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Tuesday, April 01, 2025

Waffle House - The Roman Colosseum Of The South

VIDEO HERE (16:34 minutes)

This was not at all what I expected and I'm actually pretty impressed.

16 comments:

  1. You wish people talked this way about Your biz.
    I was lucky to have a few business situations that were this focused. Some upper mgmt puke either sold the biz, or “improved it” to death…

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  2. Clint Eastwood hung out at my local Waffle House back in the day.
    Ok...not actually Clint Eastwood. But walked like him...talked like him... damn sure dressed like him (think High Plains Drifter).
    Just sat in a corner booth drinking coffee. Quite the character.

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    1. Our celebrity looked like the Santa from old coca cola ads. With Bermuda shorts.

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  3. Thanks Ken. That was really interesting. After watching the video, I read the Wiki pages of both the Waffle House and the pages of both of its founders, and also the page about FEMA's use of its 'Waffle House Index'. Fascinating.

    I really liked the part of the video where the company wanted to expand an existing store but since that kind of violated their business model, they just built an identical restaurant right next door. What a hoot!

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    1. Made me want to build one here in California. xoxoxox

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  4. Fat Electrician's piece on Chick Fil A is equally good

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  5. Our WH is out by the interstate, right next to a large truck stop. Have never stopped in there but one of the kids did late at night because that was the only thing open.

    If I could give Elon some advice it would be this: sell Tesla and quietly buy WH without divulging your ownership. It's called getting back to basics.

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  6. I've been to many a Waffle House over the years, but I had no idea about all of this.

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  7. JC: AJC gives it as 'The restaurant chain actually claims there are 1,572,864 possible hash brown combos, which isn’t totally a lie. The number considers Waffle House’s four hash brown preparation methods (plain with oil, seared well, steamed with ice or cooked dry), three sizes and 18 additional ingredients (think ketchup, jalapeños, etc.). But if you only consider the three sizes and eight “scattered” hash brown styles above, you might conclude there are actually 768 different combinations available.' Eggs are either scrambled, fried or omelets, with of course anything you could get with hash browns. Or hash browns in your scrambled eggs! Or a burger! Or a chicken sammich. Our buddy Mike Hendrix did a post on this a couple weeks ago over at Cold Fury. But it's amazing. Batter, eggs (need those for the batter anyway), 'taters, couple of toppings, and there's a monolith that will survive!

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  8. Two guys staying focused on what is important.

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  9. Last time I was in one I sat down and ordered without looking at the menu. The waiter said "I think you spent at little too much time at the Waffle House".

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  10. The WH on St. Simons Island does more business on the weekend the Georgia Florida football game than is does any other month of the year. They have to restock it twice during the weekend.

    My standard order: 2 eggs over medium, scattered, smothered, covered, sausage, Texas toast, strawberry jam, and black coffee.

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  11. #1 - I could actually hear that cat cussing as it climbed the well shaft. Definitely a southern cat - the cursing was really heartfelt and loud !

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  12. He's NOT wrong. I've eaten in a lot of WH over the years, and consistency is there regardless of which one you walk into.

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  13. It's an interesting contrast how Buc-ee's promotes itself as a truck stop Xanadu, while each Waffle House is the same small scale (looking) eat 'n run, and they're both incredibly successful.
    -lg

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