It’s now possible to get a mimosa with your steak and eggs at Norms Restaurant in Ontario and Rialto.
The Bellflower-based chain of diners is rolling out an alcoholic beverage menu, beginning in the Inland Empire. It includes beer, wine, mimosas and micheladas, priced $5.50-$11.
The restaurants are at 4551 Mills Circle, Ontario, near Ontario Mills, and 325 W. Renaissance Parkway, Rialto, in Renaissance Marketplace, the only two locations that currently have licenses to sell wine and beer from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Several other locations have lapsed licenses and two, Bellflower and Los Angeles, have licenses that are pending, according to the department’s website.
Norms stopped serving beer and wine in 2015, when the chain was sold to an investment firm by the family of founder Norm Roybark, according to David Cox, corporate executive chef and vice president of food and beverage.
Attitudes toward alcohol have changed in the last nine years and people are interested in a brunch experience that includes mimosas and sparkling wine, he said in a phone interview.
In creating the menu, he worked with local businsses such as Common Space Brewery in Hawthorne, I Love Micheladas and San Antonio Winery, both in Los Angeles.
To create a signature michelada, called El Normando, he worked with Common Sense to create an India Pale Ale to his taste, which he said the brewery went on to can.
“We selected the hops and everything,” he said. “We brewed a 900-gallon batch, and it sold out in three or four weeks.”
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To make El Normando eye-catching, it’s served in a mug rimmed with Tajin and chamoy and topped with a fried jalapeño, bacon, pineapple and lime on a skewer.
Norms plans to expand its beer and wine locations throughout Southern California over the next year, according to a news release. And Cox said the chain is toying with the idea of starting a happy hour.
It has 23 locations throughout Southern California and is working on a Las Vegas location, according to its website
Information: norms.com