Business
Top 10 Untold Truths of Waffle House (Part 2)
What more is there to say about the Waffle House that hasn’t already been said in our first part of this series? Well, apparently plenty. So we uncovered a bunch of other interesting tidbits for you. Feast your eyes on these cool facts we dug up. Here are the Top 10 Untold Truths about Waffle House – Part 2.
10. American Family Values
In part one of this series, we touched on the tandem partnership of Joe Rogers and business partner, Tom Forkner, but we didn’t spend all that much time filling you in on just who these men were, what they represented and what their home and family values reflected onto their business ventures. If when you look at the Waffle House, you see a wholesome family establishment where you can take the kids, or your partner or significant other, that’s because the men behind it practiced old school family values, the kind that is seldom seen nowadays. Joe Rogers Sr. passed away at the mature age of 97 years old, and it wasn’t all that long ago … March 3rd, 2017, actually, and he was survived by his children and his wife. He and his wife had been together for a whopping 74 years and they had four children altogether, one of whom is now CEO of the Waffle House. His name also happens to be Joe, named after his dad. He got the title of CEO in 1974 and has been proudly taking his father’s creation to heights that will probably reach the stars. His dad taught him the business and he had a lot of experience, seeing that he started his career in the food and service industry as a short order cook, which is what the Waffle House is all about. Now talk about family values.
9. Waffle House Urban Myth
We all know that some McDonald’s locations are open 24/7, and that some locations now serve breakfast, or at least some of the breakfast items, all day long. But what if you wanted real breakfast food? What then? Well, according to an old urban myth, “Waffle House Doors Have No Locks!“ Sounds like an old prophesy from some fantasy/adventure novel, but as we’ve already uncovered in Part 1, this happens to be true. According to the Google Dictionary, an Urban Legend or Myth is: a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as though true, especially one purporting to involve someone vaguely related or known to the teller. Myths in general have been with the world for quite some time. Can they be believed to be true, no matter how absurd some of them may seem to be? Of course it is pretty hard to believe some of them, but the superstition behind these generally causes many all over the planet to believe in their truths … whether faked or from a place of fact. The old myth regarding Waffle House as a whole is pretty interesting to begin with, especially for those who happen to love waffles, but this one actually is based more on the factual side of things than the fictitious. We’ve already addressed the fact that the Waffle House stays up, no matter how late you get that craving for a waffle or ten; they’re up and ready to serve, and they have certain precautions set up in case they can’t stay opened, but all in all, the fact that they abide to the old rule, or myth if you will, is pretty interesting to say the least. There’s something kind of trustworthy in the fact that there’s a place you can count on to be there for you no matter what, and no matter when. There’s something there that just screams Americana, isn’t there? After all it is the good and positive myths about this great nation and the fact that we try to hold them up at all costs that speak volumes … about us, the people, and the myths we pass down from generation to generation. Too deep? Well, when it comes to food and the dedication it takes to serve that food, we don’t take it all that lightly.
8. The Other Founder Was A Master Golfer
He also coincidentally spent many years as a litigator and lawyer; something that obviously helped him in the world of food service and restaurant chain expansion. And expand they did, as they now have many locations all over the States, racking in loads and loads of money for the services they provide. Unfortunately, Tom Forkner too passed on, and interestingly enough, in the same exact year as his partner did. Forkner was 98 at the time of his passing. But what a legacy these men left behind. Forkner made it to 98, but he actually started to experience a multitude of health issues earlier on in his life and a lifestyle change was imminent. So, after the urging of his doctors and loved ones, he took up a more active lifestyle. He chose to spend his free time golfing, and boy did it pay off, extending his life for many, many years. He actually became a really good golfer, taking home many championships, and was subsequently inducted into The Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. A notable win for him came when he was eighty years old: the World Super Seniors Champion for people 80 and over; quite the accomplishment. He was married to his wife, Martha for a very long time until his passing and through their marriage they had three children. A wholesome group of owners indeed.
7. Stacking Waffle House Sausage Patties
And they sure produce quite a bit of food every single day … astronomical amounts of it, to be precise, and we’ve found a few interesting facts regarding this, if you’ll humor us. The first staggering and interesting of these facts is just how many sausage patties they produce in a single day. This might seem pretty crazy at first, but please bear with us, as we’ve dug deep to get you this information, and no, we didn’t eat this many sausage patties to get to this conclusion, so don’t worry, we won’t need you to send any crazy amounts of Pepto-Bismol, but, at the end of a long, hard day, all 2,100 locations or so actually produce just about enough sausage patties that can equal to the height of the world’s tallest building if stacked! That sure is a lot of sausage patties, hunh? In case you were wondering, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It has been the tallest building on our planet since 2008 and the tip of it sits nestled quite nicely amidst the clouds most days reflecting the sun in the day and the moon at night. It reaches a whopping 2,717 feet overall. A mighty lot of sausages indeed.
6. Lots of Bacon at Waffle House
And by that same token, they obviously make a lot of bacon. We mean, what kind of breakfast place would they be if they didn’t serve bacon? Imagine if they didn’t! What kind of reaction do you think they’d get from the clients if that was the case? We’d imagine people wouldn’t be all that happy at the end of the day, with reason. No, we’d imagine those Waffle House chefs are frying up quite a wee bit-o-bacon every hour to keep up with some pretty extreme demands. This is a staggering fact, but one that makes some sense after all we’ve just laid upon the breakfast table (see what we did there?), and if tallied up, the Waffle House puts out enough greasy, tasty strips of bacon a year to amount to the circumference of the whole world if tacked together like the world’s longest rope … of bacon that is. The circumference of the world actually adds up to 24,901 miles! You grab the forks and we’ll bring a stack of plates along for the ride!
5. Waffle House and Professional Wrestlers
Last time, we discussed just how much wrestling and cinematic superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson loves The Waffle House, and although the man can definitely eat quite a few pancakes in one sitting, he sure isn’t the only one. As it turns out, quite a few wrestlers happen to love and adore the Waffle House, and what’s not to love? Especially for wrestlers, who need all the protein and energy they can get, but there is another important reason why they just so happen to be huge clients of the Waffle House chain in general: As it turns out, by the time they finish wrestling most nights, Waffle House is the only place open … well that and McDonald’s, but do they really look like they eat McDonald`s all that much? We didn’t think so. So, they eat at Waffle House any chance they can get. Superstar John Cena is exceptionally fond of the chain, as he is fond of eating in general and works out every single day, religiously, but he happens to also be a huge fan of breakfast food in general. So we guess for him, it works out quite nicely.
4. Waffle House Coffee Filling Swimming Pools
And what would a breakfast place be without quite a bit of the old coffee to get those juices flowing. Whether you’re eating breakfast and need some coffee to get going in the morning, or whether you happen top stroll in at the wee hours of the night, coffee sure can go a long way to help you no matter which way you’re going, so this little statistic definitely makes quite a bit of sense. Now you wouldn’t think that we would be able to tell you how much liquid that actually is, but there are those that spend their time calculating such things, so in case you were curious, just one Olympic pool can hold almost 700,000 gallons of water, bringing eight to an astonishing 5,600,000 or thereabouts, which give or take a million is still quite a bit of coffee!
3. How many eggs served at Waffle House?
Which of course brings us to our next point … eggs. A breakfast place sure has got to have a lot of eggs handy at the start of their day, and for a place that never actually closes, we’d imagine that the eggs just enter the place on a continuous conveyor belt that never shuts off. It has been reported that an incredible 2 Million eggs have been served at the Waffle House since they started, and although it is a lot of eggs, we wonder if they’ve calculated the eggs it took to make the batter for all the waffles and pancakes being served as well, because if they didn’t, and only calculated eggs served as a whole, then we’re missing some pretty crucial numbers here and demand a recount.
2. The Waffle House Hash Brown Language
Some restaurants have a language all their own, and as consumers, we learn to accept and learn those languages, especially if we want to be served those items we’ve grown to love so much. At the Waffle House, the hash browns, which just so happen to be pretty popular as well, actually come named quite oddly. “Smothered” happens to mean sauteed with onions, “Covered” happens to mean covered in cheese (what else?), and “Chunked” means that they happen to be served with Hickory Smoked Ham. There are other items and take a look at the menu and try them all, as they’re all amazing.
1. Chef Julia Williams’ Legacy
It was in season 3 of the cultural phenomenon, Hell’s Kitchen, hosted by none other than celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsey, that a chef named Julia Williams made it almost to the highest rank in Ramsey’s brigade. She ended up finishing fourth overall, and during the emotionally charged season, she outclassed most of the chefs vying for the ultimate chance to work for the man himself and win that big bucks prize at the end of it all. Really, Hell’s Kitchen is and will probably remain one of the top food competition oriented shows on television and this lady here represented herself with class and dignity and a serious know how on the old professional line. Now … a certain type of chef is needed on this show … one who is classically trained in fine dining; a cuisine that really takes years to learn and practice. But here, in this lady, the average Hell’s Kitchen viewer was pleasantly surprised to see a chef who had all the heart and makings of a great chef, only she didn’t have the training to back it up. But what she lacked in knowledge of fine dining, she sure made up for in the need for speed that it takes to work on a busy line. Now … what are we missing here? What are we forgetting to mention? Oh yeah! She learned all of that at … wait for it … the Waffle House, of all places! She was a Waffle House chef and she went so far, going further than chefs that had years of training in classical French and Italian cuisine under their respective belts. By the end of her run there, and when she was unfortunately eliminated, ranking fourth overall, Chef Ramsay was so impressed with her and how well she did, he didn’t only allow her to keep her black jacket (which is a high honor in and of itself), but he offered to pay for her culinary education. With all of that said, we guess it’s pretty safe to assume that the chefs at the Waffle House can certainly hold their own among the elite of the industry. Think of that next time you look down at your plate of eggs and waffles, and have a smile and cheers to the folks back there in the kitchen that put that dish together.