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Waffle House Vistas

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Re: Waffle House Vistas

#101

Post by quickthrower2 »

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…

Sounds like you really got to know each other and made an eyes wide open decision to stay together. To me this sounds a wise way to make that decision.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#102

Post by testpostpls »

zb wrote: post #93
_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…

It's interesting to me how views are so polarised. I once asked a professional cook where the best restaurant in town was and she said she mostly just ate at WaHo. I had seen the Bourdain clip. So when I finally went there the first time I was predisposed to like it. And it was just disappointing. The syrup, for example, is basically high-fructose corn syrup with added flavouring. So is the ketchup. I didn't sample t…

It’s tasty. The honesty isn’t in the food. It’s in the eater.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#103

Post by tenpies »

peterwwillis wrote: post #13
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.

And why would boycotting a waffle house combat police brutality? Is it supposed to pressure waffle house to condemn the police?

Activists often try to get corporations to bend the proverbial knee and "have a discussion" which ultimately leads to "commit to training" which is code for "hire me or people very similar to me".

A great example was Starbucks who sank several millions into training. That training is based on known flawed testing and almost certainly does nothing to ameliorate the problem it claims to fix. It is fantastic for the social justice activist educator industry though. At best it's a conflict of interest. At worst it's blackmail.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#104

Post by microtherion »

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 stamp recipients are: Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, New Mexico, Louisiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2014/05/S...

I still think Joseph Heller had that kind of ideology pegged best:

> He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. [...] Major Major's father was an outspoken champion of economy in government, provided it did not interfere with the sacred duty of government to pay farmers as much as they could get for all the alfalfa they produced that no one else wanted or for not producing any alfalfa at all.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#105

Post by fangsout »

techsupporter wrote: post #98

It's funny: Reading this thread, I now know what people who didn't grow up with / don't like Whataburger must feel. I'm Texan, born and raised, and grew up around three Waffle House restaurants. My hometown, that grew from a wide spot on the US highway to a very wide spot on the Interstate, had two of them, one at each of the two (then) major exits. Nobody I knew ate there on a regular basis. They never got mentioned…

That makes sense to me. I had the exact opposite experience. Growing up in Florida, everyone went to waffle houses on the weekends, and the only whataburger closed down and turned into some other chain restaurant. After living in Texas for a few years, the locals are fiercely loyal to whataburger, but I still don't share the enthusiasm. I assume it's more about being a part of your personal identity and childhood memories than it is really about food quality.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#106

Post by jccalhoun »

Growing up in Indiana, we had unique "Waffle House" restaurants. These were a local chain that was more like a Dennys than the Southern Waffle House. I don't know if the Indiana Waffle House was started as a rip off of the other Waffle House or just a coincidence. For years the Southern Waffle House was known as "Waffle Steak" in Indiana but they have changed to the real name and the Indiana Waffle Houses have either closed or changed their name to Sunshine Cafe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House#Waffle_and_Stea...

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#107

Post by subpixel »

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.)

That’s actually the Waffle House I grew up going to with my family and ate at three times a week during high school lunch period.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#108

Post by subpixel »

badfrog wrote: post #54
mywittyname wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> the food is objectively bad Completely disagree. IMO the hash browns and waffles are better than all fast food chains, most hotel/business breakfasts, and many diners.

I’m a lifelong patron and there’s really no hiding it: the food is not good. The grits are glue, the waffles are corn syrupy, the actual syrup is also corn syrupy, and the meat - well I no longer eat the meat.

But as an operation and an experience, it’s a treasure.

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#109

Post by Zelphyr »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #77
madcaptenor wrote: post #4

I live in the suburbs of Atlanta, the Waffle House homeland. When we introduced ourselves to the neighbors, their young daughter made sure we knew where the Waffle House was.

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!

Re: Waffle House Vistas

#110

Post by Zelphyr »

jtmcmc wrote: post #72
chasedehan wrote: post #43

Waffle House is perhaps the only reason I would return to the South. Having spent many years in the Carolinas, it was a special time with my daughters that we would have “our time” at the Waffle House. My wife from New Jersey never understood and was happy to let us go. There is just something about the simplicity of the place that just makes me happy. Now that I live Out West nothing comes close - not IHOP or Denny’…

yes it is one of the few things I look forward to when I return back to the south.

And Krystal's. I don't care what anyone says. That's foods good! I have fond memories of my grandfather randomly saying, "Let's go get some Krystal's!" 15 minutes and probably $5 later we'd have dinner for me, him and my grandmother.
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