Despite many late nights, Waffle House still looking good at 70
Tom Forkner was assigned to the Manhattan Project. Joe Rogers Sr. was a B-24 pilot trainer.
But after World War II, the two would become neighbors in Avondale Estates, where they would start a 24-hour diner, now famous for its simplicity and scattered hash browns.
On Labor Day 1955, Forkner and Rogers opened the first Waffle House in the small DeKalb County community. Seventy years later, the chain has grown to more than 2,000 locations in 25 states, including about 400 restaurants in Georgia.
Waffle House and its glowing yellow sign, over the years, cemented itself as a cultural icon. It’s been in lyrics of songs, graced movie scenes, and served as a barometer for severe weather events.
On Saturday, Waffle House will celebrate its anniversary where it all began. An event is planned at the Waffle House Museum, located at 2719 East College Ave., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The free event will feature a food truck, music and access to the museum.
The late chef and television host Anthony Bourdain once said of Waffle House: “It is indeed marvelous, an irony-free zone, where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. Where everybody, regardless of race, creed, color or degree of inebriation, is welcomed. … It never closes. It is always, always faithful. Always there for you.”
But it all started as a sort of side gig between two friends, Julia Ludwiczak Buschman, Waffle House archivist and museum curator, shared at a lecture this week.
After the war, Forkner and Rogers pivoted to different careers. Forkner, who grew up in Avondale Estates, worked in his family’s real estate business. Rogers, a native of Jackson, Tennessee, was a division manager for 24-hour restaurant chain Toddle House, known for its high counter service and stainless steel interior.
The pair met when Rogers moved to Atlanta and bought a house from Forkner in Avondale Estates, a planned community adorned with Tudor-style architecture.
“That friendship grew into a 60-year business partnership bound only by a handshake,” says a 2017 memorial for the late Rogers.
Forkner pestered Rogers to open a Toddle House in Avondale Estates, Buschman said, but it wasn’t a busy enough area for the chain.
They decided to go in on a new concept, pooling together $4,000 in savings to open Waffle House on East College Avenue, according to the DeKalb History Center.
“They both did not quit their day jobs for this,” Buschman said. “They thought maybe they could send their kid to college. You know, that would be that.”
Rogers would head back to Tennessee with a Toddle House promotion, and Forkner ran the restaurant, branching out with new locations. The second Waffle House opened at the corner of Peachtree and 10th streets in Midtown Atlanta.
When the Toddle House business fell apart, Rogers returned to Waffle House, and the company started franchising.
“That is when, in the 60s, we really start to grow,” Buschman said.
Waffle House today is a top 24-hour chain and a Southern landmark, with about 45,000 hourly employees across all its locations.
“Our job is to make people feel better because they ate with us,” Rogers said in a 2004 interview.
Joe Rogers III helms the company today.
The first Waffle House in Avondale Estates only operated until the 1970s and was sold off, Buschman said. But on its 50th anniversary, Waffle House bought it back. In 2008, it reopened as the Waffle House Museum.
Waffle House at a glance
Here are a few fun facts about Waffle House:
- Each year, Waffle House serves 142 million waffles, 328 million slices of bacon, 300 million eggs, and 200 million servings of hash browns.
- Waffle House has mingled with other famous Atlanta brands. It has served Coca-Cola since opening in 1955. And at its first restaurant, Waffle House served Chick-fil-A chicken for some time when founder Truett Cathy was “perfecting his chicken recipe” and leased out the recipe and fryer to some Atlanta restaurants, said Buschman. “The rumor is that we ate more than we sold.”
- A Waffle House in Conyers, which opened in 1969, was the first to feature the block-letter logo, Buschman said. “Our original logo was kind of a drippy font meant to mimic syrup,” she said. “When we started expanding and adding locations near highways, we needed a sign that people could see from afar.”
- Waffle House added its hash brown lingo to the menu in 1984. Originally, the hash browns were prepared in a two-day process and cooked in a ring. “People started liking them scattered, and it just kind of grew from there,” Buschman said. “Our associates actually created the lingo of smothered and covered, and it just kind of snowballed.”
- Waffle House has recorded more than 40 songs on its in-house label, Waffle Records, such as “There are raisins in my toast.”
- While the company franchised in its early days, it later bought back restaurants. Today, the locations are about 97% company-owned, Buschman said.
- Waffle House was a cash-only business until 2006, when it started accepting credit cards.
- The company does minimal advertising, opting instead to invest that money into its people and restaurants, Buschman said. As for marketing, she said, “That big yellow sign kind of does the work for us.”
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