Norma’s Cafe serves Southern-style cooking

[caption id="attachment_226374" align="alignright" width="460"] Norma’s Cafe is known for its Mile-High cream pies ($2.99).[/caption]

When owner Ed Murph first heard about the prospect of purchasing Norma’s Cafe in 1986, he said he saw an opportunity to buy a restaurant that was not only a Dallas icon, but also a place he enjoyed as a child.

“As a kid, my parents took me [to Norma’s Cafe] to eat, and in high school it was the place to go to have French fries and a Coke, because that’s all the money you had,” Murph said. “It’s been around for so long that [it seems like] everybody in the world has eaten there.”

Norma’s Cafe first opened in Oak Cliff in 1956 when Norma Manis opened a cafe to support her family, Murph said.

Murph said when he took over, he wanted to make sure the restaurant still remained an old Texas cafe staple and to have its traditional hospitality be carried on. However, Murph said he did evolve the business by honing in on the recipes and using influences from his own grandmother and aunt.

“The two of them were phenomenal cooks, and I tweaked existing recipes and added some of their recipes to the menu,” Murph said.

Aside from tweaking the menu, Murph decided to expand the business by opening locations in other suburbs in Dallas and then in Frisco in March 2013.

[caption id="attachment_226373" align="alignright" width="220"] Norma’s Cafe serves chicken fried steak ($9.99), a customer favorite, with three sides.[/caption]

In the Oak Cliff location, Murph said he would have customers from different cities—including Frisco—asking to open a Norma’s Cafe in their cities.

Norma’s Cafe serves homestyle Southern cooking, and customer favorites include chicken fried steak ($9.99), meatloaf ($9.99) and chicken tenders ($9.99), Murph said.