Waffle House Vistas • Hacker News Board

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#111

Post by madcaptenor » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 1:14 PM UTC

Zelphyr wrote: post #109

quantumhobbit wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My high school cross country running coach used to navigate by Waffle Houses. As in “4 more Waffle Houses til our exit”

The problem is, in Atlanta anyway, there will literally be two Waffle House's on the corners of an interstate exit. I'm thinking in particular a Jonesboro exit I used to live near, but it wasn't necessarily unique. It always amused me when I was younger that you could go to either one at 2am and it would be filled with both kids like me getting some food after a party and truckers stopping for a break. Filled!

285 and Buford Highway is another one.

I've heard that part of the reason for this is that Waffle Houses only come in one size, so if there's more demand they build more locations instead of bigger ones.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#112

Post by Zelphyr » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 1:15 PM UTC

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 suspect some of it is nostalgia. For me, when I lived near so many of them I took them for granted. Now that I have to drive a decent distance to get to one means they're more special to me. It brings back memories when I go to one. My dad was notorious for visiting them when I was a kid. He'd give me his copies of Popular Science and invariably a Waffle House order ticket would be stuffed in somewhere that he had used as a bookmark.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#113

Post by Sileni » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 2:22 PM UTC

iambateman wrote: post #78

My Waffle House story: My girlfriend and I had spent three rough months trying to figure out how to date each other. Nothing was working. We were awkward and poor communicators and just generally not a good fit. We were going to a coffee shop to break up but figured we would see too many people we knew. Break ups are emotional. So we escaped. To Waffle House. I don't remember what either of us ordered, probably hashb…

My girlfriend and I were talking about a similar concept a few minutes ago. Our theory is this:

When you meet someone who's similar to you, or doesn't have much overlap, you tend to get along easily, because it's a frictionless surface. When you meet someone who compliments you, it takes time for the gears to lock into place. You're going to miss the connections a few times, but once they click, they're rock solid.

Any time you initially don't get along with someone, but generally think they're level with you in most ways, it's probably best to give it some time and see how it goes. They might compliment you a lot better than someone who's agreeable immediately.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#114

Post by mezzafour » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #37

_bxg1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 love waffle house because I can tip 100%.

You put your finger on it. You can tip 100% and someone else with limited mulah can't. That's what makes it special and impossible to find such WHs in SF, LA, NYC areas.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#115

Post by imroot » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 3:08 PM UTC

Waffle House is one of my late night haunts; there's not one near my Miami Home, but, there's one near my place in Cincinnati.

I've been in a Waffle House when a Bengal player walks in with his "crew," and he paid for everyone's food (including mine), tipping the wait staff with $100 bills.

I've also been at a Waffle House with a woman who ordered a salad. Suffice to say, that relationship didn't last at all.

Good nights end at Waffle House -- when one of my friends got married, we all went to Waffle House after the reception, bride and groom included.

The idle chit-chat, the consistent menu...Texas Bacon Cheesesteak Melt sandwich with a waffle, well done and a sprite. Open all night, half the customers are always diverse and or drunk or stoned off their ass, and still manages to have fewer fist fights than a Chuck-E-Cheez.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#116

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 3:10 PM UTC

microtherion wrote: post #104

komali2 wrote: post #49

This is a great article and I'm going to use this to demonstrate to non-rural Americans (i.e., city peeps or just non-americans) what rural America is actually like. Sure, stretches of farmland, cows, corn. But what it really is is a place where you absolutely MUST have a car (or ATV or horse or something) or the only food you're eating is the food you're growing, and the best restaurant in town may very well be the…

> Don't be surprised at the non-ironic bootstrap language coming from red state americans - it's the reality for many of them. The ten states where federal aid makes up the highest percentage of the state budget are: Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, Wyoming, Alaska, Missouri https://taxfoundation.org/federal-aid-reliance-rankings/ The ten states the highest percentage of food…

[deleted]

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#117

Post by phasetransition » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

dpeck wrote: post #71

phasetransition wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait. I think I am supposed to grab lunch with you through our mutual friend Eric S. Does this sound familiar?

Doesn’t sound familiar, but honestly if it’s a meat and 3, with anybody who frequents HN we’d probably have a mighty fine lunch.

:-) true enough, and I'll take you up on that.

Especially if you sold a wireless mesh company and know a guy named Eric from your GT days who recently changed jobs from one consultancy to another...

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#118

Post by mvdwoord » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 4:41 PM UTC

2bitencryption wrote: post #9

Lately I've had an interest in documentary-style photography, particularly collections with themes such as this. The wonderful BBC feature "The Genius of Photography" helped drive this interest in me. I feel like I have a strong appreciation for these Waffle House photos that I would not have had a month ago. This is really great.

You might like this, although in Dutch so translate where necessary. It is the website for a recently released book called "Chin. Ind. Spec. Rest." which is short for (translated) Chinese Indonesian Specialty Restaurant. A type of restaurant only found in the Netherlands combining neither Chinese nor proper Indonesian food but which has been a staple for many dutch people for a generation or two.

I have eaten or got take out from a place like this many times in my youth. Think MSG laden heaps of cheap food trying to resemble both Chinese and Indonesian cuisine but with lots of dishes that are neither. Even though I never really eat there anymore, every once in a while my family will still get take out from such a place and even though I have a strong dislike for the food over the years, there is a certain feeling these places invoke which is reminiscent of my youth.

https://www.chinindspecrest.nl/impressie

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#119

Post by dharmon » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

iambateman wrote: post #78

My Waffle House story: My girlfriend and I had spent three rough months trying to figure out how to date each other. Nothing was working. We were awkward and poor communicators and just generally not a good fit. We were going to a coffee shop to break up but figured we would see too many people we knew. Break ups are emotional. So we escaped. To Waffle House. I don't remember what either of us ordered, probably hashb…

And I said, "What about coffee at Waffle House?"

She said, "I think I remember the swill,

And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it."

And I said, "Well that's the one thing we've got."

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#120

Post by technofiend » Sat, Mar 16, 2019, 8:30 PM UTC

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'm sorry you've had such a poor experience at the waffle house. I go for the opposite reason: the WH cooks make so much breakfast food all day every day that they're quite good at it. Now whether you actually like that kind of food may make you think it's bad when really it's just something you don't care for.

Having said that I happen to agree with the other comments that their meat can be poor quality, but their hashbrowns, eggs, toast and waffles are perfect.