Waffle House facts for kids
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Trade name
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Waffle House |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Casual dining |
| Founded | September 5, 1955 Avondale Estates, Georgia, United States |
| Founders | Joe Rogers Tom Forkner |
| Headquarters |
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United States
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Number of locations
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2,021 (April 2025) |
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Area served
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25 U.S. states |
| Products | Waffles, breakfast food, sandwiches |
| Revenue |  $1 billion |
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Number of employees
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40,000 |
| Subsidiaries | WH Capital, L.L.C. |
Waffle House, Inc. is a popular American restaurant chain. It has over 2,000 locations across 25 states in the United States. Most of these restaurants are in the Midwest and the South. In these areas, Waffle House is a well-known and loved part of the local culture.
The menu at Waffle House mainly features Southern breakfast foods. The company's main office is in Norcross, Georgia, which is near the big city of Atlanta.
Contents
History of Waffle House
How Waffle House Started
The first Waffle House restaurant opened on Labor Day weekend in 1955. It was located in Avondale Estates, Georgia. Two friends, Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner, created and founded this restaurant.
Joe Rogers Sr. began his career in restaurants in 1947. He worked as a cook at a place called Toddle House. By 1949, he was a regional manager for that chain. Later, he moved to Atlanta and met Tom Forkner while buying a house.
Joe Rogers wanted to create a restaurant that was fast like a fast-food place but also offered table service. He also wanted it to be open all the time. Tom Forkner suggested the name "Waffle House." This was because waffles were the most profitable item on their small, 16-item menu.
Joe Rogers continued to work for Toddle House for a short time. To avoid any problems, he sold his share of Waffle House to Tom Forkner in 1956.
Growth in the 1960s to 1990s
In 1960, Joe Rogers wanted to buy a part of Toddle House, but they said no. So, he moved back to Atlanta and rejoined Waffle House. By then, Waffle House had grown to three restaurants. Joe Rogers took charge of running the restaurants. Soon after, Tom Forkner also left his real estate job to work full-time at Waffle House.
After opening a fourth restaurant in 1960, the company started letting other people open Waffle House restaurants as franchises. The chain slowly grew to 27 stores by the late 1960s. After that, it started growing much faster.
Waffle House Since 2000
In 2007, Waffle House bought back its very first restaurant. The company had sold it in the early 1970s. They fixed it up using the original building plans. Now, it is a private museum for the company. The museum is mainly used for company events and special tours.
The founders of Waffle House passed away in 2017. Joe Rogers Sr. died on March 3, and Tom Forkner died on April 26. On September 8, 2024, it was announced that Walter G. Ehmer, who had been in charge of Waffle House since 2012, had also passed away.
How Waffle House Works
Each Waffle House restaurant is open 24 hours a day, every day. This constant schedule has led to a fun story that "Waffle House doors have no locks."
Almost all Waffle House restaurants have jukeboxes. These jukeboxes used to play music from small records called 45-rpm singles. Some even played CDs. Waffle House has its own record label called Waffle Records. They have released their own songs, like "Saturday Night At My Place" and "They're Cooking Up My Order."
The co-founder, Joe Rogers, had high standards for these songs. He said if a song sounded like an advertisement, it would not be used. If a song was good enough, it would be recorded and put on Waffle House jukeboxes. These songs are on special discs made just for Waffle House. You cannot buy them in stores, but the company has sold a CD with some of the songs.
Waffle House says it sells more of certain menu items than anyone else in the world. These items include their famous waffles, ham, pork chops, grits, and T-bone steaks. They also claim to serve 2% of all the eggs eaten in the U.S.
In the 1960s, S. Truett Cathy, who owned a local diner, made a deal with Waffle House. He wanted them to sell his special chicken sandwich, the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. However, the Chick-fil-A sandwich quickly became more popular than Waffle House's own items. So, Waffle House ended the deal. This led S. Truett Cathy to start his own chain, Chick-fil-A.
Waffle House in Indiana
For many years, Waffle House was known as "Waffle and Steak" in Indiana. This was because another restaurant chain already owned the rights to the "Waffle House" name in that state. The original Indiana Waffle House chain later started using the name "Sunshine Cafe."
However, in 2005, all the "Waffle and Steak" restaurants in Indiana changed their name to "Waffle House." This brought the entire chain under one name across the country.
Keeping Food Safe
Waffle House takes food safety seriously. In 2004, a TV show called Dateline NBC looked into how clean popular American restaurants were. They checked how many serious safety problems each restaurant had during inspections. Waffle House had a low average of 1.6 serious problems per inspection. Waffle House pointed out that they cook all meals in an open kitchen. This means customers can easily see how clean their cooking practices are.
In September 2019, a Waffle House in Goose Creek, South Carolina had a situation where an employee tested positive for Hepatitis A. As soon as the company found out, they immediately closed that location. They thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the restaurant. Health officials worked with Waffle House to check for any possible exposures and give advice on how to prevent illness for anyone who might have been affected.
Waffle House and Disasters
Waffle House is known for being very good at responding to disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says Waffle House is one of the top companies for disaster response. They are as prepared as big stores like Walmart and The Home Depot.
Waffle House has a detailed plan for disasters. They have portable generators and store food and ice before big storms like a hurricane. This helps them keep going even if the power goes out or supplies are hard to get. The company also sends "jump teams" of staff and supplies from outside the disaster area. This way, local employees can focus on helping their own families and homes.
FEMA even uses how quickly a Waffle House can reopen after a severe storm as a way to measure how well an area is recovering. This is known as the Waffle House Index. If a Waffle House is open, even with a limited menu, it's a good sign that things are getting back to normal.
See also
In Spanish: Waffle House para niños
- Denny's
- Golden Nugget Pancake House
- Huddle House
- IHOP
- The Original Pancake House
- Walker Brothers
