake. And you can really cut it like a slice of cake if you just kind of believe in yourself.

[00:04:13]>> Happy birthday to me.

[00:04:25]The butter feels like grandma's butter.

[00:04:27]Grandma's >> turn up back there. Put me in between two pancakes and call me in the morning.

[00:04:36]>> Sorry, I fell asleep really quick.

[00:04:38]>> You need more butter?

[00:04:39]>> No, no, no. Honestly, I I don't I shouldn't have more butter. I ate all of it all at once.

[00:04:45]>> George, how long have you been working at Orange? Uh for about four years.

[00:04:48]>> Do you normally work the night?

[00:04:50]>> Yes.

[00:04:50]>> Okay. Nice. And how do you feel about the nights?

[00:04:52]>> I love the night. All the customers are actually great at night.

[00:04:55]>> What time do you get off?

[00:04:56]>> Um about 3.

[00:04:58]>> About 3. Okay.

[00:04:59]>> And sometimes very hard for me to go to sleep. You're kind of wired.

[00:05:02]>> Yeah. I'm still up and it takes about a couple hours to wind down.

[00:05:05]>> Yeah.

[00:05:05]>> And then I'll go to sleep until maybe I wake up like late in the afternoon.

[00:05:09]>> Outside of uh norms, uh what are you passionate about?

[00:05:12]>> Good question. I've been discovering that myself lately. I like crocheting.

[00:05:16]Crochet. Yeah.

[00:05:17]>> Yeah. It's very very hard.

[00:05:20]It requires a lot of technique and it's it's I'm learning how to do that now.

[00:05:26]>> Sausage is actually maybe my favorite food.

[00:05:29]>> Hey, Sue me. I love a sausage.

[00:05:33]>> They're thin little guys. They're like, "Hey, I'm sneaking up on you. I'm just as flavorful as the big one, but I'm sneaking right up on you."

[00:05:42]>> Yam.

[00:05:43]>> Yoki. Oh, look at that. That's That's glorious. I mean, that's beautiful.

[00:05:47]>> That's gorgeous.

[00:05:48]>> It really is.

[00:05:52]Uh-huh. It's like I've never had eggs before. My favorite thing about being a diner, when I'm at home, I'm not really doing this. I'm in a diner. There's something about a little bit of hot sauce, a little bit of ketchup.

[00:06:06]It makes me feel like I'm free to use condiments. Break me off a piece of that gripsy bacon.

[00:06:16]Bacon was so popular on the internet because it actually is good.

[00:06:19]>> It is epic.

[00:06:20]>> It is with a heavy heart that I ever report that the bacon is # epic bacon.

[00:06:25]>> And god forbid, do you ever dip the bacon in the yolk?

[00:06:28]>> Don't tell me with a good time.

[00:06:32]>> Hello.

[00:06:33]>> Hello.

[00:06:34]>> I love how vibrant the yolk is, by the way. It's really beautiful.

[00:06:37]>> We're just doing some writing and brainstorming. Okay, nice.

[00:06:40]>> Um, I'm a filmmaker and I'm writing a script and he's an actor. I'm picking his brain.

[00:06:46]>> And what is your order gear at Norman when you come after me?

[00:06:49]>> Onion rings, water, and deep.

[00:06:51]>> We do frequent diners.

[00:06:53]>> Diners are great.

[00:06:54]>> Would you consider yourselves night people? Do you have >> Yeah, I think so.

[00:06:57]>> What time do you typically go to bed and what time do you typically wake up?

[00:07:00]>> I'm embarrassed to say.

[00:07:01]>> Don't be embarrassed. You're in good company.

[00:07:03]>> You sent me an Instagram.

[00:07:05]>> This is the habanero jalapeno bacon cheeseburger. Look at this thing.

[00:07:10]>> Wave the flag. I love a little meal with a flag on it. You know what? Because this meal was so good, we got to serve this at half mast.

[00:07:20]>> I've never seen a whole pino on that.

[00:07:22]>> You think I'm supposed to put the pino in my mouth? I mean, >> I can smell that spice.

[00:07:37]>> Oh, that's spicy. I mean, I understand I'm covered in sauce, right?

[00:07:41]>> Yeah. Just a bit.

[00:07:42]>> The spice just adds this little edge of, you know what? It's late at night, but the fire is still burning in our hearts.

[00:07:50]Wo!

[00:07:54]I wonder how many um cast parties for musical theater in Beverly Hills have come here. The West Hollywood High cast party coming through.

[00:08:03]>> Oh, wow.

[00:08:04]>> And doing their production of Cats here.

[00:08:06]You know that this burger has been eaten by someone who can build the high sea.

[00:08:12]>> Are you working out your script right now? Like do you often do that type of work at night?

[00:08:17]>> Like yeah, it hits me at night. The inspiration.

[00:08:19]>> And what about you?

[00:08:20]>> I do feel like there's lots of sprits of sprits of creativity that happen after certain I feel like there's so much stimulation that happens especially in a city like this. Oh, completely during the day, you know, on the day that coming to a diner where there's not that many people, >> you get to really just like focus on what you're working on.

[00:08:38]>> Surfs up.

[00:08:40]>> I really do love a tuna melt. There's something about it that makes me want to call my papy.

[00:08:47]>> Did he like tuna melts?

[00:08:49]>> Not particularly.

[00:08:51]>> When you think of tuna, where do you go?

[00:08:52]>> I'm at the beach. I'm smothered in sunscreen.

[00:08:57]And Tuda comes up to me and she says, "Hey, I'm ready to melt." And I eat it and I fall asleep. I get so sunburned I can't breathe anymore.

[00:09:11]Favorite thing I've had all day.

[00:09:12]>> Really?

[00:09:13]>> Yes. And I don't say that lightly. I live by a code of food reviewers that is very specific down to a tea. My my logic about everything makes a ton of sense.

[00:09:25]But there's celery in there. I mean, like, this is a sandwich that I think if the world was ending, I would order. If the moon was about to crash into the earth and we were all about to be done with that, I'd say one tuna melon and make it snappy.

[00:09:38]>> I will say the flag does give moon landing.

[00:09:41]>> This is one small victory for for tuna.

[00:09:48]>> What is something you want to do before you die and that you might be like nervous or or hesitant to try?

[00:09:54]>> Las Vegas. to have the sky jump.

[00:09:56]>> Oh yeah, >> I did that.

[00:09:59]>> So you accomplished that?

[00:10:00]>> I did. Yeah, it that was great. I was so great. I really wanted to do is um uh skydiving.

[00:10:05]>> Oh yeah, skydive.

[00:10:06]>> That's one of my bucket list.

[00:10:07]>> I'm terrified of sky. Why? I feel like >> I am too, but I I just need to do it. I want to do it. I also do want to do um um bungee jumping.

[00:10:16]>> Bungee a lot of jumping.

[00:10:17]>> Yeah, >> I kind of dabble a bit in music. So I guess eventually release a proper album >> and just feel okay with myself in that.

[00:10:29]>> I guess like everything that I want to do as a writer and as an actor like >> that I actually do it but I don't know exactly what that is. Um >> yeah, you're still finding like the exact uh routing for where that >> it's like different every day, you know, like do you have something that you'd want something you want to do before I die?

[00:10:50]>> Yeah. To be totally honest, I making this show and like making things for an audience has was the thing that I wanted for so long and now I'm able to start doing that and it feels really good. And I feel like I've had the luxury of uh moving the goalpost a little bit. And I think that maybe what that looks like for me is making things that uh get varying degrees of respect from bigger and bigger groups of people. Right now I make I make series for YouTube and eventually maybe that looks like a documentary that makes and maybe that looks like I write a book or whatever.

[00:11:24]>> And I think that just channeling that same energy that I've really enjoyed into different mediums probably is the goal.

[00:11:30]>> I guess like [ __ ] getting married and falling in love.

[00:11:33]>> Yeah, sure.

[00:11:34]>> That's crazy. I was I was lowkey going to say the same thing.

[00:11:38]>> It's what the script is about or like people the fear of falling.

[00:11:42]>> Do you have a fear of falling in love?

[00:11:44]Um, that's a deep question.

[00:11:46]>> Sorry, >> I don't. No, no, no. I I would say no.

[00:11:50]Yeah.

[00:11:50]>> But I think >> in many of us intrinsically there's always a fear of what's good.

[00:11:56]>> Have you been in love before?

[00:11:57]>> Yes. Many times.

[00:11:58]>> See, there you go.

[00:11:59]>> I love I love falling in love, but I think uh I think anything that's worth the risk is always scary. And it's scary. So you have >> it's so vulnerable to like uh put that much gas in the tank with somebody. It's like when you fall in love, I think there's it opens you up to so much devastation and hurt, but then there's such an upside, too. I always think about it as it's almost the same as like doing mushrooms where it's like your emotions expand on both sides. It can be like totally horrible or it can be like really wonderful and then you're normally living in this frequency and it like widens it on either side. What about you? Have you ever been alone?

[00:12:36]>> Yes. I'd like to say that each person I fall in love with, I fall in love with in a different way. You learn so much about yourself and about the other person and your likes and dislikes when you date different people. I look forward to falling in love with someone in a different way. Previous times I've fallen in love. Any sense?

[00:12:54]>> Like the idea of falling in love multiple times is like really exciting.

[00:12:58]But like >> the idea of it finding it fresh each time.

[00:13:00]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that total honey, you know? I think there's like always a fear of like, oh, this is like the fear of eternity and >> the fear of you're never going to have that like fresh thing again.

[00:13:12]>> Well, it's so interesting cuz I so I am in love. I'm married and I have two young children and like I would say which is great. You know, I have I've lived your dreams but um I sorry guys.

[00:13:25]>> Yeah, marriage is scary.

[00:13:26]>> Totally. Oh my god. And you think that marriage begins when you meet your person, but it actually begins far sooner than that when you decide that you want to fall in love.

[00:13:37]>> I recently went through pretty pretty uh brutal breakup and um sorry to hear that. It's Thank you. And it's been really hard, but also like because it it's been so hard, it's been like awesome. I think like the biggest lesson that I got out of that was like I need to know how to listen to my you know what's happening inside. I've always been like I want to go I don't know I want to go to Idle Wild and I haven't been able to go and I just went one day like I literally like typed in Idle Wild on my phone and I just went. I had no plan and like somehow I just had the perfect day, you know, like I hiked all day and I ended up on this trail and it was like the most beautiful trail I've ever been on and I was just so incredibly happy that day just like following like following my heart.

[00:14:28]>> Yeah, I know. It was like presents like >> it's literally just presents.

[00:14:31]>> If you you are you really?

[00:14:36]>> Yeah.

[00:14:36]>> If you like Are you really?

[00:14:37]>> Yeah. Yeah. If you like it, you should onion ring on it.

[00:14:45]>> I think I'm going to actually go all natural nude first.

[00:14:49]>> Wo.

[00:14:51]>> It's really good. And I don't normally order onion rings, but this is like crispy beyond belief. Delicious in my teeth. Honey mustard on them. Ooh, the onion rings.

[00:15:04]10 onion rings out of 10. I'm not built for it to be a food reviewer because I think I have rosecoled eyes. Everything I eat turns to gold in my mouth. He might just be like mozzarella cheese stick.

[00:15:19]>> Wa ranch.

[00:15:22]>> It was a inspired move to go ranch first.

[00:15:25]>> Yeah.

[00:15:26]>> Was it good at least?

[00:15:28]>> Yes.

[00:15:31]>> Don't piss me off. It's a mozzarella stick. Of course it was going to be good.

[00:15:38]And now a legend in the space.

[00:15:41]Scram. To come here in the middle of the night and have fried shrimp feels like it's illegal.

[00:15:48]>> What do you dip this in?

[00:15:49]>> I think is that cocktail or marinade?

[00:15:52]>> Oh my god. Fried shrimp cocktail.

[00:15:54]>> Is it?

[00:15:54]>> Why don't I?

[00:15:58]>> I got full body chills. It was so tender that I got full body chills. And I'm not even exaggerating. Chicken tender.

[00:16:05]Classic diner fodder. Just something that exists in every diner ever.

[00:16:12]>> Tender. I hardly know her.

[00:16:15]Oh, come a beat, Ashley.

[00:16:19]That's enough.

[00:16:22]>> Not quite my tempo.

[00:16:25]>> If you could go back in time and be like little kids for one day, how would you spend that day? playing with my friends, playing Makebelie outside. We would do like Little House in the Prairie and um we would like make performances. I don't know, just like play as seriously as possible.

[00:16:44]>> Yeah, it's sort of almost what you're trying to do now.

[00:16:46]>> Like it's the same thing. I think maybe where that's where I was like getting a little like giggly about it cuz I was like I'm like trying to achieve that like every day.

[00:16:57]probably when the time I spend most was at my grandmother's house. Yeah. When I was um about seven, five to seven >> and I was with my dogs. I would go spend the day with my dogs.

[00:17:09]>> What were your dogs names?

[00:17:12]>> U girl and big girl. Big girl was the mother. Ethy girl was the uh the son boy.

[00:17:18]>> Oh, that's great. I love that. I think that I would have tried to talk to and get to know as many other like kids in my grade as possible. I had so much like anxiety as a kid. Being scared of coming off the wrong way to every single person around me. Being outgoing would have inadvertently eased me into being more comfortable by myself. Learning that everybody else has their own individual experiences.

[00:17:47]Officially my eyes twitching because I had too much coffee on them. Actually stunting on them. Sorry. Can I dab in this norm?

[00:17:56]How do I elegantly dab? That's my discreet dab.

[00:18:02]>> More like gumbo.

[00:18:10]>> But by the way, the saltine bathing in the gumbo. Hello.

[00:18:16]It's kind of um fisherman's soup.

[00:18:18]>> I'm out on these waters.

[00:18:21]I found a mystery salmon spot.

[00:18:25]>> I don't know where that guy is from. Not me having a steak at [ __ ] 2:00 in the morning. Yeah, this is what winners do.

[00:18:37]>> What do you want me to do?

[00:18:40]>> To me, it's more about the idea of the steak than the actual steak.

[00:18:45]Mhm. Mhm.

[00:18:46]>> Okay.

[00:18:46]>> Yeah. I see some steak sauce if you want to try it.

[00:18:49]>> This looks like a kombucha bottle.

[00:18:52]>> There's steak sauce in a kombucha bottle.

[00:18:53]>> It's medicinal.

[00:18:54]>> It is medicinal. This looks like an apothecary.

[00:19:00]>> You know what's interesting? I think it's actually better without A1.

[00:19:07]More like D1 cuz I'm an athlete in the way that I eat beef. We're about to get into the baked petite. One of the boldest foods in the world. Is that true? I don't want to speak further on that.

[00:19:20]But a baked potato with green onions on the side is an ice cream sundae. I'm starting to get a little tired on them.

[00:19:27]A little bit tired on them. Little bit tired on them. Tired on a little bit.

[00:19:33]>> Is there anything you would change about your life?

[00:19:36]>> You know, I'm surprised why my life is gone right now. Um, I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah. What surprises you about it?

[00:19:44]>> How much I've grown in the past maybe 15 years. Being more um okay with myself, being more >> happy, satisfied, be more content um with the way I how I handle certain situations and things like that.

[00:20:02]>> That's amazing. What do you think inspired that growth? Was that like um a conscious choice you made or do you think that it was just over time like slowly working that muscle? A lot of mistakes.

[00:20:12]>> A lot of mistakes.

[00:20:13]>> A lot of mistakes.

[00:20:14]>> Sure. Yeah.

[00:20:19]>> Why is that happening?

[00:20:21]>> I don't know.

[00:20:26]>> Maybe it's so thick.

[00:20:28]>> That doesn't make any sense.

[00:20:31]>> Chocolate milkshake. Say >> it's vibrant.

[00:20:39]>> That flavor is like really deep.

[00:20:43]>> I don't know how else to say it. It's like Hershey's backed up the truck, >> turned on the nozzle, and let me fill up.

[00:20:56]Let me have it, Hershey. Look at this beautiful just sloppy apple pie.

[00:21:05]>> It's just waiting for me to eat this [ __ ] up.

[00:21:08]>> You know what I mean?

[00:21:09]>> Beautiful night coat. A beautiful night cap for a beautiful boy. Me. Pie at a diner is a ceremonial experience. It speaks to something that makes me feel connected to America in a way that I don't feel anymore.

[00:21:27][ __ ] That is that me espresso. Is there any advice that uh you feel you've lived by that you think might benefit other people?

[00:21:38]>> If as someone who feels like they can't do it, >> just try it.

[00:21:44]>> Like none of this [ __ ] matters. Just like just do it. Do the thing that feels crazy and like you feel like you could only do in another life.

[00:21:55]>> Follow your heart as true as that can be. Right. There's three rules that I live by and it's if there's an open door, you walk through it. If there's a closed door, you don't keep opening it.

[00:22:09]And if there's a monster, you have to go and say hi.

[00:22:13]>> That is awesome.

[00:22:14]>> That was bars. That was >> That was incredible.

[00:22:17]>> I mean, the food here was fantastic. It is very, very late at night. I am ready to hit the hay. And this ice cream and pie combo I'm gonna be thinking about I'm gonna be thinking about that tuna melt. I'm gonna be thinking about that coffee norm more like warm cuz that's the fuzzy feeling I feel inside my body.

[00:22:40]I've been milesor and this has been graveyard too shift.

[00:22:52]Sweet.