I would say your best chances of running into a dodgy crowd at Waffle House is between the hours of 1-5 am. But you can say that about any place. I've learned early in life that nothing good tends to happen during those predawn hours.
I've been to a lot of them throughout the South and I've never had a bad experience. Excellent service, very friendly waitstaff and you get to see the food made right in front of you. And the food is extremely cheap. My only main complaint with them is they use margarine instead of butter. I can immediately tell the difference. When you are used to good butter, margarine is pretty nasty stuff.
I think I'm going to post an article or two on the Waffle House. They have an interesting story.
Your post is absolutely correct - all the bad action at WH happens after midnight when the drunks head in. We had a few meals at WH recently on a trip down to Louisiana. Everybody was friendly at noontime.
It’s amazing how many terrible restaurants there are once you’re off the ramp of I-65 or I-81! I don’t know how many Shoney’s and Cracker Barrels we counted.