Groton City, CT
Annie Brochu used to let her customers at Norm's Diner leave their restaurant tab up to a game of chance.

“I'll flip you — double or nothing,” she used to tell them.

Somehow, Annie's sister Rose Phelps recalled, Annie usually won.

Annie stopped working at the diner more than 10 years ago for health reasons. But the departure of her husband, Norm Brochu, from the diner last month marks their official retirement from running the place after more than 40 years.

The diner will still be open, managed by Dan Logan, who also runs Dano's Pizzeria & Lounge on Poquonnock Road.

Under the direction of the Brochus, the Bridge Street diner at the entrance to the City of Groton has survived the ebb and flow of the Navy and Electric Boat workers. It has outlasted competition from the former IHOP and Rosie's Diner.

Aficianados who cross the country on diner tours make sure Norm's is a stop, some even asking Norm to autograph a photo of the place. Little has changed: It's still cash only, though a single jukebox has replaced jukeboxes that were once at every table. A 50-year-old milkshake machine that matches the green décor is still in operation.

The diner started out as Paula's in 1953, Norm said. He grew up working in the family-owned Groton Snack Shop on Thames Street and bounced around, running various restaurants. One day while at a nearby barbershop, Norm heard the Bridge Street diner he'd had his eye on was for sale.

“I looked at it ... it was a dump,” Norm remembered.

But he fixed the place up. Annie worked the grill at night and raised their kids during the day — that itself was no small job, considering there were six, and three more foster kids.

The grill is right in front of customers seated at the counter — a now rarely seen feature that tourists enjoy, said Phelps, who has worked there for 33 years.

The Brochus' big family at home extended to the restaurant. They recall waitresses who stayed for 38 years, 28 years, and 17 years. A former cook, Bertha, worked until she was 79 years old.

Norm used to cook at the diner, specializing in dishes such as fish and chips (his secret was using haddock), pot roast, and steak sandwiches on a roll with fries.

“It's nothing fancy,” he said. “It's good ol' New England food like you serve at home.”

He then moved over to run the country music bar next door until this past winter, when he let the license expire in preparation for his coming retirement.

The building has been for sale for about a year and a half, but there have been no takers so far. Norm knows it's a big investment to buy what is essentially the whole block, but he said the two venues could be “a goldmine.”

Over the years he has had offers to buy the dining car and move it, like the former Rosie's, but Norm rejected those, he said. The Brochus and Phelps said they hope it can remain a diner.

Whatever happens, a lasting mark of Norm's will be the coffee cups and thousands of navy blue T-shirts that say “Norm's Diner, Groton, CT,” with two fried eggs on the chest.

“People like to say 'I like your eggs,' ” Phelps said.

The college kids start as freshmen as “a bunch of wise guys,” Phelps said, leaving tips in small change and loosening salt shakers. But by the end of their college careers, the regulars have matured and often get T-shirts when they leave.

One kid that she mailed a promised T-shirt to told her: “It's the best graduation gift I ever got.”

Originally published online here: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=76f06fff-548c-4c4b-875b-d28161a5a616