I don’t know about you, but when we’re traveling in our RV we keep a sharp eye out for eleven distinctive yellow letters. These letters spell “Waffle House,” an RVer’s respite. Serving breakfasts, lunch, and dinners, happy patrons would say that Waffle House spells YUM!
Waffle House beginnings
In 1955, two Georgia neighbors, Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner, decided to open a 24-hour, sit-down restaurant. The partnership’s founding principle was a simple one: Offer the friendliest customer service in town, while also providing career opportunities for the associates. In the words of Joe Rogers Sr.: “We aren’t in the food business. We’re in the people business.”
Growth
Since their first restaurant in 1955, Rogers and Forkner have opened almost 2,000 stores. The majority of their restaurants are located in the Midwest and Southern states, often along major highways and interstates. Every Waffle House is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The cheerful yellow logo letters continue to alert potential patrons to good food along highways and interstates today.
Foods
While these locations are often frequented by overnight revelers, our family visits during daytime hours. We love (and usually order) Waffle House breakfasts no matter what the time of day. After all, with “waffle” in their name, you know they’ll be good, right? Bacon, hash browns, eggs, and other yummy sides complete the meal. Afterwards, we’re ready to get back on the road again.
We’re not alone in our love for Waffle House. The late chef Anthony Bourdain once said, “It is indeed marvelous. A place of safety and nourishment. It never closes. It is always faithful, always there for you.”
Museum
The original location in Decatur, Georgia, is now the site of the Waffle House Museum. Opened in the summer of 2023, the restaurant’s interior has been lovingly restored to its original 1955 design. Visitors to the museum can view more than sixty years of Waffle House uniforms, jukeboxes, and memories.
Waffle House Index
I was surprised to discover that the “Waffle House Index” is now an actual indicator of storm damage and is used by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Craig Fugate, former FEMA Administrator, coined the phrase while surveying the damage left by Hurricane Charley in 2004. Turns out, Fugate and his associates ate each morning at any Waffle House with power or partially restored power. They noted which restaurants had restored power and used color codes to indicate those operational Waffle House locations on a map. Fugate said, “If they weren’t closed and had a full menu, you were moving well into recovery operations and [the situation] was much more stable.”
The FEMA administrator went on to say, “If you’re sending teams into an area of impact and they start seeing damages, is this an area where they need to stop and go to work in, or do they keep going? How do you know you’re in the most heavily impacted area? In many cases, the Waffle Houses were one of those indicators.”
Fascinating facts
Here are some interesting facts that surprised me:
- Eggs. A whopping 2% of all of the eggs produced in the United States are purchased by Waffle House restaurants.
- Bacon. Waffle House restaurants make over 25,000 miles of bacon, end-to-end, each year—enough to wrap around the Earth’s equator.
- T-bones. Since 1955, Waffle House restaurants have served 134,842,441 T-bone steaks to its customers.
Now you know how it happened! Check out the Waffle House menu here.
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Some Waffle Houses I call Awful House. In the one closest to my home location, I have seen cockroaches climbing up the walls. Perhaps not a multitude of cockroaches but one or two is enough to make me want to not return. A few I have been to were miraculously clean. However, the vast majority of stand alone Waffle Houses have parking lots that are tiny and when towing an RV, even a small travel trailer, there is no space available to park. I am not saying that McDonald’s is better; WH’s menu is better. But the vast majority of McDonald’s locations have RV accessible parking lots. The same is true for Cracker Barrel locations.
Granted….the WH parking lot itself is not conducive to RV sized vehicles, but we’ve always found an adjacent property with space to park. I always leave a sign in the windshield saying the owner is nearby if this vehicle needs to be moved along with my cell number. NEVER been an issue. Wish I had a WH near where I live.
You missed on”The Waffle House Damage Indicator”. Depending upon the level of lightning shown by the Waffle House sign, they are indicating the level of service available at that location.
Lightning?
My go-to travel food. Waffle House FTW!
The only bad thing about Waffle House is the noise, I have to turn my hearing aids down because of the noise, between the kitchen and customers.
Gail,
This was both interesting and informative- thank you!
I have never eaten at one, and breakfast is my fave meal. But I have no desire to try one if their food quality is anything like IHOP or Denny’s. Someone please give me a comparison! 🙂
It is in a class of its own. Plainer than IHOP…no whipped ? on everything and no coagulated sauces. Compared to Dennys……I’d rather Waffle House. Stop in for breakfast, coffee is great!
True Waffle House devotees know to ask for a “grilled waffle”.
They were a good place to stop when I was a business traveller. Not my wife’s idea of a place to eat. The food is decent – and it is all prepared (or pretty much all) on what amounts to a huge blackstone griddle right in front of the customers. You know there is no ‘5-second rule in play’. Is it fancy? No. not the food, decor or people. But in most Waffle Houses, you get a solid square, the furniture is clean, and if you are interested, you can strike up a conversation with everyday people.
The last time I had been in a Waffle house years ago, it had dirty dishes piled on the counter and it was cold. It was a holiday and only place opened.
Wow! Didn’t know that about the Waffle House.
Hi, Bill. You just never know what you’ll learn here on RVtravel.com, eh? I love that I’m learning tons of new stuff every day, from our intelligent and always-curious writers and our very knowledgeable readers.👍 Love it! Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
“The majority of their restaurants are located in the Midwest and Southern states”. Recently saw one in Mesa, Ariz.
Thank you, Gail! Well, I have eaten at a Waffle House 3 or 4 times. My nephew cooked at a nearby Waffle House for a few years. He cooked the meal one of the times that I ate there. We, and I in particular, never (as in 3 or 4 times in the past 35 years) eat breakfast in a restaurant. Eating breakfast items for lunch or supper is something that we sometimes do, but invariably when we are home, not in a restaurant. Safe travels! 🙂