Loyal Waffle House customer Doyle fixing to order his All-Star Special breakfast. Photo by Phil Houseal
Details:
Go to www.wafflehouse.com for information. Our nearest Waffle House is 70 miles away, on Ben White in Austin.
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WAFFLE HOUSE
by Phil Houseal
June 10, 2009
What is big and yellow, lurks along major highways, and never stops stuffing its faces?
Welcome to WAFFLE HOUSE.
Those black, blocky capital letters are a greeting filled with the promise of rich aromas, hearty servings, and engaging waitresses for the hungry trucker, the weary traveler, and the inebriated barfly.
The first Waffle House opened in 1955 in Georgia. Today there are 1500 Waffle Houses in 25 states. Its customers consume 2% of the total eggs produced in the United States. If you stacked up all the sausage patties served in one day, they would be taller than the Empire State Building. Waffle House is the world’s leading server of T-bone steaks, pork chops, grits, raisin toast, Heinz steak sauce, and of course, waffles.
Their jukeboxes even feature original Waffle House songs: 844,739 Ways to Eat a Hamburger, Waffle Do Wop, and There are Raisins in My Toast.
I dropped in on an Amarillo Waffle House recently, wanting to discover its stubborn appeal to today’s diners.
The first customer I met was the perfect prototype: Doyle, a cross country trucker who eats at Waffle House five times a week. He did not hesitate to rattle off reasons for his love of the place.
“Because the food’s good, the coffee’s good, and the people are friendly,” he said, takes a breath then adds, “And the prices are right.”
Doyle (who introduced the two ladies seated with him as “this is my wife and this is my girlfriend”) insisted it’s all about the food.
“If I’m really hungry I get the All-Star, that’s real good,” he said. “It’s two eggs, hash browns (Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Topped & Diced), toast, and sausage... you can wolf that on down and go lay down and go to sleep real well. I’ll eat a hamburger here a lot, sometimes I’ll get a steak.”
His wife added, “And they have the best apple pie that they warm up on the grill.”
Doyle’s “girlfriend” T.J. prefers the pecan waffles. “This is the Waffle House,” she noted dryly. “You have to have a waffle, you know.”
The appeal of Waffle House goes beyond the good grub. It is the show. Where else (besides in your own kitchen) do you get to watch the cook fix your meal?
There is an art to keeping all the orders straight. It is known that they use a marking system - something about where they place the condiments on the plate tells them what the order is - but they don’t like talking about it.
David has been a grill cook “for 10 years off and on.” Like all Waffle House cooks, he takes pride in seeing how many orders he can handle at once.
“Most cooks can go down past the waffle iron,” David said, pointing to a spot about five feet from the grill. “But the boss who taught me had plates stacked all over. He reached everything; one step this way, one step that way, he had the whole kitchen covered by himself.”
When you step into a Waffle House, you become part of the show. The minute I hit the door, a waitress hollered “Howdy.”
“That is very important part of the Waffle House deal,” said Shirley, who has worked here for 18 years. “We greet all customers and make them feel welcome. Sometimes they just stand there and say, are you talking to me?”
Jenny has been a waitress for four months. But she had been coming here as a customer for 14 years, when “she asked them to hire me.” She considers conversation part of the Waffle House way. “We see customers ordering, pretty soon they are getting up and sitting with each other.”
Of course, there is the other side of the crowd participation equation. Since Waffle House is open 24 hours, the place is a magnet for the bar closing crowd. Those costumers can become belligerent. But there are compensations, according to Jenny. “You usually get your biggest tips from drunks,” she said sweetly.
Never been to a Waffle House? Doyle the trucker has a message for you.
“You don’t know what you are missing,” he said. “It’s a good, fun, friendly experience. You can cut up with the waitresses and give ‘em a hard time and get it right back.” He laughed. “But you have to watch out for the cooks - they have implements to throw.”
Jenny’s invitation would probably sound more appealing to the Waffle House marketing department.
“Try us,” she said. “It’s always morning at Waffle House.”