In Racing the Dream, Allison and Hawk’s first date happens at an iconic Southern California diner called Norms on Sherman Way in the San Fernando Valley. Norm Roybark opened his first location in 1949, and today there are 23 outposts throughout Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange counties.

In September, the diner will celebrate 75 years of serving breakfast. Last year, the chain sold 520,000 pounds of bacon, used 12 million fresh eggs, 420,000 pounds of pastry flour, and a million pounds of fresh hash browns. It also peddled 250,000 of the menu’s best-selling Classic Bigger Better Breakfast combos, featuring two bacon strips, two sausages, two eggs, ham, hash browns or fruit, and toast or two buttermilk hotcakes.

The legendary restaurant has been featured in shows like Jerry Seinfeld’s HBO vehicle “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” “American Horror Story,” and the Ray Romano series “Men of a Certain Age.” According to a book by Graham Nash, Crosby, Stills, and Nash would eat at the Norms on Sunset while they were recording their first album in the 1960s.

And now it appears in my novel. What fun.

Congrats Norms.

And make sure you check out my latest story: Racing the Dream