If Norma’s were a person, I’d marry them.  Yep that’s right, this New York staple breakfast sanctuary and I could spend happy days with each other for the rest of our lives.  The restaurant’s location in Le Parker Meridian Hotel in Midtown also boasts for a place that I could spend a long, pleasure-filled life.

I recall my very first ‘date’ with Norma’s– I was probably about 12 years old and had the appetite of an two-ton African elephant, and if given a plate of pancakes could house enough food for two of those gigantic mammals.  To give the diners a taste of what you’re in for in terms of superb ingredients and flavors, your waiter spiritedly positions in front of your clasped hands an amuse bouche of the chef’s daily smoothie.  Filling a tall shot glass, the aroma of this bright and dazzling gulp of fruit puree enters your drowsy senses with a burst of liquid sunshine.  You’re immediately transported to an island in the south pacific and pretend you are being served this delight of a drink by a tan pool boy in a striped Speedo.  Thank. You. God.  For whoever brought me to this restaurant.

Little did I know this smoothie was just the beginning to a life long obsession with Norma’s- an addiction to a meal that I am in painful withdrawals from when eating breakfast at any other location. Norma’s has raised the bar in the meaning of what the day’s first meal should involve.

Like your first love, there aren’t very many meals that I can remember quite as vividly as my first at Norma’s.  It was their fresh berry-stuffed brioche french toast that forever made me think differently about what bread and fruit could mean to each other.  To give you an idea of how extravagant all of the restaurant’s meals are, they have a caviar omelet on the menu for a jaw-dropping $1000.  This means that although the french toast I had ordered was only slightly shy of this bank rupturing menu item, it was surely no less satisfying to the tongue and stomach.  A sizzling hot compote of fresh blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and surely a pound of butter sat oozing between two colossal-sized slices of Manhattan’s best, eggy brioche which was nearly deep fried in the pan from surely a whole other pound of butter, sweet cinnamon, dark sugar, heavy cream, a pinch of utopia.  The whole 8-inch high heaping pile of steaming goodness was then again topped with the bubbling berries and a zip of lemon zest.  Oh and the whipped cream, oh and the whipped cream!   Simple ingredients executed in the most extraordinary manner.  This was no roadside diner, no– this was truly a mark of sweet culinary excellence in the area of the much too often forgotten meal of breakfast.  I will say I Do.

I have only eaten at Norma’s once since this blissful (to say the least) experience, and trust me that was a long anticipated visit.  Since I am the only indulger in rich, very rich, breakfasts in my family, it took a lot of begging to get back there.  And don’t worry Norma, I’ll be back again soon, I cannot wait to try the Chocolate Decadence French Toast, or the Foie Gras Brioche French Toast, or…