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Waffle House Vistas

bittersoutherner.com

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Re: Waffle House Vistas

#61

Post by kingbirdy »

Yhippa wrote: post #35

Across the street from the Richmond International Airport in Richmond, VA there are two Waffle Houses on the same road that are about 2,000 feet apart. They're on the same side of the road. Anybody know why that would be? I could understand if they were on opposite sides of the street but this makes no sense to me.

I've found two Waffle Houses next door to each other in Atlanta where the second one was exclusively for producing food for delivery services. Not sure if that would be the situation in Richmond as well.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#63

Post by kingbirdy »

dmuth wrote: post #12

Sounds like Waffle House is to the South what Wawa is to the Philadelphia area. :-) I've only been in a Waffle House once, but did enjoy the food and the service--definitely on my list for the next time I'm down south.

As a transplant from the South to Philly, it's not even close. The staff in a Waffle House are happy to help you, and great to talk to. I'ts a place to sit down and hang out for hours at a time with your friends, recovering from a breakup, or a night out, or a hard day's work. At Wawa they just want you to get your shit and get out - most don't even have seating, and you're not being waited on by someone, just interacting with a touchscreen, then being handed your food across a counter.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#64

Post by wkearney99 »

mywittyname wrote: post #40
js2 wrote: post #8

I love Waffle House but I can’t convince my wife, kids, cousins or anyone else in my family. They just don’t get it. But I don’t care, Anthony Bourdain got it: https://youtu.be/bct8stbZafI (As long as I live, I’ll think of him every time I see a Waffle House.)

I love the place (smoother & covered & country, pecan waffles, side sausage, and black coffee). I make it my mission to dine their with every friend I have. But it's definitely a place you have to "get" because the food is objectively bad (except the coffee, which is amazing). So much of the appeal for me is the nostalgia and atmosphere. My roots are rural and poor, so when I walk into a WH, I feel like I'm surrounde…

I concur, the food is just not very good. Anyone that thinks it is clearly needs to broaden their culinary horizons.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#65

Post by et15 »

athenot wrote: post #14

One of the aspects of Waffle House that's always impressed me is their commitment to be open no matter what happens. This has prompted the informal Waffle House Index: the informal metric used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine the effect of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery. https://www.fema.gov/blog/2011-07-07/news-day-what-do-waffle...

Wouldn't this just mean that they are putting their employees lives in danger more than the average restaurant? It's got to be hard to choose between following a suggested evacuation and losing your job.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#66

Post by ggm »

moron4hire wrote: post #60
ggm wrote: post #29

I think it's likely you can't transplant the culture. You could open a franchise in Quebec or Aberdeen but they'd be different. A case in point is taco bell: they've opened here in Queensland, nobody is making jokes about food poisoning.

It might get there, eventually. They've been slowly marching up the Mid Atlantic region for the last 20 years. There are two in Scranton, PA now, and three along Lake Erie just north-east of Cleveland, OH. https://locations.wafflehouse.com/

Slow is more likely to preserve the feel I think. The team helping open doors more likely to be part of keeping it real. But given time I think it would bifurcate in a mason-dixon line way. (I rarely get to the south east but now have a new goal to unlock)

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#67

Post by sudosteph »

I'm an NC native myself and always found waffle house more of a last-resort late night meal (hard to pick over bojangles, cookout, zaxbys or showmars for day-time fast and cheap eats), but still glad to see it provided so many folks with positive memories.

Still, strange to read all the romanticising over it. Sure it's diverse, but that's just living in the south for you. One of my mom's friends was a waffle house cook, and to go by her experience it wasn't a great gig. Inconvenient hours, and paid just enough to afford a double wide and old pickup. But a job is better than no job, and a meal at waffle house is better than no meal (or gas station food).

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#68

Post by moron4hire »

creaghpatr wrote: post #5

>Those incidents prompted the Rev. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, to call for a boycott of the beloved chain. Maybe her heart was in the right place but that idea was doomed from the start. Waffle House and Chick-fil-a are 100% boycott proof in the south, me personally I eat at waho 3 times a week- it’s the best most consistent bang for your buck and the service is impeccable even at 4am.

Yeah, I don't know how Chik-fil-a works, but Waffle Houses are very independent franchises.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#69

Post by perl4ever »

sudosteph wrote: post #67

I'm an NC native myself and always found waffle house more of a last-resort late night meal (hard to pick over bojangles, cookout, zaxbys or showmars for day-time fast and cheap eats), but still glad to see it provided so many folks with positive memories. Still, strange to read all the romanticising over it. Sure it's diverse, but that's just living in the south for you. One of my mom's friends was a waffle house co…

I live (and grew up) in NY hundreds of miles from any Waffle House, and I still like them enough to usually visit one whenever I'm south of DC. People talk about other things they do than waffles, but I prefer their waffles to IHOP, Denny's or the non-chain diners near me. Many diners will serve you something just like the free waffles at hotels, which I think is sad.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#70

Post by perl4ever »

_bxg1 wrote: post #32
js2 wrote: post #8

I love Waffle House but I can’t convince my wife, kids, cousins or anyone else in my family. They just don’t get it. But I don’t care, Anthony Bourdain got it: https://youtu.be/bct8stbZafI (As long as I live, I’ll think of him every time I see a Waffle House.)

I'd never been to one until a couple years ago, when my girlfriend swore by it and took me there. I've been hooked since. It feels like stepping into a time machine, to when "fast food" wasn't a chemical amalgamation that a soulless corporation was trying to pass off as food. Waffle House has cheap but honest food, and is staffed by people who don't appear to be miserable and don't have to hide in the back with the m…

I always thought of their waffles as "a tasty chemical amalgamation that a soulless corporation was trying to pass off as food". I'd think it's a pretty rare waffle that doesn't have chemical leavening.

I think they could improve their cooking in some respects by using microwaves more. I really hate bacon that isn't crispy, and surprisingly enough, a microwave will do that quickly when used properly. I've only ever seen one restaurant do that openly. It's a mystery to me why all of the awful fast food chain breakfast sandwiches don't take advantage of the technique.

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