Posted on 08/15/2005 11:40:41 AM PDT by Rebelbase
The iconic black and yellow letters beckon from a sign near Interstate 40 and Randleman Road. Inside the low-slung restaurant that claims the sign, there's plenty of batter ready.
But it isn't destined for a fryer. This is Waffle House, and here, batter belongs on an iron -- a waffle iron.
Founded in 1955 in Avondale Estates, Ga., the restaurant chain has been serving "Good Food Fast" around-the-clock for five decades. It will celebrate its 50th anniversary Labor Day.
Freeway Foods of Greensboro opened the city's first Waffle House franchise in 1973 on Randleman Road.
The restaurant operated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year until it closed in fall 2004, Freeway Foods President Gary Fly said.
The old restaurant was torn down, and a new one opened on the same lot in March. A steady stream of customers filed into that location Sunday, filling booths as soon as servers wiped them clean.
"I come here every day," Sammy Davis Jeffers said from his seat at a yellow counter. "I came every day for 25 years, until they tore it down.
"And then I came to the parking lot," he said jokingly.
That sort of customer loyalty has made Waffle House what it is, said Betty Horne, a server who has worked with the chain on and off since 1990.
"Some, I know their names," she said. "Some, I just know their faces."
Since its founding, Waffle House has grown into an icon that sells 3.2 million pounds of grits annually and claims almost 1,500 stores in 25 states.
The chain now stretches as far west as Arizona and as far north as Illinois, but it remains rooted deeply in the South and retains a distinctively down-home, blue-collar aura.
"We come here every time we come to the South," said Jeanne Chester said, seated in a booth at the Randleman Road location.
The Philadelphia resident was eating with her friend Toya Murphy of Clinton, Md., and Murphy's sister, Patrice Murphy, a junior at N.C. A&T.
Maybe it's the simple menu anchored by eggs, grits and hash browns "smothered and covered" in cheese and onions. Perhaps it's the firm cash-only policy, or even the fact that the restaurant serves most meals for less than $5. Somehow the place feels like being at Grandma's house for breakfast -- before she started worrying about her cholesterol.
Nowhere is Waffle House's workingman vibe stronger than at its headquarters in Norcross, Ga., just outside Atlanta. A plaque in the lobby says the whole building is dedicated to the "Poor Old Cash Customer Who Made It All Possible."
The company is privately held and doesn't disclose sales figures. But for an idea how well the little diners are doing, consider this: Two percent of all eggs produced in the United States for food service end up on Waffle House plates.
. As for the future, co-founders Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner envision a lot more Waffle Houses where everything stays the same.
No plans exist to end the cash-only policy -- credit cards would be too slow, Rogers said -- or to change the menu. Except for salads and sandwich wraps, and more pictures for customers who don't speak English, the restaurants look about as they did in 1955.
"We serve the basic foods, and the basic foods never change," Rogers said.
We have 2 Waffle Houses within a mile or two of home.
I-75/Wade Green Rd, and the one at I-75/Chastain Rd, Kennesaw College, but the beauty of Waffle Houses, no matter which one you visit, the food's the same.
(Don't bother asking them to warm up your waffle though. Waffle Houses don't have microwave ovens.)
I saw a guy in a Waffle House in Atlanta about 25 years ago who was absolutely amazing! I kept thinking that he must have been a circus juggler at one time, he was so good that a helper would have slowed him down! Just watching him butter toast was a show, he could flip the butter knife in the air when he finished and it would land sticking straight up in the butter dish. I can still remember coming home and telling my wife about this guy. I left thinking that I probably would never do anything in my life as well as this guy cooked.
On GA 400 at Holcomb Bridge there is a Waffle House on both sides of the expressway!
My husband plays golf with The Georgia Seniors group, and a couple of times one of Waffle House founders, Tom Forkner, has played in the same tournaments. Honey says he's never met a nicer man.
These cooks are so efficient - which I'm not. It's a science, frankly - the way the kitchen's set up, the way the food prepared.
As a northener, my wife has noticed on her travels that many, many WH locations have at least one burned out light in the WH sign. Thus, she refers to restaurant as a "Wafle House", with the "a" being long.
We have 2 Waffle Houses within a mile or two of home.
I-75/Wade Green Rd, and the one at I-75/Chastain Rd, Kennesaw College,
Well, gee.
Iffen ya go that far.......
(How comes ya don't use the one at Old 41 and 41?) You know: it's close to Barret Pkwy and 41: Just down the road from the one at Barret and I575, or up the road from Barret and Hwy 120.
Which is only a little bit from the one at Hwy 120 and ....
(You know you're in the South when there are more Waffle Houses and historical markers than traffic signals...)
Having eaten in Waffles House in several different locations/states, may I state that one does not "dine" in one. Eat, in some; be slopped, in others.
I've never seen a greater variation of quality/cleanliness/menu between the outlets of any chain, than this one's.
Looks like I need to hit an Awful House sometime before summer ends to help them celebrate...
Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Topped and Diced, Waffle House rules! Here's to another 50 years.
Heres some more Waffle House tunes.
http://www.wafflehouselouisiana.com/rajukebox.htm
I guess I don't get it. We had these things in Colorado Springs when I was growing up, and they're all over Dallas where I now reside, and to be frank, it's not much to brag about. Denny's or Perkins easily beats Waffle House hands down. Is it just some kind of Southern nostalgia thing that I'm missing? It can't be the grease laden food.
Been there, done that.... Remember 'Susie's tree house.' and 'Rafters'??
I graduated in 94. Susies is not familiar. Rafters yes. How about the Elbow Room, Sports Pad and Wrong Way Corrigans. And do not forget the only strip club in town out on hwy 13 towards Farmville. The Silver Bullet. The main attraction was Lean Mean Colleen. LOL
Some of those songs on the jukebox...weird.
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