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.
Raise your hand if you've ever been to a:
W A F F L E
S T E A K
"There's a Waffle House off every interstate exit in Georgia. "
There's a Waffle House on both sides of the expressway at the same exit!
And don't call me truffles! :-)
"Biscuitville..."
Just the NAME makes my mouth water. A good biscuit is hard to beat.
Well, I was hardly working any magic, being a gawky teen girl who barely knew how to make toast. But I actually got pretty decent, and am quite an excellent cook now.
But I'm a heart-healthy, low-fat, whole grain, fresh-food sort of cook now. My blood vessels start constricting just walking is a place like WH now.
I must agree with you though - male short-order cooks can be real virtuosos!
Don't mind? I'd be insulted if they didn't :-)
I had the good fortune to be stuck in a motel in Atlanta for two days during an ice storm. The Waffle House was the only place to eat. The cooks did everything from memory and their style was amazing to watch. They were incredible kitchen atheletes.
Always happy to see a waffle house on a trip. Quick, good, and cheap.
lol, hon!
I remember a Toddle House from about 40+ years ago in Pittsburgh, PA, but it is long gone now, subsumed under a University of Pittsburgh building or another...actually, it was across the street from the Original Hot Dog Shop, but the building it was in is long gone.
Coming soon to a highway corner near you.
(They fergot to write about the wait staff welcoming regulars with a cup of coffee, and keeping that cup filled ferever. .... Nor did they write about the rules of never writing an order down tot he chef, but calling each one out 'cross half the resturant.
My kinda place. Lots of food. Cheap. Quick. Open ferever.
Closest one to me is about 5 hours away.
Too bad.
Atlanta Waffle House ping. 8<)
Sounds great, Robt.
"Oh madam, we must have waffles.
We must all have waffles forthwith!"
Yup, let's hear it for Greek diners, or as we Michiganders call them, "coney islands".
The metro Detroit area probably leads the nation in "greek" salads consumed per capita.
These days, a good portion of those include a grilled chicken breast too.
I remember seeing Waffle HOuse on I-95 when we used to drive to Florida from NYC every summer when I was a kid - but I don't remember if we ever ate in one.
I did get a kick out of seeing one last summer when we were on our way home from a Kerry FReep in Norfolk........I thought it was apropos!
That COMPLETELY ROCKS!!!!!! I'm all over that CD!!!!
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