Years ago, my family and I “renamed” the local Waffle House in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It is not that “Waffle House” is not a good name, because it has obviously been around a very long time and is sorta famous, much like Starbucks.
When we lived in Seattle, we got a little tired of seeing a Starbucks on almost every corner, especially since we didn’t even care for their coffee as the Captain says it always tastes burnt. You see early on the Captain dabbled in coffee shops as a side business, much like he does his real estate today and he has always claimed Starbucks overroasted their coffee beans. But I digress.
Waffle Houses are almost as abundant as Starbucks and as a matter of fact, there is a 4 way street in Atlanta that has a Waffle House on each corner.
No, we renamed our Waffle House…”Good Morning Good Morning” because every time one entered their establishment, all the employees would call out “Good Morning” and you would answer back “Good Morning” and it would echo throughout the restaurant as smiling faces gave their greeting also. It just made one “happy”!
A few well known facts about this chain of small restaurants….Waffle Houses are open 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year….and their breakfasts/lunches and dinners are simple but good and if one is on the way to the airport…many times they are the only breakfast restaurant open at 4 or 5:00 A.M….plus, you can watch them actually make your breakfast. The kitchen is not hidden away in the dark recesses of a large building where who knows what is happening or going on as your breakfast is being prepared. Sorry, I just shuddered at that thought.
Many times I will take the Captain to the airport just so we can spend a little more time together before he flies off into the wild blue yonder and the closest Waffle House is actually near SW International Airport, so yes…we have stopped to have breakfast there many, many times.
Soooo you can imagine our delight when we heard that our very own little city would be having a Waffle House….and it would be just 2 blocks off of Cape Coral Parkway on Del Prado Blvd. I could still have an early breakfast with my Hunny and then he could drive himself to the airport and I could drive the short hop, skip and a jump back home….Or I could drive him to the airport….we would have choices!
Now, let me tell you this Waffle House ground breaking started almost immediately. …and construction seemed to go so quickly that every time we drove past this site, we were amazed at the progress.
It seemed that in just a matter of a month or so….the Waffle House morphed from the run down aquarium shop with chipping blue paint and a droopy, large white banner touting goldfish 3 for $5.00, into a well landscaped parking lot with white picket fence and tall palm trees and the familiar bright yellow “WAFFLE HOUSE” name plastered on the red brick facade of the building.
For some reason, I thought of it as a personal triumph. At last, a restaurant in our town, with breakfast at zero dark thirty and one you didn’t have to go to the drive through and hear the age old question of “would you like a fried apple pie with that?”.
You see, it doesn’t take much to please me. Just give me my Reef flip-flops, oldies but goodies music on the radio, my Kansas City Royals baseball cap, aviator sunglasses and I am a happy camper! (when one has risen very early, one doesn’t always have time to fix one’s hair and a ball cap hides all kinds of wild and stringy tresses and the sunglasses work for the no make-up on the way home look)
Imagine my disappointment as the Waffle House remained just a pretty building, all dressed up with no place to go.
There was a large white sign in the window that said OPEN SOON…obviously their definition of soon is different than my definition of “soon”!
It sat in that condition…as the Captain did his usual flights of 7 days flying and 7 days at home.
Week in and week out.
For several months.
What in the world was the hold-up on opening this Waffle House, I would mutter each time I drove by the neatly white stripped parking lot. I could see the inside had everything in place or as much as I could see without actually getting out of the car and peering in the windows like a peeping tom.
There was also a large yellow sign in the window that said NOW HIRING! And I thought ok, well, get on with it. There are hundreds of people looking for work or at least that is the scuttlebutt one would hear at the supermarket or the beauty shop. However, one of my friends added her two cents worth and said that most likely most of the people were probably looking for vice president jobs and not service work.
I don’t know, but I even resorted to calling a few of the other Waffle Houses across the bridge (there are at least 4 of them) to ask if they knew of an opening date….and no one knew anything….or so they said.
And then….then a couple days ago, the Captain and I did our usual drive-by and we noticed a couple cars in the roped off parking lot. Actually it was yellow tape that looked like crime tape and I said to the Captain.
“Have they already been robbed? they haven’t even opened yet!”
The Captain assured me that no, they were most likely the people being trained and didn’t want to bother with new customers coming to interrupt their training.
And then yesterday…..oh, I am so excited…..yesterday, we drove by the Waffle House on our way to the movies and there were even more cars in the roped off parking lot. AND I saw a group of about 6 people in the familiar brown uniforms clustered in a circle near the back of the building and I exclaimed excitedly!
“Look! They are being trained on taking a cigarette break!!”…..”opening day must be very, very close”.
My dear readers, do you get excited at the prospect of a new restaurant or business in your town or is it just me?
Well, if you will excuse me, I need to make another run to see if “Good Morning Good Morning” is open for business yet, the Captain will be leaving out again next week!.
I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment. 🙂
Blessings!
Janet says
Aloha! No Waffle House in Hilo, but there is an IHOP!! We go there so frequently, that the one that usually seats us says no need for menus, she has our orders down pat!! Does anyone actually still use that word? Anyhow, will have to try the Waffle House when I come back to visit. I’ve never had the privilege of eating there. Just used to eating at Bob Evans and Perkins. Have a great weekend!!
Kari says
Thanks my friend for stopping by…and I know exactly what you mean when the servers know you so well. We have found the same thing here in several restaurants. I guess we are just creatures of habit. 😉 Can’t wait to see you guys again….when will you be coming to the mainland? I will send you a longer email later.
Hugs
Karole Jacobsen says
Great story….almost makes me want to run out for breakfast!
Kari says
It seems I am always ready for breakfast….morning noon or night. Thanks for stopping by my good friend, I do appreciate your comments.