February 17, 2026 • 43 mins
In a small suburb of Atlanta back in the 1950s, two men hatched an amazing concept: a restaurant that never closes. In today's episode, the guys explore the origin story of Georgia's most mythical restaurant: Waffle House.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man,
the Myth, the Legend, our super producer, Max short Order.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Williams Max scattered, smothered, covered, chunks, capped all of the ways.
This might be nonsense. Talk to some of you folks
not from the South, the Southern climbs here around Atlanta, Georgia.
But we're talking about waffle house ordering code.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So you're Noel Brown, I'm Ben Bullen, And actually I
just landed in a different city this week and I
was looking for or a waffle house because I thought
it would be fun to visit before we record. There
are no waffle houses in the state of New York,
but Pennsylvania you can have a few. And that makes
sense to your point about the line of demarcation, because
(01:13):
Pennsylvania is somewhere between the South and somewhere between the north.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, he's sort of like partially basically Canada. I mean,
I think instead of waffle house, did don't they have
Timmy's Tim Horton's Pennsylvania. I think it's true yeah, I
loves Tim Hortons.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It's a confluence of events and so cast your memory back, folks.
We've alluded to this a while ago, but we went
through a collective waffle House phase I think, I want
to say sometime last year, and we actually went to
the waffle House Museum. Because waffle House was founded in
our fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia, but now it's it's
(01:52):
world famous, I think in large part due to the Internet.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
To be honest, it's true. It is. Also we've talked
about this on our sister show, The Stuff that I
want you to know. The waffle House Index, the sort
of somewhat imaginary concept that if waffle houses closed their doors,
because they are in fact open twenty four hours a day,
then the weather really must be bad. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Waffle House is known for its storied history for being
virtually always open, and it's a very accepting place. I
think it's fair to say. Having spent some time in
the American South, all three of us, we have spent
some very formative evenings at waffle House. This is why
we finally reached out to Big Waffle ourselves. Lo and behold,
(02:36):
they hit us back. They couldn't be nicer people. They
gave us an exclusive tour of the museum. We decided
we were going to finally share the story. But quick disclaimer,
this one's probably going to make you hungry. I think
this is going to be one of those where you
and I both end the show going is it time
to eat lunch?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, good news, Ben is there's a wa Hoo right
down the street from me, and they deliver, so I
might even pre order my I like you know what
I like, Ben, I like the Philly Cheese steak hash
Brown bowl. I'm a fan of that guy. Yeah, that's
a nice one. Man.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
We know that that is a more in the grand scheme.
That's a more recent addition to the menu, because as
we saw when you, Max and I journey to the museum,
their menus still add all the same basics, but they
started adding stuff. They didn't originally have the hash brown
code until much later because they you know, waffle House
(03:41):
was founded in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's right, and we'll get to the individual meanings of
those hash brown order codes. But that's right in Avondale Estates,
which is like the next exit over. Not to dox myself,
from where I live. It is a really delightful little
community to this day, where there's a lot of fun
little shops. It kind of feels like a little German
village in some ways.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, they tried to. It's it's a super weird pocket.
They used to live very close to there. And the
thing is, folks, when you drive past, there's a stretch
of several blocks in downtown Avondale that were explicitly designed
to look like Shakespeare's the route to look like Shakespearean times.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I think I might have gotten my European wires crossed.
It is a little bit more like old Stratford upon Avon.
I wonder if that's where avon Dale comes. Who knows.
And maybe it's one of the shicken or the egg
kind of things. Speaking of eggs, the co founders of
waffle House are Joe Rogers Senior and Tom Forkner and Ben.
I got to say a bit of a missed nominative
(04:48):
determinism opportunity for Joe's last name to have not been Spooner.
We could have had Spooner and Forkner the founders of
waffle House, but the last That's not how history shook out.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Maybe next time rights, It's still not as on the
nose as their names being like Joe Waffle and Tom
Syrup or something mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Syrup would be an unfortunate surname. We got to look
up the history of the Syrup line of families. Surely
they exist. Tom was a Georgia boy died in the wall.
I think, as they say, through and through, as you
put it in in your wonderful research talk that you
put together for this episode, he was born in Hawkinsville, Georgia,
just about two hours outside of here in Atlanta. And
(05:30):
our buddy Tom, mister Forlkner himself was a lawyer and
a real estate agent and quite the golfer if he
if he said to himself, he did kind of for
a time. Also, Tom was an intelligence officer for the
Manhattan Project record scratch what Okay. I didn't realize we
(05:52):
were going to go nuclear with this waffle house topic.
You never know what you're going to get with ridiculous history.
So let's go to our second main character today, mister
Joe Rogers, also a veteran born in not not a
george boy, but a Tennessee boy from the hollers of
Jackson Tennessee. During World War Two. He also had he
(06:12):
had a bit of a military background as well, not
an intelligence but in the Air Force, where he flew
B twenty four's for our sorry at the Air Force,
the Air Corps of the US Army. Then in nineteen
forty seven, after spending his time doing his term his
stint in the war, he worked as a short order
cook at a place called the Tottle House. Huh okay,
(06:34):
starting to see old influence here. That's over there in
new Haven, Connecticut. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, that's where he was working at the Tottlehouse in
New Haven. It was also a chain restaurant like waffle
House would go on to be, and Tottlehouse was based
in Memphis. Was mainly a takeout joint. So Joe gets
promoted and promoted because he takes his job seriously. He's
quite talented, and he becomes the regional manager at Top.
(07:00):
And as he becomes a regional manager, he has to
relocate to Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's where he meets Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And the way they meet is kind of funny because
Tom doesn't come to him with a business idea. Tom
sells Joe a house in Avondale, because Tom's dad helped
create Avondale Estates and not only did he sell the house,
but they ended up being next door neighbors. I don't
know if that's something real estate people like to do.
(07:29):
What that?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh? Houses? Well?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, Like if we were real estate moguls, or we
were real estate folks and we were selling houses to
other people, would we want to sell a house that's
right next to the one we live in? Like, do
you want that neighbor smoke?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Interesting? I guess it does give you a little bit
of an opportunity to pick your neighbors.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
To us, I would say no, because I mean, I've
never bought a house, but I've rented plenty of houses.
And the thing about it is it doesn't take very
long to start finding small little problems. And so do
you want to walk next door to like, Hey, you
can tell me the foundation of this one part that.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Oh, that's a good point. That's a very good point,
you might Yeah, Well, you know that's we're only talking
here about dishonest trailers. So presumably our buddy here was
the salt of the earth when it comes to his
business practices.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I would like to I would like to as well.
I mean they clear that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We don't know for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well they did at some point, at least for a
time click because they would shoot the breeze with each
other because you know, they're neighbors and it's the South.
Tom comes to Tom is like our idea guy. So
he goes to Joe one day and he says, Joe,
do you want to get into business? Do you want
to like escalate our neighbor relationship? And at first Tom says,
(08:48):
I think we should build a Tottle House, you know,
here in Avondale, And Joe said, that's I love your enthusiasm, Tom,
but I don't think it's smart of us to build
a tottle House because that's a takeout place. My dream
is a place where people can sit down and eat, not.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Just community you want to build. Yes, Can I just
really a quick aside maybe for another episode. I was
looking up to see if the Tottle House was still around,
which it is not in terms of this original chain
that we're talking about, But there was another place called
the Tottle House, which was a very seedy and steamy
nightclub in Culver City that operated from nineteen forty six
(09:27):
to nineteen fifty three until it was shut down for
being a hangout for racketeers and sex workers. And it
has some really kind of tawdry advertisements that would run
in like the La Times, for example, And there was
this really cool article that described the scene in Fortnite
(09:48):
magazine called the Los Angeles Bump and Grind Industry. How
wicked is burlesque? Is it really harming anyone not to
mention an advertorial in the Vanguard describing the scene as
girl Rolls Up Poppin' as a floor show with comedian
and a bevy of beauties who really keep things popping
and a variety of potent cocktails served at the mirrored
(10:09):
bar of the Tottle House, with lots of convenient free
parking too, by the way, So it's totally different Touttlehouse.
But I'm curious as what kind of racketeers were hanging out, Oh, definitely,
and what year? What time span was that again forty six,
two fifty three when it was closed down, And it
also apparently had two serious fires and all kinds of
(10:30):
shenanigans happening at the Tottlehouse over there in Culver City.
But the Tuttlehouse in question for today's episode was a
wholesome place for a family meal. But to your point, Ben,
they didn't have to sit down service.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And also I just I had to do it. Look
up the definition of tottle and it works for both places. Well,
it works more for the cdy place because the definition
of tottle is to move with short, unsteady steps while
learning to walk like a child.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Bit of a show.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, so maybe if people are in their cups and
their party, maybe they end up toddling.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Out the toddlers. Yes, child who can yeah barely walk.
That's there you go. Never thought of the etymology of
that mystery solved, Ben, So what did they decide when
they realized that maybe bringing a franchise of the Tottle
House wasn't quite the move?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Oh yeah, they got even more ambitious. You could feel
the electric brainstorming energy because these guys yes ed each
other so hard. They said, okay, all right, forget Tottlehouse,
will open up our own place. Anybody can come, they
could sit down, they can have decent food, and you
know what, yes, and why don't we stay open all
(11:46):
of the time?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay? The game there, Yeah, quite the quite the novelty,
I suppose maybe there were in the twenty four seven
places at the time, but this certainly would set it
apart from the Tottle House, which I do I believe
operated on a twenty four to seven schedule. So Tom
recalled in an interview piece, we'recalling this whole you know,
origin story, Joe saying the ham you build the restaurant, buddy,
(12:11):
and I'll show you how to run it.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
There we go, And that's that's a very common symbiosis
between restaurant creators. You've got sort of the money guy,
the funding, and then you've got the person who's been
in the trenches of the kitchen, the chef and so on.
And this was such a revolutionary idea. We've been spoiled,
especially before the COVID lockdown. We've been spoiled by having
(12:37):
so many twenty four hour places. But back at this time,
when these guys are brainstorming, the majority of restaurants or heck,
businesses in general, they had strict hours. So if you're
hungry on a holiday or late at night, you were
kind of sol until something opened.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So while we don't necessarily have evidence that this is
the very very very first of its kind in terms
of like a twenty four hour you know, grub joint.
It's definitely a big deal. You're absolutely right, Ben, And
the proof would in fact be in the pudding and
or the delightful the fluffy waffle batter. The very first
waffle house opened on a holiday Labor Day weekend nineteen
(13:15):
fifty five, when Tom and Joe welcome folks into their
original location over there in Avondale's States, which I believe
now is the site of the very museum that we
toured twenty seven nineteen East College and Ben, both you
and I for the longest time had driven by that place,
and we're curious as to why, you know, you couldn't
(13:36):
just walk in, And it does turn out that you
do need to. You know, you gotta know somebody. They don't.
You can't just walk in. You got to have a
guy on the inside.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right right, You do have to be proactive. And we
had driven past this for years and years, so when
we're getting ready to do this episode, we finally did
reach out. And it was a little bit odd for
us to explain it first, to say, hey, you're not
a school that wants to bring a class here. We're
three guys who to a podcast live in the neighborhood.
(14:07):
Please hang out with.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Us, and we are just you know, fans of the place.
It is good food, you know, it's consistent is the
hash Browns are pretty fantastic frankly, and we are not
being sponsored by waffle House here. But they painted the
building a bright yellow hue to catch the eye. And
as we also know in some of our discussions here
on ridiculous history and on stuff they don't want you
(14:29):
to know, yellow is a color that does make people hungry.
Hence the golden arches.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yes, that is absolutely true, Nol. And these guys are
Tom and Joe. They're a perfect marriage of collaboration because
from the moment they opened, they were keeping close track
of what the customers seemed to want. So they looked back.
They were always sort of recalculating stuff. So they look
(14:56):
back at their first menu and said, all right, we
had sixteen things available, but there was one clear popular choice.
Everybody loved the waffles. So we said, we're going to
name ourselves after the most successful thing, waffle house. We'll
just call it that because that's why people are obviously coming.
(15:16):
And you heard that, right, folks. That means they opened
the restaurant before they named it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
How about that? How does that even work? It's just
the yellow building for a second. I'm okay with that.
You know, that's pretty genius. Actually, the restaurant with no name,
it is just a color sort of like prints, you know,
being a symbol. I think that's pretty pretty incredible. No,
the waffle house, you know, not to mention that it
certainly bore a slight resemblance to the tottle house at least,
and it's you know, double consonant kind of middle section there,
(15:47):
and it's just fun to say waffle house, not to
mention that it set it apart from all of the
pancake houses that were much more features in the country.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And also a little peak behind the curtain. Tom would
later say in other interviews, right as the company continued
to grow, he would provide a spin on this narrative,
on this origin story, and he said, I wanted to
call it waffle house because it was also the item
that made the most profit for us.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Like per dish, they made a splash of batter in
that waffle iron to get you a nice, crispy, delightful confection.
I can imagine the margins are pretty good in terms
of favoring the proprietors there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, like a pizza place or popcorn at a theater. Right,
they're very high margins on it. So this is the
weird thing. It's not an immediate runway hit, despite the
fact that waffle house is globally known today and much
beloved in the United States. Joe was a double agent
at this point because he was still working in Toddlehouse management.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I thought he's going to say he was still working
for the Manhattan Project. He was like a secret spy.
That would be cool. That would have been cool, right,
Project Operation Waffle. So, dude, I can't believe there's not
like a government op called Project Waffle or Operation Waff.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
There has to be, and we don't know, I mean,
we don't know what all hasn't been released.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It's true, and we always joke on stuff that. I
want you to know that the more innocuous the name,
the more the more sinister of the project. Right, Like, so,
what does Project Waffle do by day device?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, it's a bioweapon doom state device. Well, okay, because
Joe was worried about conflicts of interest, he sold his
share of the restaurant to his buddy Tom in nineteen
fifty six, just after a year after they had opened,
and Joe moved away from Atlanta for a while. A
lot of people didn't know this. He asked the folks
(17:47):
at Toddle House to make him a straight up partner,
so no longer regional manager. Give me some equity in this.
They said no, and so Joe moved back to Atlanta
and joined back up Toll and then Tom eventually leaves
his dad's real estate business. Now they're both one hundred
percent committed to waffle House, so it better work or
(18:10):
they're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ben, If we may, could we take a quick pause
in our overarching story of the history of the waffle
house to talk a little bit about the history of
the waffle because not only was it sort of a
unique differentiator of a putting waffle right there in the
name to kind of separate it from the crowd of
pancake houses that had been, you know, hugely popular in
(18:38):
the United States, the waffle itself has a really ancient origin,
as of course the pancake does too. There's a million
ways of slicing a pancake or making a thing that's
called that could be compared to a pancake. But the
actual waffle dates a lot farther back than I would
have realized. I would have thought it was the humble
Belgian waffle, but it is in fact something that goes
(18:59):
back to ancient Grows around four thousand years ago.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay, Now at this point did they have the indentations.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It would seem not. It was cooked on heated stones,
so it was something more rigidly resembling a pancake. But
then during the Iron Age we start to see iron
cookware and iron plates and griddles that were used on
both sides of these Sometimes these created these little indentations
(19:30):
because of the way the metal was forged. And then
you started to get into the much more modern kind
of version of a waffle that we know today, when
you had these irons that were forged with these literal
you know, extrusions on them that would make the squares
that obviously just really make that butter and syrup just
(19:53):
just really hang on cling on to every binding, the.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Surface volume, right or the surface area. Excuse me, that's awesome, Joe.
I'm looking at pictures of this link you sent with
these old school waffle irons. So we know, I feel
like we can only really call them a waffle once
we see those irons, right.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I would agree, And that was that. The eye waffle
iron that we know today was patented in Troy, New
York by a guy named Cornelius swartwout A. What a
fabulous day on August twenty fourth, eighteen sixty nine, which
is actually to this day celebrated as National Waffle Day.
(20:37):
And it wasn't until the nineteen tens that the electric
waffle iron was introduced by General Electric. And then it became,
you know, a staple in kitchens across the country around
the nineteen thirties, and then of course we've got frozen
waffles that come and you know it's game on. That's
in the nineteen fifties, with of course the iconic eggo,
Oh Lego, my EGGA.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I've got some of the in the freezer. And also
if I feel like I'm ever in hot water with
a girlfriend, then I will I will make them homemade waffles.
It is a hack, and it works as long as
you didn't do something too too bad the day before.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Well, it's such a fun thing to do one hundred
percent bad I'm with you, because you can add some
little twists to the batter. Put a little cinnamon in
their little number, you know, add some syrup directly to
the freaking batter, you know, put some fruits inside of there.
Of course, all things you can do with pancakes, But
there is just something about that texture of the waffle
and the way it grips the butter and creates these little,
(21:35):
you know, beautiful pockets of deliciousness. That kind of that's
the waffle apart for.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Me, and it's so much bang for your buck in
a culinary sense, especially if you're a restaurant, right, and
these guys in waffle else. Of course, I love that
you're bringing the history of waffles here because it shows
how much they owe to their predecessors. But they they
had an issue because you could say they overcorrected with
(22:02):
calling it waffle house. They sold other stuff, right, Remember
we were there. We saw what burgers and there was
a t bone steak that was I think their most
expensive item.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
We may not have mentioned this that the way the
waffle House Museum, located in that og waffle House location
is set up is to resemble the original layouts and
including up to and including the original menus. And it's
of course one of the fun things to see in
places like that is the like t bone steak that
cost like no defense or something. I mean, it wasn't
(22:33):
nine cents, but it was. I think the most expensive
item was still less than a buck. I want to say,
I want to say, you're right, Yeah, I think it
was less than a dollar. And okay.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Also in these early days, when they're saying crap, we
have to somehow convey to people that they can buy
things that aren't just waffles. As they're fighting through this stuff,
they're also respectfully disagreeing or skeptical about some of the
other guy's ideas. Joe's pitch of a restaurant that never
(23:04):
ever closes privately seemed insane to Tom, because at this
time there was maybe like one other joint in all
of Atlanta that was open all night, maybe a couple right,
maybe the Majestic or something, but we haven't checked that
out yet.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Joe justic being a cool, vintagey diner type place on
Ponce delay on near the also incredibly vintage and wonderful
movie theater, the Plaza. And I'm pretty sure there's there's
definitely a lot of cool history behind both of those
locations that maybe we could talk about on another episode
one day. That'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Maybe we can, maybe we can pitch ourselves to Majestic
and get like free breakfast.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I really like their ero.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're I mean, I'm not to
doc to myself too much, but you know, I live
very close to that area, and so I would say
the euro is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Solid.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Only complaint is that post the lockdown, they are no
longer twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Well, you know, it's a hard gig, not only for
the management, but god for the employees. I mean, working
those split shifts or whatever you call them, those overnight shifts.
That that is quite the slog. But waffle House managed
to do it despite some of the naysayers. Joe stuck
to his guns and reminded Tom that the Interstates were
(24:26):
a big part of his business plan, motorists traveling in
all hours of the night, not to mention truckers.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, man, And he was spot on.
He did manage to convince Tom that this was if
it was a gamble, which it was, it was a
worthwhile gamble. He said, you know, hungry folks exist all
the time, and if we're the only people that can
feed them, then we're the only people they'll go to.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, as you know, Ben, you've got to eat right. Yes. Sorry,
We just always harp on that it's such a lackluster
tagline for the little restaurant chained Checkers, because it's just
the lowest common denominator of like, you know, you know,
you gotta eat something, it might as well be this trash.
It never promises quality. It doesn't say it's the best
burger or the best fries. That's that being said. I
(25:16):
do like a Checker burger and rallies the same, are
they want to It's sort of like Carls Junior and
car Hardy. Yeah yeah, the other region.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, the regional, but the money still goes to the guys.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And speaking of the regional thing, there is a reason
that a lot of that rebranding happens, right, like just things,
people get used to certain things in certain parts of
the country. And there's probably also a reason that waffle
House isn't exactly on every street corner in every state
in the Union, because there are equivalents that are more
popular in other parts of the country, just like we
(25:49):
don't get in and out Burger here because they want
to keep all of their restaurants as close as possible
to their distribution hubs so they never have to, you know,
freeze the meat, which I can respect, but boil boy
would I eleven in and out?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Or how Chick fil A doesn't go to every place where.
You know, especially when you're traveling abroad, folks, you will
be surprised by the fast food stuff from the United
States that we take as normal becomes phenomenally, phenomenally important.
I'm trying to remember which airport it was in which country,
(26:22):
but there was like one Popeyes and it was always
crowded because people had read about it on Instagram or
TikTok or something.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Dude, I remember when Popey said that viral chicken sandwich.
People were like yeah and each other over. Yes, it
was admittedly a very good chicken sandwich. I was kind
of good with the hype. Oh sure, yeah, I don't
think it needed to be a culture war, but it
wasn't an amazing sandwich. Few things do, man, few things do.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
So Okay, now it's nineteen sixty. Wafflause has survived. It's expanded.
There are four different locations around the Atlanta metro area,
and now they say we're gonna up the gas on
our expansion. In a very real way. They choose to franchise, right,
So their vision at this point is inspired by other
(27:09):
outfits like McDonald's. By the late nineteen sixties, the same
decade they've got twenty seven waffle.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Houses, twenty seven waffle houses. Moving into the seventies, they
up that number significantly to four hundred, and by the
time Joe and Tom had passed away in twenty seventeen,
you would see fifteen hundred locations as of now, wouldn't
we sit here speaking to you twenty twenty six. Actually,
(27:38):
well they may, I don't know, who knows. They may
have opened a few. The status from August of twenty
twenty five, you're going to see two thousand and thirty
eight waffle houses across only twenty five states. That's only
about half of the states, and the majority of them
are still located in Georgia. So there is that kind
of regional flare. And I'm sure they're doing their market
research and figuring out where where to put the other
ones and being smart about it. Other if a lot
(27:59):
of Ohio, I want to say.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would have said, look, yeah, they follow the interstates.
I would imagine that's a well points. So if we
go to wafflehouse dot com, there is a map and there, yeah, okay,
so there's fifteen in Arizona, one in all of New Mexico,
ten in Colorado, four in Texas. Well, actually, no, there's
(28:24):
Texas is like such a country unto itself. You got
sixty eight and more central Texas, and then only four
in northern Texas. Uh, thirty seventy in Arkansas, thirty seven
in Missouri, and again one hundred and fifty two in
what is that? Yeah, that's Kentucky, which makes sense. And
then yeah, one thousand and ten here in Georgia and
(28:44):
one hundred and twenty seven in Florida. So still quite
a few places in the country that are not going
to know much about it. Woho apparently, yeah, and a
get like we were saying there, there is some slow
expansion into other states like Pennsylvania. Well we'll see, we'll
see why as well. People want to go to a
waffle house now, even if they don't particularly consider themselves
(29:08):
waffle fans, and it's because this has evolved past the
idea of comfort food to a kind of legend. It's
something you read about, it's something you hear about, and
you know you'll see all those breathless headlines of crazy
things happening in the waffle house, and then you'll see
I most recently saw a guy from New Zealand who
(29:30):
traveled to the United States to try waffle House.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It is a bit of a fascination for some folks.
I totally feel you in a similar way that In
and Out is for us here on the East Coast,
and I will argue and die on the hill that
it is a very good burger, the old in and
out burger. Ben we haven't We're going to talk about
(29:56):
a lot of this lore. I would love to just
lead off with something that I think is a has
been a fascination to us, is that waffle House has
its own in house record label and populates, or at
least it's a bummer because a lot of the jukeboxes
are now touchtoons machines, the digital ones, but back in
the day, it was always the old, you know, jukebox
machines where you had the little little tiles or what
(30:18):
do you call little labels with A side and a
B side, and they produce their own tunes, songs like
there are Raisins in My Toast by Danny Jones, grill
operator and Bert referring to the titular Burt of Burt's Chili,
I think the chilies, which goes on the hash Browns
and so on. That's right. Yeah, And they did, unfortunately
(30:41):
league up with touch tunes in recent years, and I
don't fully support that move.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Ben, Yeah, I mean maybe we're all becoming increasingly Curmudgeonally.
I am not the biggest fan of touch tunes replacing
old school jukeboxes, but so it goes. There's another there's
another legend dairy thing here, which is the idea that
(31:06):
waffle house doesn't have locks.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
On the restaurant. I remember that one. I remember believing
logistically it doesn't make much sense. Now surely they even
if they're open, why they're open all the time? Why
do they that's some sort they gotta close down occasionally
to do cleanings perhaps, or you know, or whatever it
might be. Yeah, that's what we're gonna talk about. The
waffle House index.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, this one should be familiar to every
fellow child of the South. It's our favorite lore. It's
similar to the Pentagon Pizza Index. The Pentagon Pizza Index
argues that you can predict US military action by seeing
how many pizzas get ordered in parts of the DC
area in Virginia. And we talked about that on stuff
(31:49):
they don't want you to do as well, and h
here's the here's the bitch, you know it, you love it.
Since waffle House never closes, FEMA judges how bad a
nash disaster is based on whether or not waffle houses
in the area are still open.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Okay, Well, first of all, as we've just laid out
with our rundown of the waffle House map, there are
nearly enough of them evenly distributed across the country for
that to make any kind of sense. That's a great point.
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Right, So, something goes wrong in a state without a
waffle house, what does FEMA do? We do kind of
have the answer. There's an excellent Snopes article about this
that quotes some interviews from other journalists and even the
former FEMA director. They say that waffle House is a
(32:41):
test for US. It's unofficial, but we do use it
when we can because it tells us how quickly a
business might rebound. So this comes from W. Craig Fugate,
who is the former FEMA director, and he says the
success of the private sector and preparing for weathering disasters.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Teaches us us.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It's a temperature check for how the rest of the
community is doing. And even though it's not official, guess
FEMA does check in on waft Louse whenever stuff goes wrong,
but they also check in on other businesses of course,
not just Waftleuse. It's also like home depot or lows
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, it makes sense. So Snopes, the conspiracy theory debunkers
long standing operation there who are big fans of had
this to say. These companies have taken necessary steps to prepare.
These companies have good risk management plans to ensure their
stores continue to operate when a disaster strikes, and also
provide basic supplies to people in their community. So they
(33:39):
are looking at es central type of operations and judging,
you know, how bad things are based on the ability
of these companies who have taken great lengths to be
as available as possible during times of crisis. You know,
it's probably a good a good bell weather.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, in places like gas stations. Course now they think
about it. Hospitals, those are two hugely important things. They
are essential services, and there's so much more we wanted
to get to folks. We're so happy we were able
to touch on the music a little bit before we
before we call it a day and grab a booth
(34:18):
with you in the future. Max, you had a band
you wanted to shout out.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah, it was the band that I saw open for
Brian Fallon, lead singer of Gaslight Anthem, a couple of
years ago. The name of the band is the Warriors,
but like worry like as I'm worrying and oh not.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Like Warriors come out and play yang, Oh my gosh,
why haven't you called exactly they're worrying.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
But the lead singer, they were up on stage and
right before they started the song, was like, actually, I'm wondering,
Like whenever we play a song back up in Pennsylvania
where they're from, people don't really know what we're talking about.
But the name of this song is the saddest little
waffle house in eastern Pennsylvania. And everyone started laughing and
they go, yeah, that's been a report. When in the
South everyone gets and up north.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No one understands this They referring to a specific little
straggler of a waffle house that exists there, or is
it more of a.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
It's it's I mean, I don't even know how much
the song is really about waffle house per se, but
it's just like that idea of that sad waffle house,
that last beach head is that one thing open in
eastern Pennsylvania that's just there.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Also kind of a reference to the best little whorehouse
in Texas very much.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Exactly, or the what's that the Mountain Goat song the
best death.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The best ever death metal band out of Dent. Yes,
check out our sister podcast, Stuffy It Want You to
Know for an exploration literally figuratively of the underground bunkers
of Denton.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, and a random fact for you folks. Back in
two thousand and five, two percent of all eggs produced
in the United States ended up at a waffle house.
So it's we're not blowing rainbows.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
It is a big deal for sure. And can we
also just shout out to short order cooks and and
and it is such a tight operation that they run
there at these wabble houses. They've got an open kitchen,
there's no f and around. You know, you can't be
just goofing off in a waffle house kitchen because the
all eyes are on you and those eggs are kept
in these cool like wire bins on top of the thing.
(36:18):
They're just you know, chock full, overflowing with eggs. And
I've very rarely had Yeah, certainly, I think we've all
probably had some interesting experiences at waffle house. That's usually
as a result of the patrons.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's I would say, pretty much always is the result
of the patriots.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
And when I say, I'm talking about drunken nighttime shenaniganry,
but or like kid Rock.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Have you have you guys seen the SNL waffle House catch?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yes, yes, I've.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Watched it all kind of like this is, uh, this
is actually kind of spot on. I mean, it's not
every time you go to waffle house, but everyone's been
a waffle house at that time for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
And much like you know, you see all these Florida
man stories because of the way that Florida publish it,
you know, the mugshots and all that stuff. The Sunshine
laws make it easier for that stuff to go out
into the public record. I think when you have a
twenty four hour joint like waffle House that's so accessible,
you're gonna get some crazy videos that come out all spots,
(37:15):
and I think we've all seen them. But nine times
out of ten, it's the staff reacting sharply and decisively
and professionally and you know, keeping people safe. So I
really shout out to you know, all of the folks
that work at these places.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Just absolute legends when it comes to diplomacy and when
it comes to empathy, and I'll say when it comes
to drawing hard boundaries.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
We and we we did promise a little bit of
a inside of the code of ordering hash Brown. I
think I want to hear what each of our orders
would be. But smothered is, of course cheese, No saute
onions would be yeah, coverared is of course just a
good old American cheese products right, melted over the top.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
We've got wood, which is grilled hickory smoked ham.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Right. We have peppered which is jalapinos, So the heat
seekers out there, that's the easiest one to guess, filpino
pepper on there. What else we got We got.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Diced, which would be grilled tomatoes, capped, which would be
grilled mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And you know it's interesting. I don't usually like canned mushrooms,
but in this particular situation they hit. I always get
them capped, and they are definitely canned mushrooms. But I
am a smothered, covered, peppered, capped kind of guy, and
I like to get a double order. Wi. You mentioned.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
You can also get Topped, which uses their Bert's chili
Bert's Chili. You can get Country, which is sausage gravy.
That's one of the newer ones because on the menu
they're named in the Order of Discovery, And this was
an organic idea that came from the short order cooks
themselves cool when they have friends come over or when
they were making something, they would be like, oh, I
(39:04):
know Jeremy, Jeremy loves mushrooms, so I'll just put some
in his hash brown. Eventually they started codifying.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Sure and we love a secret menu item too, or
like a secret you know, like a again. Shout out
to In and Out Burger for some of their secret ways,
animal style and all of that good stuff. How do
you like your hash browns? Ben?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Oh gosh, I'm a wild man, you know. I will
usually trend for the veggie options with the cheese. What
about what about umex or the chili chili and cheese.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, I go with the condition option, right yep, But
traditionally smalled covered and cap would be my go to.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Yes, a shout out to the condition you bastard will
get it one day, We'll get it in control. One
day we'll get on the other side of it.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
We also want we should know how we didn't probably
don't have time for the details on this, but there's
also this system that the staff invented regarding how to
indicate an order. And it's all about the placement of
condiment packages on the tray er on the plate. That's
how you that's part of how you tell the.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Cook the thing. Pretty really stuff. Yeah, it's like a
secret code. Interesting okay, And I do want to end
for my part anyway, today's episode with a shout out
to my kid who has figured out how to make
waffle House style hash browns at home. And the key
is a great a nice big old russet potato and
(40:35):
then you need to rinse it to get some of
the starchy bits off the kind of and then you
rinse it till the water kind of runs clear, and
then cook it in a cast iron skillet, press it
in a thin like layer, and then be patient and
then flip it and then you get crispy on both
sides and it is just as good as at the
(40:57):
waffle house itself. So that's fun. Well, that's awesome. Yeah,
flip is the most satisfying thing oh one could ever
ask for. Uh.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
They also just you know, folks, to the good people
at waffle House serve right now something like one hundred
and forty five waffles per minute, three hundred and forty
one bacon strips per minute, so that, oh what, two
hundred and thirty orders of hash brouts every sixty seconds.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
So that means.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Every year waffle House serves enough bacon to fully wrap
around the earth, or to wrap around it in a line,
not to encase it, but to circumnavigate it.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah. Yeah, bacon around the earth. That's just that. If
that's not peace, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
And therey Avid, folks, thanks is always so much for
tuning in big things. To our super producer, mister Max Williams,
I wonder what Jonathan Strickland, aka the quizz Or would
order at waffle House.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
And I'm gonna argue just playing. He's just a plain
hash hash He's kind of got.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
He's such a villain that he probably boardcosts waffle House.
He's probably the one person in this world who doesn't.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
He also gets his t bone well done the mad
man or he and he doesn't even eat it because
he doesn't eat beef. That's true.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
If he looks, he looks down his nose and it's
getting Maybe he's one of those Actually, have you guys
heard of Toddlehouse people?
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Just insufferable?
Speaker 1 (42:19):
We're kidding, Jonathan, You're a three out of five guy
in our book.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Big thanks to who else still? Who are Chris Rasiota's
news Jeff Coats here in spirit, Alex Williams, who composed
this slapping track that I wish it belongs on waffle House.
Chupboxes bring back the old school chetboxes.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I see, Yes, we're standing on that one. We're standing
on business there. Big big thanks to the rude dudes
are ridiculous crime. Big thanks, as we said earlier, to
all the staff at waffle House for being just genuinely awesome,
And big thanks to the management of waffle House for
having us over to the museum. Most importantly, Noel, thanks.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
To you, Man oh Man, thanks you as well, Ben
for hosting the show with me and for doing the
incredible research on this very near and dear to all
of our Heart's episode. We'll see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(43:21):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the Man,
the Myth, the Legend, our super producer, Max short Order.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Williams Max scattered, smothered, covered, chunks, capped all of the ways.
This might be nonsense. Talk to some of you folks
not from the South, the Southern climbs here around Atlanta, Georgia.
But we're talking about waffle house ordering code.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So you're Noel Brown, I'm Ben Bullen, And actually I
just landed in a different city this week and I
was looking for or a waffle house because I thought
it would be fun to visit before we record. There
are no waffle houses in the state of New York,
but Pennsylvania you can have a few. And that makes
sense to your point about the line of demarcation, because
(01:13):
Pennsylvania is somewhere between the South and somewhere between the north.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, he's sort of like partially basically Canada. I mean,
I think instead of waffle house, did don't they have
Timmy's Tim Horton's Pennsylvania. I think it's true yeah, I
loves Tim Hortons.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
It's a confluence of events and so cast your memory back, folks.
We've alluded to this a while ago, but we went
through a collective waffle House phase I think, I want
to say sometime last year, and we actually went to
the waffle House Museum. Because waffle House was founded in
our fair metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia, but now it's it's
(01:52):
world famous, I think in large part due to the Internet.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
To be honest, it's true. It is. Also we've talked
about this on our sister show, The Stuff that I
want you to know. The waffle House Index, the sort
of somewhat imaginary concept that if waffle houses closed their doors,
because they are in fact open twenty four hours a day,
then the weather really must be bad. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Waffle House is known for its storied history for being
virtually always open, and it's a very accepting place. I
think it's fair to say. Having spent some time in
the American South, all three of us, we have spent
some very formative evenings at waffle House. This is why
we finally reached out to Big Waffle ourselves. Lo and behold,
(02:36):
they hit us back. They couldn't be nicer people. They
gave us an exclusive tour of the museum. We decided
we were going to finally share the story. But quick disclaimer,
this one's probably going to make you hungry. I think
this is going to be one of those where you
and I both end the show going is it time
to eat lunch?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, good news, Ben is there's a wa Hoo right
down the street from me, and they deliver, so I
might even pre order my I like you know what
I like, Ben, I like the Philly Cheese steak hash
Brown bowl. I'm a fan of that guy. Yeah, that's
a nice one. Man.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
We know that that is a more in the grand scheme.
That's a more recent addition to the menu, because as
we saw when you, Max and I journey to the museum,
their menus still add all the same basics, but they
started adding stuff. They didn't originally have the hash brown
code until much later because they you know, waffle House
(03:41):
was founded in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's right, and we'll get to the individual meanings of
those hash brown order codes. But that's right in Avondale Estates,
which is like the next exit over. Not to dox myself,
from where I live. It is a really delightful little
community to this day, where there's a lot of fun
little shops. It kind of feels like a little German
village in some ways.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, they tried to. It's it's a super weird pocket.
They used to live very close to there. And the
thing is, folks, when you drive past, there's a stretch
of several blocks in downtown Avondale that were explicitly designed
to look like Shakespeare's the route to look like Shakespearean times.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I think I might have gotten my European wires crossed.
It is a little bit more like old Stratford upon Avon.
I wonder if that's where avon Dale comes. Who knows.
And maybe it's one of the shicken or the egg
kind of things. Speaking of eggs, the co founders of
waffle House are Joe Rogers Senior and Tom Forkner and Ben.
I got to say a bit of a missed nominative
(04:48):
determinism opportunity for Joe's last name to have not been Spooner.
We could have had Spooner and Forkner the founders of
waffle House, but the last That's not how history shook out.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Maybe next time rights, It's still not as on the
nose as their names being like Joe Waffle and Tom
Syrup or something mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Syrup would be an unfortunate surname. We got to look
up the history of the Syrup line of families. Surely
they exist. Tom was a Georgia boy died in the wall.
I think, as they say, through and through, as you
put it in in your wonderful research talk that you
put together for this episode, he was born in Hawkinsville, Georgia,
just about two hours outside of here in Atlanta. And
(05:30):
our buddy Tom, mister Forlkner himself was a lawyer and
a real estate agent and quite the golfer if he
if he said to himself, he did kind of for
a time. Also, Tom was an intelligence officer for the
Manhattan Project record scratch what Okay. I didn't realize we
(05:52):
were going to go nuclear with this waffle house topic.
You never know what you're going to get with ridiculous history.
So let's go to our second main character today, mister
Joe Rogers, also a veteran born in not not a
george boy, but a Tennessee boy from the hollers of
Jackson Tennessee. During World War Two. He also had he
(06:12):
had a bit of a military background as well, not
an intelligence but in the Air Force, where he flew
B twenty four's for our sorry at the Air Force,
the Air Corps of the US Army. Then in nineteen
forty seven, after spending his time doing his term his
stint in the war, he worked as a short order
cook at a place called the Tottle House. Huh okay,
(06:34):
starting to see old influence here. That's over there in
new Haven, Connecticut. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, that's where he was working at the Tottlehouse in
New Haven. It was also a chain restaurant like waffle
House would go on to be, and Tottlehouse was based
in Memphis. Was mainly a takeout joint. So Joe gets
promoted and promoted because he takes his job seriously. He's
quite talented, and he becomes the regional manager at Top.
(07:00):
And as he becomes a regional manager, he has to
relocate to Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's where he meets Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And the way they meet is kind of funny because
Tom doesn't come to him with a business idea. Tom
sells Joe a house in Avondale, because Tom's dad helped
create Avondale Estates and not only did he sell the house,
but they ended up being next door neighbors. I don't
know if that's something real estate people like to do.
(07:29):
What that?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh? Houses? Well?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, Like if we were real estate moguls, or we
were real estate folks and we were selling houses to
other people, would we want to sell a house that's
right next to the one we live in? Like, do
you want that neighbor smoke?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Interesting? I guess it does give you a little bit
of an opportunity to pick your neighbors.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
To us, I would say no, because I mean, I've
never bought a house, but I've rented plenty of houses.
And the thing about it is it doesn't take very
long to start finding small little problems. And so do
you want to walk next door to like, Hey, you
can tell me the foundation of this one part that.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Oh, that's a good point. That's a very good point,
you might Yeah, Well, you know that's we're only talking
here about dishonest trailers. So presumably our buddy here was
the salt of the earth when it comes to his
business practices.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I would like to I would like to as well.
I mean they clear that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We don't know for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well they did at some point, at least for a
time click because they would shoot the breeze with each
other because you know, they're neighbors and it's the South.
Tom comes to Tom is like our idea guy. So
he goes to Joe one day and he says, Joe,
do you want to get into business? Do you want
to like escalate our neighbor relationship? And at first Tom says,
(08:48):
I think we should build a Tottle House, you know,
here in Avondale, And Joe said, that's I love your enthusiasm, Tom,
but I don't think it's smart of us to build
a tottle House because that's a takeout place. My dream
is a place where people can sit down and eat, not.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Just community you want to build. Yes, Can I just
really a quick aside maybe for another episode. I was
looking up to see if the Tottle House was still around,
which it is not in terms of this original chain
that we're talking about, But there was another place called
the Tottle House, which was a very seedy and steamy
nightclub in Culver City that operated from nineteen forty six
(09:27):
to nineteen fifty three until it was shut down for
being a hangout for racketeers and sex workers. And it
has some really kind of tawdry advertisements that would run
in like the La Times, for example, And there was
this really cool article that described the scene in Fortnite
(09:48):
magazine called the Los Angeles Bump and Grind Industry. How
wicked is burlesque? Is it really harming anyone not to
mention an advertorial in the Vanguard describing the scene as
girl Rolls Up Poppin' as a floor show with comedian
and a bevy of beauties who really keep things popping
and a variety of potent cocktails served at the mirrored
(10:09):
bar of the Tottle House, with lots of convenient free
parking too, by the way, So it's totally different Touttlehouse.
But I'm curious as what kind of racketeers were hanging out, Oh, definitely,
and what year? What time span was that again forty six,
two fifty three when it was closed down, And it
also apparently had two serious fires and all kinds of
(10:30):
shenanigans happening at the Tottlehouse over there in Culver City.
But the Tuttlehouse in question for today's episode was a
wholesome place for a family meal. But to your point, Ben,
they didn't have to sit down service.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And also I just I had to do it. Look
up the definition of tottle and it works for both places. Well,
it works more for the cdy place because the definition
of tottle is to move with short, unsteady steps while
learning to walk like a child.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Bit of a show.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, so maybe if people are in their cups and
their party, maybe they end up toddling.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Out the toddlers. Yes, child who can yeah barely walk.
That's there you go. Never thought of the etymology of
that mystery solved, Ben, So what did they decide when
they realized that maybe bringing a franchise of the Tottle
House wasn't quite the move?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Oh yeah, they got even more ambitious. You could feel
the electric brainstorming energy because these guys yes ed each
other so hard. They said, okay, all right, forget Tottlehouse,
will open up our own place. Anybody can come, they
could sit down, they can have decent food, and you
know what, yes, and why don't we stay open all
(11:46):
of the time?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Okay? The game there, Yeah, quite the quite the novelty,
I suppose maybe there were in the twenty four seven
places at the time, but this certainly would set it
apart from the Tottle House, which I do I believe
operated on a twenty four to seven schedule. So Tom
recalled in an interview piece, we'recalling this whole you know,
origin story, Joe saying the ham you build the restaurant, buddy,
(12:11):
and I'll show you how to run it.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
There we go, And that's that's a very common symbiosis
between restaurant creators. You've got sort of the money guy,
the funding, and then you've got the person who's been
in the trenches of the kitchen, the chef and so on.
And this was such a revolutionary idea. We've been spoiled,
especially before the COVID lockdown. We've been spoiled by having
(12:37):
so many twenty four hour places. But back at this time,
when these guys are brainstorming, the majority of restaurants or heck,
businesses in general, they had strict hours. So if you're
hungry on a holiday or late at night, you were
kind of sol until something opened.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So while we don't necessarily have evidence that this is
the very very very first of its kind in terms
of like a twenty four hour you know, grub joint.
It's definitely a big deal. You're absolutely right, Ben, And
the proof would in fact be in the pudding and
or the delightful the fluffy waffle batter. The very first
waffle house opened on a holiday Labor Day weekend nineteen
(13:15):
fifty five, when Tom and Joe welcome folks into their
original location over there in Avondale's States, which I believe
now is the site of the very museum that we
toured twenty seven nineteen East College and Ben, both you
and I for the longest time had driven by that place,
and we're curious as to why, you know, you couldn't
(13:36):
just walk in, And it does turn out that you
do need to. You know, you gotta know somebody. They don't.
You can't just walk in. You got to have a
guy on the inside.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Right right, You do have to be proactive. And we
had driven past this for years and years, so when
we're getting ready to do this episode, we finally did
reach out. And it was a little bit odd for
us to explain it first, to say, hey, you're not
a school that wants to bring a class here. We're
three guys who to a podcast live in the neighborhood.
(14:07):
Please hang out with.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Us, and we are just you know, fans of the place.
It is good food, you know, it's consistent is the
hash Browns are pretty fantastic frankly, and we are not
being sponsored by waffle House here. But they painted the
building a bright yellow hue to catch the eye. And
as we also know in some of our discussions here
on ridiculous history and on stuff they don't want you
(14:29):
to know, yellow is a color that does make people hungry.
Hence the golden arches.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yes, that is absolutely true, Nol. And these guys are
Tom and Joe. They're a perfect marriage of collaboration because
from the moment they opened, they were keeping close track
of what the customers seemed to want. So they looked back.
They were always sort of recalculating stuff. So they look
(14:56):
back at their first menu and said, all right, we
had sixteen things available, but there was one clear popular choice.
Everybody loved the waffles. So we said, we're going to
name ourselves after the most successful thing, waffle house. We'll
just call it that because that's why people are obviously coming.
(15:16):
And you heard that, right, folks. That means they opened
the restaurant before they named it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
How about that? How does that even work? It's just
the yellow building for a second. I'm okay with that.
You know, that's pretty genius. Actually, the restaurant with no name,
it is just a color sort of like prints, you know,
being a symbol. I think that's pretty pretty incredible. No,
the waffle house, you know, not to mention that it
certainly bore a slight resemblance to the tottle house at least,
and it's you know, double consonant kind of middle section there,
(15:47):
and it's just fun to say waffle house, not to
mention that it set it apart from all of the
pancake houses that were much more features in the country.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And also a little peak behind the curtain. Tom would
later say in other interviews, right as the company continued
to grow, he would provide a spin on this narrative,
on this origin story, and he said, I wanted to
call it waffle house because it was also the item
that made the most profit for us.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Like per dish, they made a splash of batter in
that waffle iron to get you a nice, crispy, delightful confection.
I can imagine the margins are pretty good in terms
of favoring the proprietors there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, like a pizza place or popcorn at a theater. Right,
they're very high margins on it. So this is the
weird thing. It's not an immediate runway hit, despite the
fact that waffle house is globally known today and much
beloved in the United States. Joe was a double agent
at this point because he was still working in Toddlehouse management.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I thought he's going to say he was still working
for the Manhattan Project. He was like a secret spy.
That would be cool. That would have been cool, right,
Project Operation Waffle. So, dude, I can't believe there's not
like a government op called Project Waffle or Operation Waff.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
There has to be, and we don't know, I mean,
we don't know what all hasn't been released.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It's true, and we always joke on stuff that. I
want you to know that the more innocuous the name,
the more the more sinister of the project. Right, Like, so,
what does Project Waffle do by day device?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, it's a bioweapon doom state device. Well, okay, because
Joe was worried about conflicts of interest, he sold his
share of the restaurant to his buddy Tom in nineteen
fifty six, just after a year after they had opened,
and Joe moved away from Atlanta for a while. A
lot of people didn't know this. He asked the folks
(17:47):
at Toddle House to make him a straight up partner,
so no longer regional manager. Give me some equity in this.
They said no, and so Joe moved back to Atlanta
and joined back up Toll and then Tom eventually leaves
his dad's real estate business. Now they're both one hundred
percent committed to waffle House, so it better work or
(18:10):
they're in trouble.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Ben, If we may, could we take a quick pause
in our overarching story of the history of the waffle
house to talk a little bit about the history of
the waffle because not only was it sort of a
unique differentiator of a putting waffle right there in the
name to kind of separate it from the crowd of
pancake houses that had been, you know, hugely popular in
(18:38):
the United States, the waffle itself has a really ancient origin,
as of course the pancake does too. There's a million
ways of slicing a pancake or making a thing that's
called that could be compared to a pancake. But the
actual waffle dates a lot farther back than I would
have realized. I would have thought it was the humble
Belgian waffle, but it is in fact something that goes
(18:59):
back to ancient Grows around four thousand years ago.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay, Now at this point did they have the indentations.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It would seem not. It was cooked on heated stones,
so it was something more rigidly resembling a pancake. But
then during the Iron Age we start to see iron
cookware and iron plates and griddles that were used on
both sides of these Sometimes these created these little indentations
(19:30):
because of the way the metal was forged. And then
you started to get into the much more modern kind
of version of a waffle that we know today, when
you had these irons that were forged with these literal
you know, extrusions on them that would make the squares
that obviously just really make that butter and syrup just
(19:53):
just really hang on cling on to every binding, the.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Surface volume, right or the surface area. Excuse me, that's awesome, Joe.
I'm looking at pictures of this link you sent with
these old school waffle irons. So we know, I feel
like we can only really call them a waffle once
we see those irons, right.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I would agree, And that was that. The eye waffle
iron that we know today was patented in Troy, New
York by a guy named Cornelius swartwout A. What a
fabulous day on August twenty fourth, eighteen sixty nine, which
is actually to this day celebrated as National Waffle Day.
(20:37):
And it wasn't until the nineteen tens that the electric
waffle iron was introduced by General Electric. And then it became,
you know, a staple in kitchens across the country around
the nineteen thirties, and then of course we've got frozen
waffles that come and you know it's game on. That's
in the nineteen fifties, with of course the iconic eggo,
Oh Lego, my EGGA.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I've got some of the in the freezer. And also
if I feel like I'm ever in hot water with
a girlfriend, then I will I will make them homemade waffles.
It is a hack, and it works as long as
you didn't do something too too bad the day before.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Well, it's such a fun thing to do one hundred
percent bad I'm with you, because you can add some
little twists to the batter. Put a little cinnamon in
their little number, you know, add some syrup directly to
the freaking batter, you know, put some fruits inside of there.
Of course, all things you can do with pancakes, But
there is just something about that texture of the waffle
and the way it grips the butter and creates these little,
(21:35):
you know, beautiful pockets of deliciousness. That kind of that's
the waffle apart for.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Me, and it's so much bang for your buck in
a culinary sense, especially if you're a restaurant, right, and
these guys in waffle else. Of course, I love that
you're bringing the history of waffles here because it shows
how much they owe to their predecessors. But they they
had an issue because you could say they overcorrected with
(22:02):
calling it waffle house. They sold other stuff, right, Remember
we were there. We saw what burgers and there was
a t bone steak that was I think their most
expensive item.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
We may not have mentioned this that the way the
waffle House Museum, located in that og waffle House location
is set up is to resemble the original layouts and
including up to and including the original menus. And it's
of course one of the fun things to see in
places like that is the like t bone steak that
cost like no defense or something. I mean, it wasn't
(22:33):
nine cents, but it was. I think the most expensive
item was still less than a buck. I want to say,
I want to say, you're right, Yeah, I think it
was less than a dollar. And okay.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Also in these early days, when they're saying crap, we
have to somehow convey to people that they can buy
things that aren't just waffles. As they're fighting through this stuff,
they're also respectfully disagreeing or skeptical about some of the
other guy's ideas. Joe's pitch of a restaurant that never
(23:04):
ever closes privately seemed insane to Tom, because at this
time there was maybe like one other joint in all
of Atlanta that was open all night, maybe a couple right,
maybe the Majestic or something, but we haven't checked that
out yet.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Joe justic being a cool, vintagey diner type place on
Ponce delay on near the also incredibly vintage and wonderful
movie theater, the Plaza. And I'm pretty sure there's there's
definitely a lot of cool history behind both of those
locations that maybe we could talk about on another episode
one day. That'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Maybe we can, maybe we can pitch ourselves to Majestic
and get like free breakfast.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I really like their ero.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're I mean, I'm not to
doc to myself too much, but you know, I live
very close to that area, and so I would say
the euro is just phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Solid.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Only complaint is that post the lockdown, they are no
longer twenty four hours.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Well, you know, it's a hard gig, not only for
the management, but god for the employees. I mean, working
those split shifts or whatever you call them, those overnight shifts.
That that is quite the slog. But waffle House managed
to do it despite some of the naysayers. Joe stuck
to his guns and reminded Tom that the Interstates were
(24:26):
a big part of his business plan, motorists traveling in
all hours of the night, not to mention truckers.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, man, And he was spot on.
He did manage to convince Tom that this was if
it was a gamble, which it was, it was a
worthwhile gamble. He said, you know, hungry folks exist all
the time, and if we're the only people that can
feed them, then we're the only people they'll go to.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Well, as you know, Ben, you've got to eat right. Yes. Sorry,
We just always harp on that it's such a lackluster
tagline for the little restaurant chained Checkers, because it's just
the lowest common denominator of like, you know, you know,
you gotta eat something, it might as well be this trash.
It never promises quality. It doesn't say it's the best
burger or the best fries. That's that being said. I
(25:16):
do like a Checker burger and rallies the same, are
they want to It's sort of like Carls Junior and
car Hardy. Yeah yeah, the other region.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, the regional, but the money still goes to the guys.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And speaking of the regional thing, there is a reason
that a lot of that rebranding happens, right, like just things,
people get used to certain things in certain parts of
the country. And there's probably also a reason that waffle
House isn't exactly on every street corner in every state
in the Union, because there are equivalents that are more
popular in other parts of the country, just like we
(25:49):
don't get in and out Burger here because they want
to keep all of their restaurants as close as possible
to their distribution hubs so they never have to, you know,
freeze the meat, which I can respect, but boil boy
would I eleven in and out?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Or how Chick fil A doesn't go to every place where.
You know, especially when you're traveling abroad, folks, you will
be surprised by the fast food stuff from the United
States that we take as normal becomes phenomenally, phenomenally important.
I'm trying to remember which airport it was in which country,
(26:22):
but there was like one Popeyes and it was always
crowded because people had read about it on Instagram or
TikTok or something.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Dude, I remember when Popey said that viral chicken sandwich.
People were like yeah and each other over. Yes, it
was admittedly a very good chicken sandwich. I was kind
of good with the hype. Oh sure, yeah, I don't
think it needed to be a culture war, but it
wasn't an amazing sandwich. Few things do, man, few things do.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
So Okay, now it's nineteen sixty. Wafflause has survived. It's expanded.
There are four different locations around the Atlanta metro area,
and now they say we're gonna up the gas on
our expansion. In a very real way. They choose to franchise, right,
So their vision at this point is inspired by other
(27:09):
outfits like McDonald's. By the late nineteen sixties, the same
decade they've got twenty seven waffle.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Houses, twenty seven waffle houses. Moving into the seventies, they
up that number significantly to four hundred, and by the
time Joe and Tom had passed away in twenty seventeen,
you would see fifteen hundred locations as of now, wouldn't
we sit here speaking to you twenty twenty six. Actually,
(27:38):
well they may, I don't know, who knows. They may
have opened a few. The status from August of twenty
twenty five, you're going to see two thousand and thirty
eight waffle houses across only twenty five states. That's only
about half of the states, and the majority of them
are still located in Georgia. So there is that kind
of regional flare. And I'm sure they're doing their market
research and figuring out where where to put the other
ones and being smart about it. Other if a lot
(27:59):
of Ohio, I want to say.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I would have said, look, yeah, they follow the interstates.
I would imagine that's a well points. So if we
go to wafflehouse dot com, there is a map and there, yeah, okay,
so there's fifteen in Arizona, one in all of New Mexico,
ten in Colorado, four in Texas. Well, actually, no, there's
(28:24):
Texas is like such a country unto itself. You got
sixty eight and more central Texas, and then only four
in northern Texas. Uh, thirty seventy in Arkansas, thirty seven
in Missouri, and again one hundred and fifty two in
what is that? Yeah, that's Kentucky, which makes sense. And
then yeah, one thousand and ten here in Georgia and
(28:44):
one hundred and twenty seven in Florida. So still quite
a few places in the country that are not going
to know much about it. Woho apparently, yeah, and a
get like we were saying there, there is some slow
expansion into other states like Pennsylvania. Well we'll see, we'll
see why as well. People want to go to a
waffle house now, even if they don't particularly consider themselves
(29:08):
waffle fans, and it's because this has evolved past the
idea of comfort food to a kind of legend. It's
something you read about, it's something you hear about, and
you know you'll see all those breathless headlines of crazy
things happening in the waffle house, and then you'll see
I most recently saw a guy from New Zealand who
(29:30):
traveled to the United States to try waffle House.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It is a bit of a fascination for some folks.
I totally feel you in a similar way that In
and Out is for us here on the East Coast,
and I will argue and die on the hill that
it is a very good burger, the old in and
out burger. Ben we haven't We're going to talk about
(29:56):
a lot of this lore. I would love to just
lead off with something that I think is a has
been a fascination to us, is that waffle House has
its own in house record label and populates, or at
least it's a bummer because a lot of the jukeboxes
are now touchtoons machines, the digital ones, but back in
the day, it was always the old, you know, jukebox
machines where you had the little little tiles or what
(30:18):
do you call little labels with A side and a
B side, and they produce their own tunes, songs like
there are Raisins in My Toast by Danny Jones, grill
operator and Bert referring to the titular Burt of Burt's Chili,
I think the chilies, which goes on the hash Browns
and so on. That's right. Yeah, And they did, unfortunately
(30:41):
league up with touch tunes in recent years, and I
don't fully support that move.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Ben, Yeah, I mean maybe we're all becoming increasingly Curmudgeonally.
I am not the biggest fan of touch tunes replacing
old school jukeboxes, but so it goes. There's another there's
another legend dairy thing here, which is the idea that
(31:06):
waffle house doesn't have locks.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
On the restaurant. I remember that one. I remember believing
logistically it doesn't make much sense. Now surely they even
if they're open, why they're open all the time? Why
do they that's some sort they gotta close down occasionally
to do cleanings perhaps, or you know, or whatever it
might be. Yeah, that's what we're gonna talk about. The
waffle House index.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, this one should be familiar to every
fellow child of the South. It's our favorite lore. It's
similar to the Pentagon Pizza Index. The Pentagon Pizza Index
argues that you can predict US military action by seeing
how many pizzas get ordered in parts of the DC
area in Virginia. And we talked about that on stuff
(31:49):
they don't want you to do as well, and h
here's the here's the bitch, you know it, you love it.
Since waffle House never closes, FEMA judges how bad a
nash disaster is based on whether or not waffle houses
in the area are still open.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Okay, Well, first of all, as we've just laid out
with our rundown of the waffle House map, there are
nearly enough of them evenly distributed across the country for
that to make any kind of sense. That's a great point.
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Right, So, something goes wrong in a state without a
waffle house, what does FEMA do? We do kind of
have the answer. There's an excellent Snopes article about this
that quotes some interviews from other journalists and even the
former FEMA director. They say that waffle House is a
(32:41):
test for US. It's unofficial, but we do use it
when we can because it tells us how quickly a
business might rebound. So this comes from W. Craig Fugate,
who is the former FEMA director, and he says the
success of the private sector and preparing for weathering disasters.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Teaches us us.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It's a temperature check for how the rest of the
community is doing. And even though it's not official, guess
FEMA does check in on waft Louse whenever stuff goes wrong,
but they also check in on other businesses of course,
not just Waftleuse. It's also like home depot or lows
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, it makes sense. So Snopes, the conspiracy theory debunkers
long standing operation there who are big fans of had
this to say. These companies have taken necessary steps to prepare.
These companies have good risk management plans to ensure their
stores continue to operate when a disaster strikes, and also
provide basic supplies to people in their community. So they
(33:39):
are looking at es central type of operations and judging,
you know, how bad things are based on the ability
of these companies who have taken great lengths to be
as available as possible during times of crisis. You know,
it's probably a good a good bell weather.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, in places like gas stations. Course now they think
about it. Hospitals, those are two hugely important things. They
are essential services, and there's so much more we wanted
to get to folks. We're so happy we were able
to touch on the music a little bit before we
before we call it a day and grab a booth
(34:18):
with you in the future. Max, you had a band
you wanted to shout out.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Yeah, it was the band that I saw open for
Brian Fallon, lead singer of Gaslight Anthem, a couple of
years ago. The name of the band is the Warriors,
but like worry like as I'm worrying and oh not.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Like Warriors come out and play yang, Oh my gosh,
why haven't you called exactly they're worrying.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
But the lead singer, they were up on stage and
right before they started the song, was like, actually, I'm wondering,
Like whenever we play a song back up in Pennsylvania
where they're from, people don't really know what we're talking about.
But the name of this song is the saddest little
waffle house in eastern Pennsylvania. And everyone started laughing and
they go, yeah, that's been a report. When in the
South everyone gets and up north.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No one understands this They referring to a specific little
straggler of a waffle house that exists there, or is
it more of a.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
It's it's I mean, I don't even know how much
the song is really about waffle house per se, but
it's just like that idea of that sad waffle house,
that last beach head is that one thing open in
eastern Pennsylvania that's just there.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Also kind of a reference to the best little whorehouse
in Texas very much.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Exactly, or the what's that the Mountain Goat song the
best death.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The best ever death metal band out of Dent. Yes,
check out our sister podcast, Stuffy It Want You to
Know for an exploration literally figuratively of the underground bunkers
of Denton.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, and a random fact for you folks. Back in
two thousand and five, two percent of all eggs produced
in the United States ended up at a waffle house.
So it's we're not blowing rainbows.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
It is a big deal for sure. And can we
also just shout out to short order cooks and and
and it is such a tight operation that they run
there at these wabble houses. They've got an open kitchen,
there's no f and around. You know, you can't be
just goofing off in a waffle house kitchen because the
all eyes are on you and those eggs are kept
in these cool like wire bins on top of the thing.
(36:18):
They're just you know, chock full, overflowing with eggs. And
I've very rarely had Yeah, certainly, I think we've all
probably had some interesting experiences at waffle house. That's usually
as a result of the patrons.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's I would say, pretty much always is the result
of the patriots.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
And when I say, I'm talking about drunken nighttime shenaniganry,
but or like kid Rock.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Have you have you guys seen the SNL waffle House catch?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yes, yes, I've.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Watched it all kind of like this is, uh, this
is actually kind of spot on. I mean, it's not
every time you go to waffle house, but everyone's been
a waffle house at that time for sure.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
And much like you know, you see all these Florida
man stories because of the way that Florida publish it,
you know, the mugshots and all that stuff. The Sunshine
laws make it easier for that stuff to go out
into the public record. I think when you have a
twenty four hour joint like waffle House that's so accessible,
you're gonna get some crazy videos that come out all spots,
(37:15):
and I think we've all seen them. But nine times
out of ten, it's the staff reacting sharply and decisively
and professionally and you know, keeping people safe. So I
really shout out to you know, all of the folks
that work at these places.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Just absolute legends when it comes to diplomacy and when
it comes to empathy, and I'll say when it comes
to drawing hard boundaries.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
We and we we did promise a little bit of
a inside of the code of ordering hash Brown. I
think I want to hear what each of our orders
would be. But smothered is, of course cheese, No saute
onions would be yeah, coverared is of course just a
good old American cheese products right, melted over the top.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
We've got wood, which is grilled hickory smoked ham.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Right. We have peppered which is jalapinos, So the heat
seekers out there, that's the easiest one to guess, filpino
pepper on there. What else we got We got.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Diced, which would be grilled tomatoes, capped, which would be
grilled mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And you know it's interesting. I don't usually like canned mushrooms,
but in this particular situation they hit. I always get
them capped, and they are definitely canned mushrooms. But I
am a smothered, covered, peppered, capped kind of guy, and
I like to get a double order. Wi. You mentioned.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
You can also get Topped, which uses their Bert's chili
Bert's Chili. You can get Country, which is sausage gravy.
That's one of the newer ones because on the menu
they're named in the Order of Discovery, And this was
an organic idea that came from the short order cooks
themselves cool when they have friends come over or when
they were making something, they would be like, oh, I
(39:04):
know Jeremy, Jeremy loves mushrooms, so I'll just put some
in his hash brown. Eventually they started codifying.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Sure and we love a secret menu item too, or
like a secret you know, like a again. Shout out
to In and Out Burger for some of their secret ways,
animal style and all of that good stuff. How do
you like your hash browns? Ben?
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Oh gosh, I'm a wild man, you know. I will
usually trend for the veggie options with the cheese. What
about what about umex or the chili chili and cheese.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, I go with the condition option, right yep, But
traditionally smalled covered and cap would be my go to.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Yes, a shout out to the condition you bastard will
get it one day, We'll get it in control. One
day we'll get on the other side of it.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
We also want we should know how we didn't probably
don't have time for the details on this, but there's
also this system that the staff invented regarding how to
indicate an order. And it's all about the placement of
condiment packages on the tray er on the plate. That's
how you that's part of how you tell the.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Cook the thing. Pretty really stuff. Yeah, it's like a
secret code. Interesting okay, And I do want to end
for my part anyway, today's episode with a shout out
to my kid who has figured out how to make
waffle House style hash browns at home. And the key
is a great a nice big old russet potato and
(40:35):
then you need to rinse it to get some of
the starchy bits off the kind of and then you
rinse it till the water kind of runs clear, and
then cook it in a cast iron skillet, press it
in a thin like layer, and then be patient and
then flip it and then you get crispy on both
sides and it is just as good as at the
(40:57):
waffle house itself. So that's fun. Well, that's awesome. Yeah,
flip is the most satisfying thing oh one could ever
ask for. Uh.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
They also just you know, folks, to the good people
at waffle House serve right now something like one hundred
and forty five waffles per minute, three hundred and forty
one bacon strips per minute, so that, oh what, two
hundred and thirty orders of hash brouts every sixty seconds.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
So that means.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Every year waffle House serves enough bacon to fully wrap
around the earth, or to wrap around it in a line,
not to encase it, but to circumnavigate it.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah. Yeah, bacon around the earth. That's just that. If
that's not peace, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
And therey Avid, folks, thanks is always so much for
tuning in big things. To our super producer, mister Max Williams,
I wonder what Jonathan Strickland, aka the quizz Or would
order at waffle House.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
And I'm gonna argue just playing. He's just a plain
hash hash He's kind of got.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
He's such a villain that he probably boardcosts waffle House.
He's probably the one person in this world who doesn't.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
He also gets his t bone well done the mad
man or he and he doesn't even eat it because
he doesn't eat beef. That's true.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
If he looks, he looks down his nose and it's
getting Maybe he's one of those Actually, have you guys
heard of Toddlehouse people?
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Just insufferable?
Speaker 1 (42:19):
We're kidding, Jonathan, You're a three out of five guy
in our book.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Big thanks to who else still? Who are Chris Rasiota's
news Jeff Coats here in spirit, Alex Williams, who composed
this slapping track that I wish it belongs on waffle House.
Chupboxes bring back the old school chetboxes.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I see, Yes, we're standing on that one. We're standing
on business there. Big big thanks to the rude dudes
are ridiculous crime. Big thanks, as we said earlier, to
all the staff at waffle House for being just genuinely awesome,
And big thanks to the management of waffle House for
having us over to the museum. Most importantly, Noel, thanks.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
To you, Man oh Man, thanks you as well, Ben
for hosting the show with me and for doing the
incredible research on this very near and dear to all
of our Heart's episode. We'll see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(43:21):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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