The original Waffle House opened in Avondale Estates, Georgia on College Avenue in 1955. It was later sold and converted into a Chinese restaurant, and has since been purchased back and restored as a museum with furnishings very close to what the original restaurant looked like.
It usually isn’t open to the public, but was open today. We were told it will soon be open to the public two days per week.
We learned some other tidbits, like that this sign they have out front isn’t the same design as the original sign:
It’s actually a late 50s or early 60s design. The letters are supposed to look like dripping syrup. The original sign design isn’t up to current DeKalb County code, and they’re working on getting permission to use the original (or a sign with the same design as the original). The original is currently stored in a warehouse.
Also:
- Filet mignon was served instead of T-bones originally. The urban legend goes that the switch to T-bones was made after a Waffle House location ran out of filet mignon and bought some T-bones from an A&P, which proved to be very popular.
- Other menu ideas — such as the code words for hash brown toppings — permeate up to be corporate standards from flourishes of particular Waffle House locations.
- Originally, everything was made fresh on location except for saltine crackers, Coca Cola and Heinz ketchup.
- The founder Joe Rogers was (and still is) obsessed with not wasting movements, space or materials. At the original location, when they were finished with a paper cash register roll, they’d put it back in the register the opposite way and print on the back. Now, this translates into constant efficiency studies that attempt to cut down on the movements that Waffle House employees make.
Amber also has a photo set here and a blog post here.
[...] Fellow Decatur blogger Rusty Tanton alerts us that he’s got pics and a real interesting report from the Waffle Open House. Thanks [...] October 25th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
[...] location — and have photos, trivia and thoughts about the joint. View Rusty’s musings here. Amber’s photos and thoughts are here and here, [...] October 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
[...] Decatur bloggers covered it as well and posted lots of pictures (and more). It was also nice to learn that the [...] October 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
[...] location — and have photos, trivia and thoughts about the joint. View Rusty’s musings here. Amber’s photos and thoughts are here and here, [...] October 27th, 2008 at 2:28 pm