Me: "Huh. Waffle House has 'wraps' now. That's just not right."I had steak and eggs, medium rare and up, with hash browns scattered, smothered, covered, peppered, and cooked crispy. You don't eat a wrap at a greasy spoon. It ain't right.
SB: "They're responding to market forces. I thought you liked that kind of stuff?"
Me: "I had a hard enough time getting used to non-smoking Waffle Houses. Now they have 'wraps'. What's next? A sushi bar? It ain't right. You kids today with your raccoon coats and your phone booth stuffing and goldfish swallowing. Get offa my lawn!"
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Overheard in the restaurant...
Continuing the theme of me not dealing well with change:
OMC you are so right, that's so not right... It'd be like chick-fil-a selling caviar LOL!
ReplyDeleteIf they offer Toffuti for dessert run for your lives.
ReplyDeleteHell, just don't eat the grits. I've had bad results eating Waffle House grits. How do you get GRITS wrong?!? (Answer: you put so much lard in them to keep them from drying out, that you end up with greased white hominey.)
ReplyDeleteWill the sushi be fresh or once frozen? I'm thinkin' date night at Waffle House!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen at Waffle House eat everything on your plate. It was a Waffle House waitress in Panama City who told me "Honey, you don't order the grits; it just comes with'em!" It was good for a greasy spoon, which was what I expected. If I wanted tres chic I could have found it elsewhere; I wanted grub and got it there.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of fancy, designer-food places everywhere. Waffle House needs no wraps to keep their base, but perhaps a bean-counter somewhere in corporate told them it would be a good idea.
Next they will be installing some of that there decor stuff.
ReplyDeletePecan waffles, ham and black coffee.
Gerry
Waffle Houses always smell like bacon, their food (eggs, waffles, etc.) taste like bacon. Not necessarily a bad thing.
ReplyDeletewv: subcoct (no comment)
I spent a lot of time on the road. I ate at a lot of Awful Waffles. You know what you're gonna get, and it doesn't vary much from place to place. Not everyone can sit and eat, and the wrap is a good way to make their fare car-portable. Almost wish we had 'em here. Beat the hell out of McWenking.
ReplyDeleteWV: Chmettl. Gimme the country fried steak and eggs, and don't skimp on the chmettl.
Now if it was bacon wrapped steak & eggs...
ReplyDeleteNow heading into left field.. One time I was in Wilmington N.C. near the motel was an Omlet House, similar set up to a waffle house. I gave it a try, had the western omlet. 5 eggs and milk in a milkshake mixer, cooked up it was 2 inches thick, folded and filled with fixin's and it came with grits, real southern grits.
IHOP, ty. Tried Waffle House a couple of times--the breakfast wasnt bad, but I hated the shouting of orders, it was like eating with a drill instructor. Made the mistake of eating dinner there once, and never went back. Urgh. Never had a bad meal at IHOP.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious...were they "wraps" like with pita bread and lettuce and shit, or is that just the new trendy name for breakfat burritos?
ReplyDeleteOne of the (many!) bad things about living in the Golden State is the absence of waffle house. When I was a Fireman in Charleston, my friends and I spent many evenings hashing our problems(along with those of the Navy and the Nation) out over bottomless cups of black coffee and about 1000 plates of hashbrowns served up all the way. Wraps? Sign of the times. Wraps are basically as common as sandwiches to my generation. With the advantage of being cheaper.
ReplyDeleteAbomination.
ReplyDelete"You don't eat a wrap at a greasy spoon. It ain't right."
ReplyDeleteBeen doing it for years. Plate-size waffle with everything else piled on top, pick it up, fold it, and eat it like a Confederate Chicago slice.
Never considered it a "wrap", but what's in a name if it tastes as sweet?
AT
I'm kinda surprised you spend youe money there. Carraige of firearms is prohibited at all waffle house restaurants. It's why I don't eat there anymore.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Pol
They've had wraps for at least 3 years now - and the ones I've had really weren't too bad at all... Of course, I stuck with the bacon, egg & cheese wraps, so it's pretty hard to get them wrong.
ReplyDeleteLike Og said, they are easier to eat in a car. Enjoy!
I need to visit.
ReplyDeleteAfter I visit the family in Mobile, Art in TX, and Shane in WY.
Ha! Thanks for starting my day with a laugh!
ReplyDeleteThey changed my Waffle House? That's like moving my cheese, or something!
ReplyDeleteI used to work in Clarkston, where is their headquarters.
Oh, Pol? I discussed that problem with my then-sweety. Like a lot of women and all true geniuses, she pays only pragmatic attention to rules made by other people, and felt better having her 442 handy.
ReplyDeleteI do wish she'd exercise with the thing sometimes.
Dammit. It's almost three in the morning, and I'm getting that need for grease and egg and bacon and waffle.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was a short-order cook for a Braum's, I used to close, and at midnight, it was time to get a bite with the guys I worked with. We'd occasionally head over to the Waffle House to get our oil changed, as it were. This was back in about '92, when they had a $3.99 All You Could Eat special. They had 10 dishes that you could just continually eat from. All. Night. Long. There was this woman named, I think, Janice. At least, that's what I recall the Waffle House lady called her. She was there every single night, at various hours of my arrival, sitting on the stool at the end of the counter.
At least, I assume that there was a stool under there, somewhere. Janice was a Big Girl.
Ever since TN went all non-smoky, I haven't been many places. Looks like Whiffle House is another I won't be visiting.
ReplyDeleteWV=tersee. Extremely non-verbose.
Here in Austin we have a franchise called Mongolian Grill, where one fills a bowl with meat, veggies, noodles, and flavor sauces, then hand it over to be cooked on a sizzling flat grill.
ReplyDeleteAt dinner they serve a very good oriental chicken soup along with the entree.
When the one near my house opened, the soup was delicately flavored with five spice, and very oriental. Within a few months the soup tasted like all other chicken soup in the town - heavy on the cilantro.
There are no Mongolians working in these restaurants.
Why the soup changed flavor, and why there are wraps in Waffle House, is left as an exercise for the reader.
"Why the soup changed flavor, and why there are wraps in Waffle House, is left as an exercise for the reader."
ReplyDeleteIt's simply the market in action.
Texans like bland food thus the soup at the Mongolian joint (which I love too) becomes unimaginative.
People like wraps thus joints that did not carry them now do.
If Tam does not like change, then would she the federal government and Congress as concurrently constituted?
Life is change, and moving gear around.
Shootin' Buddy
Wraps are just a subtle way for us to get used to Middle East Cuisine. Too bad one of the Last Bastions of American Redneckness has fallen to the Enemy.
ReplyDeleteOr, if you're NOT paranoid, you could just say Wraps are an easier way to move Bread products for the Corporation. Less bulk, more product to move on the same truck, thus reducing Shipping costs, thus making the Bean Counters happy.
Kinda like when the DOD decided to downsize from the 7.62 Nato to the 5.56 Nato in the 60's.
But we all know what happens when the Bean Counters MAKE Policy instead of trying to work within the current system....
Les,
ReplyDeleteWraps are because lots of people are doing the low-carb thing these days, so no nefarious explanations are needed.
I'd hate to infer Shootin' Buddy is a dumbass, but "Texans like bland food"? Lolwut?
ReplyDeleteand to keep being mean-spirited, I think Darrell likes his dining a little more on the "fabulous" side.
OH< and the HQ for WH is in Norcross.
"Wraps" are just burritos for white people - perhaps they pronounce it "raps" just to get their Urban funky jive groove beat-box down.
ReplyDeleteThe low-carb thing actually doesn't work so great with high glycemic-index white-bread like wrappy stuff, but it appears to satisfy the mind of those who need to believe it does.
Fortunately they are just tongs and a hot oil bath away from becoming wonderfully crispy deep-fried wraps.
I was at a Waffle House in Panama City Beach about a week ago, and as Pol mentioned, they had a sign on the outside that forbade firearms. :( We ate there anyway. It was tasty.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm close to the same page as "anonymous" up above... If it was a wrap, as in something made wrapped with a WAFFLE, I'd be pretty interested in it. Flour tortilla? No, not so much.
ReplyDelete@ justthisguy:
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm carrying concealed I tend to ignore signs as well, but I'd rather not spend my money at places that have such policies. In my local area the Huddle house chain is almost an exact copy of WH, minus the no guns signs.
Regards,
Pol
I've never been able to try the food at a Waffle House yet - every time I walk into it, I feel like I need a SCUBA mask 'cause the smoke is so thick. When I find these mythological non-smoking Waffle Houses, I'll try one. Until then I vote with my feet and go somewhere that I can breathe while I'm eating.
ReplyDeleteRoss,
ReplyDeleteAny Waffle House in Tennessee, for instance.
Random fact: All Waffle Houses pay their employees cash (not just tips, base pay and all) because over 60% of their employees do not have bank accounts.
ReplyDeleteChasing Freedom,
ReplyDeleteThat makes me happy. :)
I love Waffle House. They make good, cheap food and donate to Conservative candidates.
ReplyDeleteBecause of their franchise requirements, our intellectually inadequate prez could not qualify. You must have some business experience.
It's been years since I've been South. So it's been years since I've been to an Awful House. It has a purpose - it is the driver's friend. That is why they are at every exit. When you need to make that last eight hours and you're bobbing to the steering wheel like a Hasidic Jew bobbing at the Wailing Wall, Awful House saves your life. The carb fix gives you the energy you need. My staple is the Breakfast All Star.
ReplyDeleteMost memorable thing: While going around Atlanta I had a cook come to the counter and apologize profusely for having to substitute oatmeal for the grits, since he was not able to prefect the grits, and could not serve them if they were not perfected. Not whether they were edible, whether they were up his Southern standard of grit perfection.
ReplyDelete