33 Waffle House Facts: An American Restaurant Chain!

Anusuya Mukherjee
Oct 12, 2023 By Anusuya Mukherjee
Originally Published on Dec 27, 2021
Waffle House facts tell us about their waffles.
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Age: 3-18
Read time: 5.5 Min

Waffle House was founded by Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner.

The first Waffle House opened at the location Avondale Estates, Georgia. This outlet has now been turned into the Waffle House Museum.

Waffle House's food is a staple favorite for many people. The full menu items in all Waffle House locations include pancakes, and chicken, and waffles, but the chicken is not fried but grilled.

They don't serve hot chocolate owing to an accident where hot chocolate got spilled on a little boy. They also have both call-in and take-out services available.

If you want to eat waffles and are looking for the nearest Waffle House, then you can just check their website. The most number of outlets in a city is found in Atlanta.

Read on to know more facts about the waffle house and if you like this article, then also check out tiny house facts and Anne Frank House facts.

Waffle House Hash Brown Bowl

Hash browns have been a part of the Waffle House menu for a long time and they are still one of the best on the menu. However, their hash brown bowls are relatively new and they are available in only a few places around America.

The Waffle House may be named after and famous for its waffles, but their hash browns come a close second to the best items on the menu. An interesting fact is they supposedly roll out 238 orders of hash brown every minute of every day.

The chain restaurant tries new items to serve in some outlets around a few states in America.

If the item is well received by most customers, then they include it permanently on their menu. The bowls include a large order of hash brown, a full order of sausage, scrambled eggs, two pieces of sliced cheese along with two toppings of anything you choose, and they are usually served with biscuits and toast.

All-Star Breakfast Waffle House

The all-star breakfast on the Waffle House menu is one of the most favorites among the customers. It provides them with a whole lot of food options, eating options, and with a very little amount of money. It can be pretty perfect for your kids to share and eat.

The first thing you have to know about the Waffle House breakfast is that it's available all throughout the day. They are known for serving everything that is on their menu at all times. Their menu may read breakfast, but it's available even if you visit the diner at 3 PM or even at 3 AM.

The all-star breakfast consists of two eggs, grits or any kinds of hash browns, toast, your choice of breakfast meat, and a large waffle. The amount of food on the plate is quite a lot and many moms buy it for their children to share and eat between them.

The additional benefit is, even with a few additions to this food, it still won't cost you more than $10 USD.

Waffle House Museum is located at the original Waffle House location.

Waffle House Careers

There are around 2100 Waffle House diners in around 25 states in the United States. The restaurant has around 9500 employees around the county. The top 10% of employees earn more than $51000 USD per year and the bottom 10% of employees earn less than $14000 USD per year.

There are a lot of career opportunities in Waffle House, starting from cooks, servers, managers, HR, cashiers, administrators, supervisors, and more. The average salary of Waffle House employees around the country is $27,532 per year.

The higher-paying positions in the diner are salesperson, managers, directors, and more. The hourly pay of a relief manager, retail store manager, restaurant assistant manager, or cook supervisor is around $14 USD.

The hourly pay of the cooks is about $11 USD and of the head cooks are around $15 USD.

The hourly pay of an administrator is around $17-$18 USD and a supervisor is around $13 USD. A cashier gets around $10 USD per hour and a server, waiter or waitress gets around $4 USD per hour and $22476 USD per year.

You can open your own Waffle House diner. The fee of a Waffle House’s franchise is about $200000-$300000 USD. However, depending on the size of the restaurant you're aiming to open, the location, and a few other startup fees, in total it costs around $600000-$1000000 USD.

Fun Facts About Waffle House

The Waffle House holds a plethora of fun things that will blow your mind starting from the codes they use to understand the orders of customers to their relationship with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Waffle House is open 24 hours, every day in the year. That's why FEMA measures the index of a disaster which is known as the 'Waffle House Index'.

In the Waffle House Index, code green means dinners are open and everything is okay, code yellow means the diner is serving a few things in the menu as the power is out, and code red means that the diner is closed.

The first Waffle House was opened in Avondale Estates, Georgia on the Labor Day of 1995 by two men - Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers.

At the location Avondale Estates, Georgia, the two men decided to open their first outlet, that original Waffle House has now been turned into the Waffle House Museum.

The diner claims that they have grilled over 134842441 t-bone steaks since 1955, which is more than any other restaurant in the world. Rumor has it that these restaurants do not have locks on their doors, which is actually a myth.

Waffle House has its own music label where they produce music videos and songs, which are Waffle House themed. Their first song, 'Waffle House Family' released in 1999. Their second music video was 'Southern Classic Cookin'.

The highest outlets of Waffle House are found in Georgia with over 430 Waffle Houses, where Atlanta alone has 162 Waffle Houses. South Carolina comes second with 169 outlets. The few states where there are no restaurants are Wisconsin, Vermont, Oregon, Nevada, Maine, Iowa, and some more.

Waffle House is worth around $4 billion USD whereas Rogers alone is worth around $2 billion USD as Joe Rogers Jr., Rogers's son, still holds the ownership of the company today and is now the chairman. The CEO of the company is Walt Ehmer.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for waffle house facts then why not take a look at Palaeolithic houses, or Roman bath houses facts?

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Written by Anusuya Mukherjee

Bachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights

Anusuya Mukherjee picture

Anusuya MukherjeeBachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights

With a wealth of international experience spanning Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, Anusuya brings a unique perspective to her work as a Content Assistant and Content Updating Coordinator. She holds a law degree from India and has practiced law in India and Kuwait. Anusuya is a fan of rap music and enjoys a good cup of coffee in her free time. Currently, she is working on her novel, "Mr. Ivory Merchant".

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