What It's Like to Work at Waffle House for 24 Hours Straight
March 8, 2015 6:54 PM   Subscribe

Since Bon Appetit writer Andrew Knowlton was a teen, Waffle House— that particularly Southern institution known for killer hash browns and late-night patty melts—has been there for him. To return the favor, he decided to work a few hours at the grill. Round-the-clock, to be exact.

Also, a few years earlier and a couple of miles away, "Around the Clock at Waffle House."
posted by Frank Grimes (80 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
I can't believe I found this on YouTube
posted by spitbull at 6:59 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Note to the uninitiated: "killer" means the hashbrowns will literally kill you. In cold blood.

That's why you order them "smothered". It's either them or you.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:59 PM on March 8, 2015 [26 favorites]


It’s filled with people from all walks of life, all races and classes, looking for a little bit of happiness and a personal connection.

Only after numerous lawsuits.
posted by ryanrs at 7:04 PM on March 8, 2015 [11 favorites]


Dammit I really need some smothered, covered, country hash browns right now. And the closest Waffle House is about 100 miles away!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:05 PM on March 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Waffles House! <3 <3
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:08 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


FEMA uses what it calls the Waffle House Index to determine the impact of a storm. Code Green means the chain is serving a full menu, Yellow ­indicates a limited menu because of ­power issues, and Red signifies the restaurant is closed, indicating severe damage. As a FEMA official once said, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad.”

That is awesome.
posted by argonauta at 7:08 PM on March 8, 2015 [21 favorites]


Wow - can you really get poached eggs at Waffle House? Color me hungry.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:25 PM on March 8, 2015


Dammit I really need some smothered, covered, country hash browns right now. And the closest Waffle House is about 100 miles away!

I know where I'm eating if I ever end up in Allentown.
posted by pravit at 7:28 PM on March 8, 2015


To return the favor produce an unlikely, whimsical experience that's inherently absurd and thus well-suited for an attention-grabbing internet write-up, he decided to work a few hours at the grill. Round-the-clock, to be exact.

I mean, right?
posted by clockzero at 7:29 PM on March 8, 2015 [22 favorites]


The first time I got food poisoning was at a Waffle House, but I went back many many times. You can get food poisoning anywhere, but not those hash browns.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:32 PM on March 8, 2015 [34 favorites]


Smothered and slightly wiggling is the rare B side of Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 7:33 PM on March 8, 2015 [7 favorites]


Wow - can you really get poached eggs at Waffle House? Color me hungry.

Poaching eggs during a breakfast shift is hell on earth. I salute any short order cook willing to do it.
posted by xingcat at 7:34 PM on March 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


Rayaysins, raisins in my toast! (At Waffle House!)
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:36 PM on March 8, 2015


Heard this guy talking about the experience on Marketplace a couple days ago. Waffle House as an institution is really interesting. I loved the tidbits about how they "mark" the orders by placing various condiments at certain positions on a plate. For instance, a butter packet placed at 12:00 on the plate means X, 3:00 means Y, etc.
posted by skewed at 7:42 PM on March 8, 2015 [6 favorites]


Because I know this thread is going to bring out the Waffle House fans, I was really excited to link to this post I made in 2007 about the Waffle-House themed songs they have on the jukeboxes there. But damn if all the links aren't dead. Some of them are on YouTube but it's not the same.
posted by Miko at 7:53 PM on March 8, 2015 [4 favorites]


I grew up in GA and Waffle House (like REM) is something you have to have an opinion on. You either love it or you hate it.
As a teenager in the late-'80s and early-'90s, the WH is where we went late at night to ride out a high, plan our next escapade, write letters to leave on our girlfriends windshields or . . . whatever. We drank gallons of coffee and ate pecan waffles and hashbrowns in various states of death. That is where I got my love.

But I have two stories of note.

1. In high school, a friend of mine was a grill boy at Waffle House; that was the job title, grill boy. He worked there for years but then decided that he could make more working the counter, so he talked to the manager when a position opened up. The manager just looked at him and said . . . "But you can't be a 'counter girl', you're a guy." The manager couldn't grasp it and wouldn't make it happen. Since then, I have seen more men working the counters, but it is still a female dominated position.

2. On the FEMA waffle house index . . .
In 1993, during spring break, a friend from Texas and I drove back to Atlanta to go backpacking. We headed out and made it to Meridian on I-20 before stopping for the night to ride out a snowstorm. This was one of those called a "Storm of the Century" and based on my experience in the South, it came by that name rightfully. The next morning we took off in my friends small, dropped pick-up, fighting to keep the tires in the ruts and hoping that we hump in the center wouldn't rip the underside apart. In Tuscaloosa we got off the highway to eat at the WH and found the place packed to the gills (Code Green). It turned out that entire chunks of town had lost power and the Waffle House was one of the few places open and they were making bank. My friend and I were an odd pair. We were dressed as some sort of alterna-longshoremen as you might see in the early-'90s, both with multiple ear piercings on each side and plenty of facial hair, and were driving a dropped pick-up. We walked into a tiny restaurant where most of the people were wearing hunting cover-alls and we got some looks. Every table was full and we only stood there for about three minutes before an elderly couple waved us over. They shared one of those tiny little booths with us and purchased our meal. They were sweet and kind and just asked that we shared the space with someone else after they left. We drove on, the highway was shut down just past Tuscaloosa, we got stuck at a truck stop and spent two days hiding from a truck driver that took a liking to my friend, but that is a different story. There is a definite "thing" that can happen in a Waffle House, especially of that restaurant isn't in a major city.
The food may not be great, but they do what they do well.

Oh wait, does anyone remember all-you-can-eat at Waffle House?
You paid a flat fee and ate whatever you wanted off the menu. They only asked that you finish one course before ordering another. I only remember it one summer in Albuquerque. We would come out of the mountains in a herd of dirty people who had been on the trail, working for weeks and proceed to sit there for two hours drinking coffee and eating. That went away shortly after that summer and I never saw it anywhere in the country again. FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANKIND!!!!!
posted by Seamus at 8:00 PM on March 8, 2015 [35 favorites]


OK, now I am done watching it. I thought this was good. What I would have liked better would be just following the actual staff of a Waffle House for 24 hours. Watching Andrew bumble around reminded me of every "training day" I ever did in a restaurant. The staff were tolerant ("I just need my chocolate chip waffle") but I think I would have learned about them best if Andrew stayed behind the camera and interviewed them.
posted by Miko at 8:03 PM on March 8, 2015 [7 favorites]


I've been dreaming about waffles for 1,800 miles.
posted by dawg-proud at 8:03 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


God, 4 AM drunken Waffle House trips are the best.

Went into one for the first time in a couple of years a few weeks ago around 3 in the morning and was disappointed that I couldn't see any All Star Specials on the menu . . . of course I could have just been inebriated to the point where the entire menu made no sense.
posted by mangasm at 8:06 PM on March 8, 2015


and thus well-suited for an attention-grabbing internet write-up

There have been a few of these "trial by ordeal" stunt articles but I have to say, having worked (a very long time ago) short order at a family restaurant (the midwest's much-less-iconic Country Kitchen in my college days), this is a legitimate feat of endurance regardless of how much the regular staff carried him - and though he says so himself it sounds like he tried hard to be make a positive contribution to the kitchen the whole time. I would agree with him that cooking short order was the hardest I ever worked, just in terms of straight up intensity over sustained periods.
posted by nanojath at 8:13 PM on March 8, 2015 [6 favorites]


I like my hash browns scattered, smothered, covered, chumped, tapped, sligged, and dozed. I go there a lot. They give me the secret menu, the one that still lists it as Bert's Sausage Melt because it's good enough that it deserves to be a memorial to his life, also has the original goatmeal as well as the new cinnamon goatmeal, and doesn't list 'capped' because no one in their right mind would put mushrooms on hash browns. Good grief.
posted by komara at 8:15 PM on March 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


Also: there is a special hell for drunks that force restaurant workers to break up fights in the wee hours of the morning.
posted by nanojath at 8:16 PM on March 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Went to my first Waffle House in Asheville, NC. I was completely underwhelmed. I was expecting so much more.

Shoney's 4 eva!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:19 PM on March 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


I was completely underwhelmed. I was expecting so much more.

It's kind of cumulative.
posted by Miko at 8:28 PM on March 8, 2015 [11 favorites]


About 1997, Mrs. Z and I were on a cross-country jaunt to Chapel Hill and stopped at a Waffle House just south of the S.C. state line. While we were eating, a party of four drunken rednecks came in and sat down at the table next to ours.

Soon we were being regaled by their conversation as one of them held forth on all manner of detail about the five or six snakes he kept as pets. His tablemates thought he was pretty funny.

I thought it was a perfect slice of Southron Culture.
posted by key_of_z at 8:29 PM on March 8, 2015


Shoney's 4eva

Oh my god, never again. I'm glad the Shoney's near where I grew up is closed, because god damn that buffet was the worst.

Waffle House is best appreciated at 2 am or later. A friend of mine once heard a patron yell what might as well be the official Waffle House creed (accuracy not guaranteed):

"We're at the Waffle House! We're all fucked up!
We're at the Waffle House! We're all fucked up!
Gonna eat them waffles, gonna eat them waffles, gonna eat them waffles yeah!
Gonna eat them waffles, gonna eat them waffles, gonna eat them waffles yeah!
Drunk driving ain't funny!"
posted by enjoymoreradio at 8:37 PM on March 8, 2015 [25 favorites]


odinsdream: We took a friend to her first Waffle House and I shit you not she tried to order a pancake.

Does this imply that you expected her to order a waffle? Because, while I get the joke, I am a native Southerner with extensive Waffle House experience, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone order a waffle there. And none of those times were they particularly pleased with their choice. Do other people actually go to Waffle House for the waffles?
posted by rhiannonstone at 8:52 PM on March 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


We took a friend to her first Waffle House and I shit you not she tried to order a pancake.

I did the same thing, my excuse was that it was early in the morning and I completely forgot which cheapass diner I walked into. I thought I was in a Denny's for chrissakes. I nearly got my ass handed to me by the waitress.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:57 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


When I was in high school in the 90s in Mississippi, Waffle House is where the art kids went to smoke cloves, drink coffee, and doodle on napkins, and the lit nerds went to be seen reading Joyce. It was a weird mix of budding bohemian and blue collar.

#flavofry
posted by echocollate at 9:00 PM on March 8, 2015 [4 favorites]


A/K (affectionately!)/A "Awful House".
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


When I was in high school in the 90s in Mississippi, Waffle House is where the art kids went to smoke cloves, drink coffee, and doodle on napkins, and the lit nerds went to be seen reading Joyce. It was a weird mix of budding bohemian and blue collar.

This was exactly my experience in high school in the 90s in Asheville, NC. We spent hours--HOURS--there, drinking coffee, chainsmoking and doing homework. By the time I graduated, I knew the all of the staff by name. I have friends that kept in touch with servers and cooks for years after the fact.
posted by thivaia at 9:09 PM on March 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


My brothers best friend builds Waffle Houses. It's an interesting thing. Someone pitches WH corporate on "I'd like a franchise", and if WH agrees, and you're in their territory, word goes out and our friend finds the site, buys it, negotiates the bureaucracy, and builds the building, and gives the franchisee what I understand is a Triple Net Lease. They've made stunning money doing this, and since apparently very few WH franchises fail, it's an all around win.
posted by kjs3 at 9:09 PM on March 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


"Shoney's 4 eva!"

When I first moved to New Orleans (in 2001) there were no Waffle Houses in this area but a handful of Shoney's. Shoney'ses. Whatever, English is dumb.

Anyway, fourteen years later there is one solitary Shoney's left somewhere out in the boonies and something like 10 Waffle Houses in the metro area. This is God's Plan finally shining upon this formerly heathen city.

okay so we're still heathen in all the other (correct) ways, we just fixed this one deficiency.
posted by komara at 9:19 PM on March 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Seamus: In 1993 ... This was one of those called a "Storm of the Century"

Oh man, I think I got caught in the same storm! Fortunately, my windshield wipers gave up the fight against ice accumulation just as I was able to pull off the highway (NE of Atlanta) at an exit with a hotel. Unfortunately, there was no Waffle House, just some sort of generic diner that was okay but unremarkable.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:22 PM on March 8, 2015


Waffle House exists solely for the 1930s' dining car experience without any of the experience.
posted by clavdivs at 9:38 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


apparently very few WH franchises fail

And the few that do mostly get reborn, phoenix-like into Huddle Houses, in a process similar to when a dying star that's not massive enough to become a black hole will form a white dwarf instead.
posted by radwolf76 at 9:49 PM on March 8, 2015 [13 favorites]


When I was in high school in the 90s in Mississippi, Waffle House is where the art kids went to smoke cloves, drink coffee, and doodle on napkins, and the lit nerds went to be seen reading Joyce. It was a weird mix of budding bohemian and blue collar

Being far from any Waffle Houses, we used Denny's for that purpose. I didn't see a Waffle House until I was in my twenties. I enjoy stopping when I am in the south.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:04 PM on March 8, 2015


His daughter's name is Julep and he lives in Brooklyn. God I wish this didn't bother me as much as it does.
posted by flyingsquirrel at 10:15 PM on March 8, 2015 [13 favorites]


Was in Tuscon many years ago for the rodeo with some college friends. We had the great idea (and the means) to make it like Hunter Thompson at a bull fight. Next thing I remember is trying real hard, I mean really hard, to order a grilled cheese sandwich at the Waffle House while maintaining some semblance of outwardly appearing normalcy and wondering whether the hit of acid was going to wear off first or the tequila.

Been back to WH a few couple of times since, but never reached peak velocity like that first time in Tuscon.
posted by 724A at 10:17 PM on March 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


I love Waffle House. All the times I've been there, the service has been great and the food has hit the spot.
posted by arcticseal at 10:42 PM on March 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh man, Waffle House. It's a southern, middle of the night kinda place for the most part, but the other day, Boy and I were out early, and we sat at the counter. Boy watched that short order line cook like that man was Houdini. Boy subsequently keeps making up diner sounding ways to ask for food around the house. Example, when I asked what kind of sandwich he wanted he said he wanted "carver, onna raft, keep the ammo live". I made a peanut butter on toast with grapes sandwich. Ours is a very strange house.
posted by dejah420 at 10:44 PM on March 8, 2015 [22 favorites]


I find all this talk of waffle house being a southern thing so weird. As I don't consider Ohio (central ohio to be more precise) the south, but I lived less than a minute from the nearest waffle house for most of my life.
posted by Aranquis at 11:09 PM on March 8, 2015


So I'd just started a job as a bartender and on my second or third shift I meet Delilah (not her real name). Delilah sits at the bar every day and orders one of three things. Each of the things she orders is bracketed with a dozen caveats concerning spices, doneness, even the way the lettuce is chopped.

Delilah tips 25% like clockwork, but Delilah complains about every. Single. Thing. Delilah needs two glasses of tea because there's too much ice in this one and she doesnt like the crushed ice anyway go get the nice big ice cubes from the other machine. Delilah thinks it's too warm in here. Or too cold. Or too green. Or the oxygen mix is off.

And this happens every day, at a time between 3:45-4:15 on weekday afternoons.

Come to find out, Delilah is a waitress at Waffle House.

And evidently it has utterly destroyed her.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:29 PM on March 8, 2015 [13 favorites]


> I'm glad the Shoney's near where I grew up is closed, because god damn that buffet was the worst.

One of Shoney's well-advertised specialties was strawberry pie. A baked bottom crust, fresh strawberries, and sweet red goo of some kind. Once I got a slice to go and and when I got it home I noticed that one strawberry was not completely enveloped in the goo. The not-goo-coated part I could see was white instead of strawberry red, the sort of white that strawberries turn when they're not flat-out green any more and sort of thinking about going ripe but haven't really made a commitment yet.

In a fit of curiosity I took my slice of pie to the sink and rinsed the red goo off all the strawberries. Every last one of them was white. Not a trace of natural pink, let alone natural red, on even a single one. Every molecule of the sweetness and redness was in the goo.
posted by jfuller at 12:00 AM on March 9, 2015 [6 favorites]


Goddamnit Metafilter I love you & what you do.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:42 AM on March 9, 2015


There is a new Waffle House 3 miles from here, the store is only a couple of years old, and yes it has a smoking section (PS the year is 2015). Exit 214 (formerly exit 14) on I-69 next to the BP. You gottta love Madison County Indiana!
posted by Hoosier Prospector at 12:42 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wow - can you really get poached eggs at Waffle House?

Poached eggs on waffles, maple-cured bacon (instead of peameal/back bacon), Hollandaise. You're welcome.

Poaching eggs during a breakfast shift is hell on earth. I salute any short order cook willing to do it.

Oh god yes. Apart from finances, I hardly ever go out for brunch anymore because brunch staff just get fucked. That said, immersion circulators--if you have a really solid handle on how many poachies you're likely to need--can revolutionize brunch services.

I've only been to WH once, in North Carolina, and it was great. Beats the fucking pants off Golden Griddle, not least because it's not pretending to be anything other than what it is. Good fucking riddance, Golden Griddle.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:53 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


At least his boss wasn't Mr Krabs.
posted by colie at 1:23 AM on March 9, 2015


That floating Bon Appetit thing in the middle of the page is making me queasy.
posted by kinetic at 3:22 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Golden Griddle is in the genre of more family-resto-ish 24 hour breakfast places rather than finery 24 hour breakfast places. I'd slot it with IHOP, Perkins, and similar.

I wonder why the northern chains tend to be a little more formal than the southern, or if that's not really the case, Waffle House is just an outlier.
posted by ardgedee at 3:37 AM on March 9, 2015




What the fuck is this love for Shoney's about, here on Metafilter? I am shocked and I am sad.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:07 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


echocollate: Waffle House is where the art kids went to smoke cloves, drink coffee, and doodle on napkins, and the lit nerds went to be seen reading Joyce.

A boy reading Joyce was asked by the waitress "what are you reading for?". The boy, unable to think of a response at the time, smiled meekly and asked for more coffee, writing down her question for future reference.

The boys name? Bill Hicks.

Now you know the rest of the story. This is Paul Harvey speaking.
posted by dr_dank at 5:11 AM on March 9, 2015 [8 favorites]


Waffle House is one of the greatest things about the South. I spent many a late night and afternoon drinking my weight in shitty coffee, smoking cigarettes, and reading books in them when I was a teenager.

One of the best things I have ever done in my marriage was taking my then-fiance to a Waffle House between Atlanta (my then home) and Greenville, South Carolina (where my family lives). He ordered a waffle, hashbrowns, coffee, and probably a meat of some sort.

He loved it. Internally I was like, "Oh thank God."
posted by Kitteh at 5:25 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


Smothered and slightly wiggling is the rare B side of Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed

One of my favorite Pavement EPs.
posted by aught at 5:32 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


Watching a skilled short-order cook work a grill can be a thing of beauty...
posted by jim in austin at 5:42 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


Watching a skilled short-order cook work a grill can be a thing of beauty...

I'm convinced that short order cooking is a martial art.
posted by eriko at 5:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [10 favorites]


On my first family trip to the South (there are no Waffle Houses in New England) we stayed at a hotel that was directly across the street from a Waffle House. Every night we would return to our rooms which would be illuminated by those giant yellow letters. Unfortunately, the "U" and the "E" were burnt out on this particular sign.

The food was pretty good and I take the opportunity once each trip to eat at one if I can, but to this day I still question the virtue of their employees.
posted by dances with hamsters at 6:04 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Apart from finances, I hardly ever go out for brunch anymore because brunch staff just get fucked.

If you're not tipping breakfast waitstaff about 50 percent, you're a blight on humanity.
posted by Etrigan at 6:17 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


I don't know how true this is across the board, but there was a Waffle House in another city I lived in that consistently hired people who just got out of prison. I thought that was nice.
posted by marxchivist at 6:25 AM on March 9, 2015 [8 favorites]


The last time I was in a restaurant where there were a bunch of people smoking cigarettes it was in 2007 in Nashville TN in a Waffle House.
posted by bukvich at 6:35 AM on March 9, 2015


The Waffle House – IHOP line is the new Mason – Dixon line.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 7:35 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


Having grown up in an around Atlanta, I had the experience of living with a WaHo density which sometimes meant that there would be one on either side of a highway exit. Which was pretty great, because then you could always pick one to the be the "good" Waffle House (GA 400 exit 7A) and one would be the "bad" Waffle House (GA 400 exit 7B). Imagine my surprise when I later met some people who considered my beloved 7A to be the "bad" one; filthy 7B heathens.

smoke cloves, drink coffee, and doodle on napkins, and the lit nerds went to be seen reading Joyce

Hello there my Mississippi Waffle House doppelganger.
posted by Panjandrum at 7:40 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


Back when my job was arranging and guarding disco lights at raves, we used to hit a Waffle House whenever possible on the way back from a party. It always amazed me how the photographs on the menu looked exactly like the food. By which I do not mean that the photographs were typical gussied-up menu photographs and the food looked really nice to match. No sir.
posted by rifflesby at 7:43 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have always dreamed of opening a Waffle House in the middle of Amsterdam. I would be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Alas: reasons.
posted by digitalprimate at 7:54 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


“Want to brick the grill?” Shorty asks. Sure, how bad can it be?

hahhahahahahahahahahahha nice work Shorty.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:37 AM on March 9, 2015 [8 favorites]


> ...there was a Waffle House in another city I lived in that consistently hired people who just got out of prison.

Waffle House pays its staff in cash, weekly. When you're don't (or are too poor to) have a bank account, not having to rely on a check cashing service amounts to a significant raise in your take-home income.
posted by ardgedee at 8:41 AM on March 9, 2015 [9 favorites]


If you're not tipping breakfast waitstaff about 50 percent, you're a blight on humanity.

Waitstaff clean the fuck up on brunch. It's the kitchen that gets royally screwed.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:49 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


Do other people actually go to Waffle House for the waffles?

Oh hell yeah. The pecan waffle, a childhood favorite, is something I'll go out of my way for.
posted by Miko at 9:23 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


According to the comments in this thread, it is obvious that I was cloned at some point around 1987.

I need to graph these testaments out by data points of cigarettes, coffee, bohemia, college and studying, GA/SC/MS/AL/NC and other points south. There needs to be role-playing games, illicit drugs, breakups and hookups, and if a job at Kinko's (night shift, of course) can be found, I'll know.

I 'll know exactly which was the WH where they obtained my DNA.



or perhaps I am the clone - the horror, the horror
posted by eclectist at 9:25 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


Waitstaff clean the fuck up on brunch. It's the kitchen that gets royally screwed.

This has not been my waitstaff experience. I appreciate the kitchen's griddle struggles - egg orders are the worst and people are picky - but I never cleaned up on a brunch shift, not even on like Mother's Day. Ticket totals are too low and turnover too slow. It's marginally better if the place serves brunch cocktails, but brunch is a lot of running, like 7 beverages per person (coffee, OJ, water all round, mimosa), a lot of tea service (PITA), everything has innumerable condiments (jelly, marmalade, more butter please, more cream please, syrup please), and all for $1 and $2 tips because tickets are so low. Brunch also attracts a lot of people who don't go to restaurants regularly and have unusual expectations. I worked in 2 places that served brunch, and it was always the least popular server shift. It was the first thing you got assigned after training, and you rotated out as soon as you could.
posted by Miko at 9:27 AM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


I have a Waffle House less than a mile from my home!

My older brother loves Waffle House. He discovered them years ago, not too long after I got out of college, when the two of us went out early one morning to go Christmas shopping for the family. Neither of us had eaten there before, so I suggested we try it since no place else was open. When he found that he could get steak-and-eggs for a reasonable price, he was hooked.

(Note that these are not the greatest steak-and-eggs in the world. But for the price, they'll do).

So it became a tradition: go out early for Christmas shopping, but first? Steak-and-eggs at Waffle House. I'll vary it on occasion--pork-chop-and-eggs, waffles, omelets (always with grits, of course), but for him it's either T-bone-and-eggs or Ribeye-and-eggs. And when he comes to stay with me, we always try to hit my Waffle House for breakfast or dinner.

I'm also glad to report that with the recent inclement weather, my Waffle House was open for business. And packed with stranded customers, from the look of it.
posted by magstheaxe at 2:59 PM on March 9, 2015


The ribeye and eggs is really unreasonably good considering that it's Waffle House. I live in a place where the electricity (which is served by Earl and Stu's Probably Power Company) tends to go out at the drop of a hat particularly on the coldest winter days so when I wake up and there are icicles coming down from my ceiling I head out to Waffle House for hot coffee and steak and eggs (they're on a somewhat more dependable provider on the other side of the hill). It's not bad. My dog does obedience and tricks in the parking lot for steak scraps afterwards.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:19 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also when I travel for dog events I usually stay at Red Roof Inn because pet friendly, and there's invariably a WH right next door so I can get plausible food at 5 in the morning when I wake up, which is also appreciated.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:20 PM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wolfdog, my Waffle House is also within spittin' distance of a Red Roof in. You can walk from the Waffle House to the lobby in under three minutes.

Perhaps this is a strategic decision by Waffle House Corporate?
posted by magstheaxe at 3:55 PM on March 9, 2015


It's either that or just a fact of nature like fungus growing on rotting logs.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:14 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


When I was much younger, I was in a mostly fake punk rock band for about twenty minutes (before the band broke up because we got hungry). We had several songs about the Waffle House because our mostly fake punk rock band spent almost all of our time at the Waffle House. This thread makes me sad that we never recorded anything.
posted by thivaia at 4:43 PM on March 9, 2015


Woah, my waffle house is a stone's throw awar from a red roof in too.
posted by Aranquis at 5:49 PM on March 9, 2015


I just checked. There is not a Waffle House within three states of where I am sitting. Not in this state, not in any state adjoining it, and not in any state touching those; there might not be one in the next layer out either but I was too disheartened to check. I knew I hadn't seen one in a while but somehow I hadn't realized how far away they are.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:22 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Direct result of this thread: went to the diner last night for eggs, hash browns, corned beef hash <3
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:42 AM on March 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


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