smoothered and dropped

my dining excitement

I recently ate at an American institution which invariably warms my heart while meeting my expectations. Those who know me as a crazed vegan probably would fall of your chairs to hear that I am an utter devotee of Waffle House. I want to celebrate them today.

I didn’t know they were a chain when I first ate at one near my parents’ retirement home in southwest Missouri. It was just the most convenient place to get a quick, decent traditional American breakfast forty years ago. I have a weird relationship with waffles. They were a childhood luxury because my mother had an old-fashioned waffler so they took a long time, thus we rarely had them. But she made such…a….big….deal when she served them. Finding a restaurant where that very meal would be less annoying was nice but I confess my mind was elsewhere as I was early in my quest for security in the academic world. And the coffee was hardly gourmet but bottomless cups rule. This was before I ever heard of Starbucks (note to world: there really was a world before Starbucks. Trust me, please) but I am always satisfied as they serve so many cups that it never becomes stale.

Fast forward to living in Virginia where venturing south invariably led to a Waffle House. As my father would have said, WHs are ‘thick’ in the eastern portion of the country south of Pennsylvania.

It was at that point I came to appreciate what I truly love about them. It’s the people who work there, whether in Chattam County, North Carolina, Mechanicsville, Virginia, or east of Naples, Florida. They are hard working but incredibly welcoming people. They are also working their fingers to the bone while there as so many of us stop by.

You walk into a Waffle House to a greeting by at least a couple of voices ‘Welcome to Waffle House! Please have a seat wherever you’d like’. The tables are not fancy but they are clean. They are serviceable for folks on the road as this chain, founded in the late 1950s near Atlanta as I read their material, specialises in putting decently priced, quick meals on the table for Americans on the road.

I fully grasp that Waffle House is not for everyone. I really don’t care. They have a breakfast menu limited to eggs, grits, bacon, waffles, and a few other things. They also serve a couple of true specialities (as the Brits would call them). This chain does not try to be IHOP or Denny’s. The back of the menus now includes a broader array of dishes to include other options but I confess I never get those options so I can’t detail them.

The specialities include raisin toast which is always a hit with my husband. The opportunity to order means we often take it on the road as their meals are large but it’s a guaranteed treat. It’s actually raisin cinnamon toast.

Additionally, and most importantly, they serve labour-intensive real hashed brown potatoes. I am not talking about country potatoes, breakfast potatoes, or some other concoction. This is hashed brown potatoes grated into little potato strips cooked to heavenly crispiness. And they put stuff on them if you’re willing to pay a couple of dollars more. I mean GREAT stuff: onions, chili, or—heaven on earth-jalapeños. The sound of hearing the staff call out their orders to the grill staff saying ‘Jalapeño smoothered’ makes my heart beat faster as one can never ever eat too many of those babies. (Just writing makes me salivate, though I am not sure whether it’s the heat of the peppers or the crustiness that is so appealing. And, yes, I know they are shattering your image of my eating habits but this is a confessional.)

But, it truly is the staff that draws me to this restaurant chain. It’s the only place I am aware of (perhaps my life is way more limited than I think) where the number of patrons from all races and genders are pretty equal. People who drive this country are from across the ethnic spectrum and Waffle House welcomes them. I have seen signs on display over the years noting that the chain won’t tolerate discrimination and everyone is welcome to their restaurants. Obviously I have visited only a portion of their outlets but I am always so impressed by the array of people of all ages, races, income levels who wander into one of their restaurants.

The staff is invariably wide ranging as well. They are incredibly hard working, with no one simply standing about because the places are hopping with patrons in and out all of the time. They also are so detail-oriented, well trained, and careful. The staff knows each of their roles, carrying it out much as an assembly line as that is the restaurant’s model to serve the volume of orders they almost always receive from hurried travelers. After we received our order recently, occurring as breakfast traffic sped up, our server returned fully four times to ask if we had what we ordered (nuanced as we each ordered something radically different) and whether there anything else she could do for us. Sure, she might have been looking for a tip but her attitude suggested instead a young woman striving to get her job right. I am sure it was her initial job so I wish her well in a company that hopefully offers some sustainabiity and upwards options.

Waffle Houses are not going to win James Beard awards but they win with me for the hardworking, reliable, and reasonable service and food they offer. I also love spending my money at a place where women and men share tasks and laugh a lot together. I admit I prefer a place where people seem real rather than one focusing on fancy surroundings rather than food. And those smoothered potatoes….Did I mention they also have an array of hot sauces?

My kids always knew we were stopping at Waffle House whenever we travelled; we didn’t really discuss it. They also learned that my policy is always to double the tip I would give someone elsewhere because the service is reliable and I know these people earn it. They care so they should know I appreciate that.

I close with a story about the restaurant I heard during our dreadful winter of 2010. The Waffle House along our route to see family up north is about half a mile off of Interstate 95. During that particular winter, this part of the country had three straight weeks of storms that paralysed us. Somehow when we were travelling north for our annual spring family dinner, we struck up a conversation with our server about how they handled that messy three weeks in February. She rather straightened her 19 or 20 year old back as she said ‘Oh, we were open the whole time. Our boss got a couple of rooms at a motel nearby so we didn’t have to shut the restaurant in case people were out on the road with no where else to go. We had lots of people in so it was a good move. We did well’.

I don’t have any false understanding that Waffle House is perfect, either the employees or the corporation. But I revel in eating at a place that knows its job, seeks to master it by training the employees well, and offers them opportunities in towns where those options might be small in number as more rural communities struggle with the changing economy. Perhaps I am wrong but I enjoy it. Maybe I am just remembering it fondly because I first went while both of my long-dead parents and grandmother were around.

But I have certainly been to less impressive places with folks serving me as if I were bothering them. Not my kind of attitude, thank you, regardless of the acclaim or the food. If you get the chance, try an egg platter with grits, raisin toast, and some decent coffee. Let me know. Tell them Cynthia sent you.

Thank you for reading this today. Thoughts? I welcome any and all of them.

The balcony door is open so I enjoyed chatting on the phone outside this afternoon. Spring, finally! Let’s hope it’s a good summer for all.

Wishing you a satisfying week. Be well and be safe. FIN