… servers call me “Hon” and “Sweetheart” and stuff, and it makes me feel good, and plus they always serve me very good food.
And I don’t even care if they have all their teefs.
I just feel like I’m “taken care of”.
Thanks Ladies and Gentlemen!
Quasi
I don’t have a Waffle House (never heard of them outside the boards actually) but we do have a little restaurant called Annie’s Country Kitchen. The food is amazing. The waitresses are nice and the regulars are treated like old friends. We’re not regulars yet but we fully intend to be.
I also like feeling “taken care of” at a restaurant.
My roommate in college sang praises of this Waffle House, I still haven’t gone but I should try to someday…
Waffle House kind of freaks me out - I’m pretty sure all the employees are actually clones, and there’s this weird greasy film covering everything in the place, which I think is actually a permanent thing applied shortly before a new Waffle House opens.
Also, as much as I try not to be, I am a New Jersey girl at heart, and Waffle Houses are just a pale, sad imitation of a proper diner. There’s a sort of magic to getting totally lost on a late-night drive, and going into the diner that you find (if you’re lost in New Jersey late at night, you’ll find a diner; it’s magic). That’s the type of place where you’ll order a full breakfast with a dozen options, and the waitress will write “eggs” on her order pad…and ten minutes later you’ll have a plate the size of your head, with exactly what you want. And the coffee will be somewhat like drinking gasoline, but you’ll keep drinking it, and the mug will never be allowed to approach empty.
Fun fact: If you want desert at a diner in Jersey, ask the waitress what’s good. She’ll name a pie. Order that. During the duration of your stay in this establishment, the waitress, underneath that big 80’s hair, knows all relevant knowledge, especially when it comes to pie.
A question: why do Waffle House waitresses look so much “harder” than waitresses at other restaurants? They all seem to have a “rode hard and put away wet” look. Even at Waffle Houses in Ohio, the waitresses all have southern/Appalachian accents; not the charming cotillion queen accent, but more like a cackly five-pack-a-day Jerry Springer Show guest. Are they all imported from rural West Virginia, or what?
I HATE our Waffle House.
Breakfast should NOT cost $11, no matter how hashed, slashed, crumbled or mashed it happens to be.
Oh, and you don’t take credit cards?
Oh, but I can use that little wobbly low-rent ATM over there to get cash?
Ah, and it costs a measly $1.25 surcharge, on top of my bank’s Buck surchange! Whattabargain!
Gaw[language redacted, this isn’t the pit]mmit!
I dunno what’s wrong with your Waffle House, but I’m a fairly frequent guest at one of our dozen local WHs. They all take plastic. They are all nice and clean. Their waitresses run from the big haired ladies who have made a career of it to pretty young things working their way through college. The two eggs, bacon, coke (with cherry syrup), cheese grits, toast, and biscuit with sausage gravy I had last Sunday cost me less than $10.
And they still have Elvis on the jukebox.
I was a Waffle House [del]short-order cook[/del] “grill operator” on the graveyard shift for a couple years in college. It was a decent job: There were, of course, lots of colorful characters, and almost 20 years later, I still absolutely love the food. It’s not fancy, but it’s satisfying, and the food that arrives at your table actually looks like the pictures on the menu; how many restaurants can say that?
Waffle House rules.
My first time at a Waffle House was after being stuck in traffic by Kentucky Speedway for almost 7 hours during a trip that was 6 hours long to start with; something about them having their first NASCAR truck race, the off-ramp being closed, mayhem abounding and the highway department needing to cut us a temp lane to the other side of the highway.
First exit we came to after the jam had a Waffle House. The Mrs and I walked in and the waitress handed us the menus and I just told her “Bring us two different dinners - don’t make anything match on either plate. Ham on one, steak on the other - we don’t care. Corn on one, peas on the other - we don’t care. Any salad dressings - don’t matter. We’ll figure it out once its here. We’re just too tired and too burned out and too hungry and we just want food. Dinner food. Don’t want to think about it, just eat it”
She did just what I asked and with a laugh or smile the whole time. I don’t remember what she gave us but it was fantastic and fit the need and made us Waffle House fans ever since. And got her like a 100% tip.
God bless Waffle House and all who grace its doors.
Clifford A. Nahser, the 82-year-old retired architect who created the iconic Waffle House restaurant design 40-50 years ago, died on Monday in Atlanta. Story here, if you’re interested.
That’s a timely poignant touch to this thread, Poly. And thanks to Mr. Nahser. Many a time driving on Southern interstates in the wee hours, that yellow beacon Waffle House was the only place open, and had a good flexible crew taking yer order. Scattered , smothered, covered and chunked…it’s definitely an icon for touring musicians in the South after shows.
I’ve found those late night waitresses to be a breed apart, both in humor and hairstyle, and the open kitchen/grill makes it all a great theatre in the wee hours.
Loves the Waffle House, but cut out on Huddle House after a plate of greasy ass grits in SC that gave me the bad screaming heaves coming and going.
I love waffle house! I Hate to even see it in the same sentence as Huddle house though. The main difference, as far as i’m concerned, Being that i can see into the kitchen and watch my food be prepared. I’ve gotten sick from waffle house food once in 14yrs, and sick from the food at the new huddle house down the road 3 times in 6 months. The menu at waffle house almost never changes, unless it’s to add a new item, and then its almost always a permanent change.
back in the day, i could walk in the door, call out my own order, and had have a coke waiting at our usual table by the time i sat down. good times.
Is this post from 1999? My god, I would love a 1.25 surcharge at an ATM. It’s 2.50 at a minumum everywhere that I have seen.
I haven’t been back in awhile. There’s an IHOP a half mile down the road, it suits me just fine. (I’ll make the grits at home if I need to scratch THAT itch.)
Wow, I’m still not sure I will ever go into another Waffle House despite the glowing posts in this thread. The last time I went to one, the food took forever and tasted terrible. On top of that, the music was awful and the people (both patrons and wait staff) looked at us like we were from mars. Oh yeah, the service at the counter was bad too.
There are a handful of them scattered around that are vile, in terms of service and/or food. (I remember one that served me butterless toast (and without butter to spread) and with scrambled eggs that were simultaneously runny and burned – I have no idea how he managed to accomplish that!
But in my experience the overwhelming majority of them sell passable food – not gourmet but reliably edible – at a low price, with the quirky fun service commented on upthread.
I was recently on business in the Atlanta area. I wanted to get some breakfast, so I used my iPhone to see what was nearby. Man - you would think that Atlanta had some sort of monopoly on Waffle houses - there must be more than Starbucks, which is well, inconceivable.
back when I was flying …
In Atlanta we stayed at a Holiday Inn about 5 miles from the airport. The route we rode to get there was kinda circuitous, so I never really understood where exactly it was versus the rest of local geography. But it was at a crossroads of two major streets lined with strip malls & car lots for miles in any direction.
There were Waffle Houses on 2 of the 4 corners, and another one within walking distance (~1/2 mile) down one of the roads.
All three served inedible food. And I *like *diner food.
The most impressive cook I have seen at a Waffle House was at one somewhere in Georgia when I was in high school on a band trip. The cook only had one arm, but he was about three times as fast as any other cook I have seen there. The food was good there, too.
Also, we put money in the jukebox to play The Rolling Stones, but accidentally hit the wrong button and got that stupid “Waffle House Family” song instead.
I just like being served good hot food. And being called “Honey”, and "“Sweetheart” and stuff.
The jukebox? Creedence or anything prior. This one for instance:
I love you little shits, I truly do.
Your Quas’