Sanity returns to Waffle House

And if there's any late night trouble you can be certain that waffle house employees never lose when fists start flying...

 

Ours never closed......I drive by it on my way to work at 0-dark-thirty and on callouts.

 

what about Cracker Barrel?

 

Checking locations, the nearest Waffle House is over a 2000 km drive from here.

 

Closest WH to me are in AZ -- and have been to the one on Bell Rd ages back.

Yep -- 14 locations in AZ alone. But holy smokes 65 in DFW, 39 in Houston, 45 in Mobile, and 231 in Atlanta

 

We have two that are within 50 miles.
I remember when their audiobook rentals were a road trip staple.
We used to eat there semi-regularly, but even before their CEO doubled down on stupidity we throttled back on that because the food quality went down and the prices went up.
They even started selling mixed drinks to try to drive up profits, but I'm not enough of a Southern Baptist to be putt off by that.
A good restaurant will generally make their money at the bar, and try to just break even in the kitchen.
I was not put off in the least by the new signs or the tone-deaf interior re-designs, and they're entitled to keep whatever CEO they want to in their corner office.

CB still a regular stop on road trips because they're generally interstate convenient and have good restrooms - but I don't eat there.

 

Prefer Claim Jumper... though exps are late '90s-vintage. Used to have team building lunches there working for AMEX. May be garbage now, everything else '90s franchise heyday' is. But good slop back then, when I could eat that stuff.

 

They're a different genre.
The Barrel is aimed at boomers roaming the interstate with their RVs and, families on spring and summer vaca.
Claim Jumper is a brass and glass joint - or more like, leather and wood in their case geared for working lunches and semi-casual evening dining.
I thought they went out of business a while back but there seem to be a short dozen of them left clinging to life.

 

Still occasionally enjoy Waffle House for breakfast if I'm in a hurry. Quality is OK by breakfast joint standards, pricing isn't competitive with my local go-to joint. Haven't eaten in a CB for a while, years ago when traveled more would time my stops for their 6am opening time and enjoyed their Uncle Hershel breakfast with pork chops (no longer a meat option with Uncle Hershel, sad). In younger days in TX frequented Dennys quite a bit too, but only 1 close by to me now and it's a 30 min. drive.

Yep WH has a reputation for clientele that on occasion feel the need to go to fist city....

 

meh.
Big city drama.

Try that in most small towns in the deep south and some 90-lb elderly griddle operator will toss the combatants out into the parking lot without knocking the ash off of her ciggy-butt.

We're talking about a place whose resilience has earned it a place in first responder folklore.....
I can report that while I was doing hurricane restoration during Hurricane Katrina, WH was one of if not THE first establishments that reopened after the storm in more than one city and town......

Waffle House Index - Wikipedia

 

Pancake breakfast again!

 

How’s your cholesterol?

 

No clue. The ingredients, a mod'd Lummur recipe:

1.5 cups left over porridge
1 cup flour (we sub 20% whole wheat, and add rounded tablespoon of flax
4 eggs
~3/4 whole milk, plus big dollop of yogurt
tablespoon baking powder, teaspoon sugar, pinch of salt
5~6 Cardamom pods (dark cardamom, maybe not authentic, but like it) worth of seeds, plus anise seed and fennel (ground in mortar)

Toppings:

butter
banana
Granny Smith apple
blueberries
chopped walnuts/almonds
whatever extras are about, pineapple, strawberries, etcetera
Shredded, unsweetened coconut
hemp hearts
nutritional yeast
last but not least: maple syrup

Makes about 20, enough for 3 breakfast for us, plus a couple for on the side with fry ups.

 

cholesterol is not a part of Canadian medical testing? it's such a huge issue here, perhaps foisted on us by big pharma

 

Statins keep people alive and normally require high LDL to get a script.

 

Trust me -- their lunch spread was damned good too, as that's the only time we AMEX techs would hit it. Again, in '90s...

No wonder I didn't frequent CB in Phoenix -- do remember most eating there were in their 50s - 60s (when I were in my late 20s / early 30s).

Did eat at one, but wasn't all that impressed. Not hateful-bad or anything -- hell, used to eat pretty regularly at Denny's w/ friends after all But the premium over Denny's? Nah

Wouldn't eat at CJ regularly, couldn't afford it -- none of my workmates at AMEX would, and most comfortably outearned me. But when AMEX were expensing it? Absolutely

If had the hair to actually sit down on a long moto roadtrip esp in SW, circa '98... CJ'd be my choice over a f***ing Chili's or Applebee's or God forbid, Cheesecake Factory Otherwise, would be the usual interstate-exit, drive-thru-window places, or Denny's

 

-Ding Ding!
That's my answer.
I get a blood panel every year and I suppose it's in there somewhere.
I'm a recovering vegan (actually, I was a pessky-tarian) and I spent a year or so seeing if I could move the needles on my cholesterol from "borderline high" (140-ish?) to what our intellectual betters point to as 'optimal' which is less than 100.
I found that if I made myself and those around me miserable I really could move the number down a few points, but ONLY a few points.
I was never in the 'statins' range which I wouldn't take anyway.
Too many "common but rare" symptoms.
No kidding - that's the exact phrase that was in the literature that I read when an Aunt started taking it and experiencing some fairly profound symptoms.

Sample size=1.
YMMV.

Buc-ee's isn't a restaurant per-se...and their food is actually middling except for the meats.
Chopped brisket!
Wrap instead of the sandwich of you're carb-conscience.

They're like my noise cancelling buds.
Expensive....because they're WORTH IT!

2 fuels > 1 in my case, which is why my next vehicle will allow me to charge when I can, fuel when I MUST.

Again....sample size = 1.