WEBVTT - What Makes Waffle House Such a Brilliant Business? 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.560 Guess what Mango? What's that will? So I know, we 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.040 were looking at the list of all the celebrities and 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.080 musicians especially that love going to waffle House, and the 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.799 list just cracks me up. Like Kim and Kanye supposedly 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.960 double date there. Donnie Wahlberg, who yes, I consider a musician. 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.680 He also gives these insane tips there. Apparently Kid Rock 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.280 chooses to get in brawls there, which is really not 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.480 that surprising. But for all the musicians who eat there, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.960 did you realize that waffle House actually has its own 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.479 music label. You can play the songs on their juke 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.479 boxes right there. You know. As much as I've been 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.720 in waffle House, like, I can't say I've ever actually 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.480 paid attention to the music really, and I probably hadn't 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.080 either until I was there with my son and he 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.920 started singing a Garth Brooks song along with the jukebox. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.760 I was like, how did you know this song? Anyway? So, actually, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:48.480 some of the great ones that are on the list 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:50.800 of songs that are part of their label. There's uh, 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.239 there are Raisins in My Toast by Danny Jones. You 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.440 really want to check this one out, or they're cooking 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.279 up My Order Boy by ALFREDA. Gerald. I guess well, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.600 apparently that's by design, and according to waffle House, they 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.200 want the music to set the mood, like, not be 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.800 an advertisement that just droned waffle House, waffle House, waffle House. 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.800 You know, they actually set this high standard and if 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.160 it sounds too much like a jingle, they refused to 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.640 put it on waffle House records. I just love saying 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.520 waffle House records. But that's just the first of a 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.360 heaping pile of waffle House facts we're about to dive into. 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:46.520 So let's dig in y day their podcast listeners, Welcome 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.960 to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.360 I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesh Ticketer and 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.280 sitting behind that soundproof glass wearing a shirt that says 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.880 Toast of the town. It's just got a big old 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.280 piece of French toast at the top of it. That's 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.200 our pal and produce, Sir Tristan McNeil. You know, he 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.960 is the toast of the toast of the town. But 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.080 I'm kind of surprised he didn't pick like a more 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.720 waffle House centric shirt, like one that said, uh, I 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.320 don't know, like scattered, smothered or covered or our house 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:15.520 is a very very fine waffle house. And I mean 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.200 waffle house doesn't even serve French toast. It's true, And 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.200 that's maybe the most critical I've ever heard of you 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.359 being one of Tristan's shirts or props. But anyway, that 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.760 they mostly don't serve French toast, and they also don't 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.320 serve pancakes. So that's actually something I've always wondered about, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.560 Like waffle seems so much harder to make than pancakes, 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:37.640 at least for me. You know, I've read that the 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.680 thing with pancakes is that, unlike waffles, they're really hard 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.880 to standardize on the grill. Like, you know, there's no 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.240 pancake maker. You can just put the batter in. But 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.400 if you're at waffle house and no one's around, or 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.200 if they're just not that busy, you can actually convince 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.959 the grill operators to make these special items for you. What, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:55.760 how do I not know that? Like I've been to 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.080 a waffle house a million times. It's a secret. You 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.560 just moved to the South about a year ago, and 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.600 so I don't know if you're quite ready for it. 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.240 But but now you try yeah, you just have to 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.280 be bold enough to ask really, Like, but you know, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.360 waffles actually lets their chefs experiment, so things like Alice's 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.560 iced tea that was actually perfected by someone name Alice, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.200 and there's an actual bird behind Bird's Chili. In fact, 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.600 our researcher Christopher was telling me that he knows two 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.040 chefs who've made their own specials. One was this hash 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.000 brown dish with jalapenos and grilled chicken and ranch dressing, 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.840 just cooked in a heap, and it's called Melvin Special. 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.560 And another one's called Hanks Burger and it was just 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.880 this special burger made with a regular patty and it 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.200 was mixed in with breakfast sausage. And neither of them 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.560 got enough support to be on the national menu. But like, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.480 if you ask nicely, the grill operators might do things 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.120 like that, you know, like make you a burger with 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.080 waffles for a bun, which actually sounds pretty good to 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.600 be honest. Anyway, back to what you were saying earlier, 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.000 like they may even throw some waffle batter on the 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.160 grill and make you some pancakes. And is that any good? 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.360 Apparently no, it's lousy, but they will do it. And 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.360 that's just the kind of place waffle houses. So I 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.320 was looking on an urban dictionary this week, just trying 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.080 to find out if there are any terms related to 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.920 waffle house, and actually there are a lot that are 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.080 not for sensitive ears, But one definition I liked was 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.880 waffle house and waffle house and so, so, what what 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.560 does that mean? It's like when someone uses too many 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.279 huns and sweeties in their language and too many terms 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.600 of endument. So in a sense, you might say, like, 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.360 she's a nice person, but she does too much waffle houses. 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.279 That's kind of perfect actually, actually so in the weirder 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.160 parts of my research this week, this other story kept 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:34.920 coming up that I can't get out of my head, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.680 and it's about this drunk couple. Apparently, like it was 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:42.720 pretty late and they were intoxicated, and you know, they 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.120 had eaten their meal, and they thought they were being discreet, 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.719 so they decided to go out back and mess around 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.360 in their pickup truck. But someone saw it and complained, 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.200 And when the cops came by and told them they 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.120 had to get out of the truck, the woman kept 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.239 trying to put on her shoes, like she just kept 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.240 trying to put her sandal on over and over, but 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.960 she was so drunk that she just kept sliding her 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:10.760 foot into a cheeseburger. It's crazy and disgusting. I know, 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.279 I don't know why it's so funny, but like, every 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.360 time I see a loose cheeseburger, from now on, I'm 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.560 gonna want to put my foot in a loose cheeseburger. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.040 I told you this story, but you know, there are 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.599 occasional moments where we realize, like, yep, we're from Alabama. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.240 And one of them was at a recent family gathering 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.040 over the holidays, and my cousin comes in the door 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.360 and he just starts out by saying, uh, you won't 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.920 believe this, but Tracy's car caught fire at the waffle house, 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.080 and we thought, all right, I think that's the most 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.560 Alabama thing I ever said. Anyway, But if you're open 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:45.440 all day, every day, and you're serving reliably cheap food, 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.280 you're going to attract all sorts of clients. I mean, 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.560 a second waffle only cost nine cents more, and a 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.760 grilled cheese is under two dollars. But you know, before 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.520 we start, I did want to make clear that both 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.880 you and I love waffle house like this isn't. In 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.080 some ironic way, we both just like waffle House. I know, 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.440 it almost feels like it's a write of passage here 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.600 in the South, and to me, it's almost like a 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.839 real slice of America, the same way that greyhound busses 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.960 are or used to be, Like, waffle houses feel like 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.000 they should be in a Paul Simon song to me. 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.080 But obviously I fell in love with waffle houses in 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.119 college in North Carolina because they were accessible and also 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.320 really easy on the wallet. But do you remember the 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.279 first time I came to Birmingham and you drove me 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.800 past the place where there were two waffle houses across 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:29.920 the road from one another. Do I remember this? This 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.200 was like the first stop on the tour. I mean, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.160 this is this is a special moment. Yeah for me too. 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.240 But so we're obviously both big fans and familiar with 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.359 the house. But one of the things I saw this 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.640 week that was really fun to watch was Anthony Bourdain 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.760 going to a waffle house for the first time late 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.839 at night, and he's with that other famous chef, Sean Brock. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.919 It was for his show Parts Unknown, And I don't know, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:55.600 have you actually seen this episode. I haven't, but I 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.960 want to know. Yeah, it's great because Bourdaine's clearly never 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.720 been there, and and Brox the Southerner, and he just 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:06.520 loves the place, so he's basically they're like drunkenly evangelizing 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.720 of and trying to convert bourd into like loving waffle house. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.400 And so he introduces him by building this waffle house 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.840 tasting menu. Apparently he does this for all his friends 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.360 the first time he takes him there. And so they 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.200 start with this pecan waffle, which of course is like 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.800 smothered in butter and syrup, and then they moved to 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.680 um a patty melt course, and then they have a 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.520 light salad with Thousand Island dressing, and then at some 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.440 point there's like a jump cut and they've been served 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.920 eggs and hash browns and and then they finished with 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.720 a t bone and pork chops like, all of which 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.080 they slather in sauce. Wow, that is a lot of 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.960 waffle house. I mean, it is definitely a recipe for 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.400 preventing a hangover. And Bourdaine's description of the place is great, 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.960 like he talks about it as the meal he wants 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.280 more than French laundry, which is that super high end 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.360 Thomas Keller Restaurants. I think part of the joy for 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.640 me and watching that clip wasn't just watching these two 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:01.200 people with really refined palets just devouring this food, but also, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.960 like Sean Brock claims that this is where you first 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.119 watched people cook because the grill is really front center 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.760 at waffle House, right, Like obviously these places all have 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.440 the same footprint, but he gets really emotional about it, 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.200 and he he asked, like, where else can a kid 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.320 like him like get to watch this kind of service 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.320 and see all these mysteries of cooking revealed so openly. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.480 You know, it's fun to think that waffle House inspired 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.640 a kid to grow up into one of the country's 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:27.960 best chefs. But now I do want to talk a 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.960 little bit about the restaurants elaborate system for plating foods, 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.360 and you know why chefs who train at waffle House 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:35.880 are so respected. But before we get into that, why 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.480 don't we start with a little waffle House background. I 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:39.920 know you had so much fun with this, you did 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.840 all the research on the history, said you want to 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.480 give us a little primer. Sure, So waffle House is 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.840 huge name, right, It's the number two family style restaurant chain, 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.439 which I guess really means diner, Like it's right behind 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.959 Denny's but ahead of High Hop on this list. And yeah, 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.200 and in terms of numbers, they're about waffle houses in 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.360 over two dozen states. This is primarily in the South, 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.240 and of course they do crazy business, So Christopher pull 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.480 these numbers for me. But the volume of food they 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.840 serve is insane. They serve over three hundred strips of 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.680 bacon and a hundred twenty five cups of coffee every 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.520 single minute. And get this, if you stacked up all 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.960 the sausage patties they serve in a single day, it'd 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.040 be taller than the Birch Khalifa building, which is itself 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.440 four times the height of the Empire. State Builders should 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.600 totally do this. They need to stack them up. Plus 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.600 they do about three hundred thousand waffles every day. But 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.680 the reason the place is called waffle house is pretty amazing. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:35.920 You know, I've actually read about this, and isn't it. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.000 It's because the waffles are the most profitable item they sell, right, 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:40.880 like they're at the most expensive item on the menu, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.200 but they have the highest profit margin. Yeah, so apparently 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.880 the co founders wanted to encourage their customers to buy 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.200 more waffles by putting it right in the name, which 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.800 is super smart. I mean the other thing about the 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.240 co founders. They're named Joe Roger Sr. And Tom Forulkner, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.520 but they were actually neighbors in Avondale Estates right here 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.800 in Georgia, and Mom was in real estate. But Joe 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.120 was working for a restaurant chain called Toddle House. I 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.360 had never actually heard of Toddle House, but I guess 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.840 they were really popular at one point and served an 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.280 incredible banana pudding. Anyway, he was pretty high up, but 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.640 Toddle House didn't allow employees to own restaurants, so the 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.880 neighbors decided they liked the idea of starting something they 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.319 could actually own, which they did on Labor Day nine. 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.600 So if Toddle House had just let Joe Senior invest, 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.640 what we'd probably be looking at? What was the term? 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.000 He said, maybe be toddle House on the web nout, Yeah, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.520 And I'm pretty sure it was called toddle House because 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.280 toddlers were the most expensive item on their menu. That 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.200 sounds about right, actually, So I looked up a little 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.480 more about Toddle House, and while the chain was really popular. 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.600 It was only a counter with about ten stools max, 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.760 so only ten people could sit at them at any 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.480 one time, and there weren't any booths. So it was 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.760 actually a big deal when waffle House took some of 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.080 that model and made it more family friendly and suddenly 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.080 it wasn't just like a place for cops or nighthawks. 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.720 But the other thing I found fascinating was that Tom 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.160 was in real estate, and so much of the waffle 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.880 House model is based on really picking the right location. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.000 Like waffle House doesn't do any marketing, and unlike Denny's 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.520 or Eyehop, you're not gonna find commercials for them on TV. 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.440 They kind of just let their cheap good food talk 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.560 for itself and you know, customers getting the word out 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.120 for them. But picking the right locations obviously matters. You know, 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.320 That's something I'd never really thought about before, Like I've 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.800 never seen a commercial for waffle House, but it never 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.199 really occurred to me that now I'm kind of writing 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.640 a jingle in my head about the waffle House song 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.840 would be. But anyway, I did read this piece where 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.880 the founders would actually go to prospective locations and they 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.000 just sit on the side of the road there, and 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.160 what they do is they like count the traffic and 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.520 see how many cars were passing by on these rainy 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.559 days before they would really decide to make that investment. 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.960 And it's also why waffle house colors are yellow and black. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.439 So there's this common myth that you know, these colors 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.480 are attribute to Georgia Tech because Joe Rogers Senior happened 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.360 to go there, which you might have made sense, but 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.160 it's actually black and yellow because it reminded them of 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.880 a school buss visibility and that you could still see 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.320 it in that heavy rain or heavy fog. Well, you know, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.440 they're actually a lot of little myths like that. Like 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.560 there's also this idea that waffle houses break their locks 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.160 in a ceremony when they first opened a store, because 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:15.720 you know, the places there are twenty four hours, so 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.959 they don't need them. But the doors do lock because 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:20.320 you want to be able to close the doors if 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.400 you're remodeling, or you know, to protect your customers from 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.000 a parking lot full of people putting their feet into cheeseburger. 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:31.120 Of course, but you know what waffle houses don't have really, Yeah, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.560 it doesn't that blow your mind anyway, I want to 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.320 talk about some of the secrets of the waffle house 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.240 kitchen and how they stay open during emergencies, and why 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.720 academics use waffle house as an economic indicator. But before 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.240 we dive into any of that, let's take a quick break. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.320 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where today we're talking 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.320 all things affle House. Now, before we get into FEMA 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.480 and why waffle houses don't have ovens, I did want 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.160 you to know that waffle House is inspired a surprising 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.160 amount of art, including this book of poetry I found 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.640 called waffle House Prophets by Kenny Peevey. I just want 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.760 to say, Kenny Peavey a lot. You should and and 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.120 because April is National Poetry Month, you can. And I 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.800 thought i'd recite the first poem from this book. It's 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:28.080 called Jesus stumbled in. Oh you're ready already, I've already 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:33.040 got chill bumps. So Jesus slipped into this place just 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:37.320 the other night. Many people thought he was just another drunk, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.120 a beggar, or a trucker unhappy with his order. So 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.040 that's it. That's that's the hoopful. It's pretty deep. Actually, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:46.760 I don't know if it's deep or not, because I 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.600 don't really understand poetry, but just the idea of Jesus 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.720 said a waffle house feels deep to me. I Like, 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.080 how you just blamed all of poetry for this one. 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.440 That's great, all right, Well, let's shift to something a 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.120 little less poetic and talk about waffle house and disaster time. So, 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.000 and this is always such an interesting thing to look into, 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.000 and a lot has been made in the press about 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.320 the fact that FEMA has this unofficial waffle house index, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.640 you know, when they're trying to determine, you know, how 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.320 an area is doing after a storm. Well, green means 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.640 that the waffle house is functioning like normal, you know, 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.400 full electricity, full menu. Yellow is when they're serving a 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.320 limited menu and drawing energy off of a generator. And 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.320 then red is when the weather is so bad that 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.480 waffle house is closed and it's five thirty eight, puts 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.560 it it's time to panic. And what's weird, though, is 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.360 how rare this is. For example, in two thousand eleven, 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.200 when Hurricane Irene hit twenty two waffle houses lost power. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.480 Only one of them closed for more than a single day, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.080 which is incredible, But like, how do they pull that off? 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.960 How do they manage to stay stocked up. Well. Part 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:48.640 of it is just how thoughtful they are about the 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.360 food that they're serving, Like they have this very limited 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.800 no water menu for when the water main breaks, hamburgers, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.800 grilled cheese, sandwiches, sausage, biscuits. It's amazing that they're still 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.480 pumping out food. But preparation and communication is just super 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.160 important to the company, So every employee gets instructions and 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.240 these preparedness cards, and these details come from a trade 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.000 magazine about supply chains. But essentially waffle House has this 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.240 hierarchy who can stay to work and who has family needs, 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.320 and they are these jump teams like these are the 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.240 emergency workers that can come in to help a reinforcement. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:23.800 And part of the genius of waffle houses because the 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.800 chefs and the wait staff they're all using the same system, 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.560 so they're basically plug in play. So you can put 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.960 one grill chef in another location and they'd be able 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.960 to function just the same. I mean, that's so simple. 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.640 It's it's kind of like how Southwest I think only 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:39.880 used one type of plane for all its pilots, and 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.800 also because it made its repairs easier, like it had 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.240 all these extra efficiencies it is pretty amazing. Yeah, I mean, 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.440 the other genius of the system is that every restaurant 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.280 has a nearby warehouse stocked with these foods. I've never 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.600 seen one of these. I didn't even know this existed, 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:56.640 but these are all these non perishable items that could 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.680 get them through a week of the worst conditions. And 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.880 it's just incredibly buttoned up and everybody knows their responsibilities 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.200 both before and during any sort of disaster. I mean, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.640 all of that is remarkable, and I do want to 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.440 get into some of the kitchen stuff soon. But the 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.640 BBC did this big list of food as economic indicators, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.720 and of course waffle House was on there with their 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.760 link to FEMA indicating how fast businesses will recover. But 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:21.800 there are some other things on the list as well. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.160 I know we've talked about, like the big Back Index, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:26.120 and uh, if you look at the price of a 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.280 big mac across the globe, you can actually compare the 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.320 prices and understand things about the economies, Like if a 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.800 big mac costs five dollars in the US but to 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.480 seventy five in Turkey, you can actually tell that the 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.520 currency there is undervalued. But because Big max haven't invaded 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.480 Africa in the same way they've taken off in other 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.440 parts of the world. Economists lean more on KFC to 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.800 analyze purchasing power there, so there are a lot of 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.400 kfcas and I guess so you can also look at 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.840 potato sales and French fry sales and Asia's and economic indicator. Basically, 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.880 when fry sales go down and the US farmers get hit, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.400 it's a pretty good sign that the Asian economy isn't 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.480 working like it should be. You know, I love that 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.920 type of stuff for some reason. I've actually read recently 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.600 that Mars bars in the UK have mostly stayed steady 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.040 with the buying power of the pound. So you can 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.440 use the price of Mars bars to see that train 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.720 travel costs have gone down over the years, you know, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.640 while graduate school salaries have gone up. It's I love 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:20.400 this kind of I want to do a whole episode 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.600 on it. So let's get back in the kitchen, because 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:24.520 I do want to hear about how the wait staff 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.399 gets all of those orders correct. Yeah, the ordering in 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.520 the plating is clearly in the art. In fact, I 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.480 read this great article called Around the Clock at waffle House, 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:34.239 and one of the lines in there is from a 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.200 fancy chef in town who basically says, if you see 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.280 waffle House on a chef's resume, hire them. I mean, 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.320 the volume of orders can be insane, but the whole 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.560 goal of waffle House is to have every table in 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.640 and out in twenty minutes, so their turnover is supposed 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.280 to be that fast, at least optimally. Yeah, I mean 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:52.879 that makes sense, like they want to welcome you but 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:54.920 also make sure you can like make it a quick 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:56.600 pit stop if you have to get back on the road. 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.320 But of course, if the restaurant is empty, waffle House 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.119 isn't gonna haras see you. Like They're gonna let you 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.040 sit there and read a book and sip your coffee 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:04.880 if you want. Yeah. I love the signs that say 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.440 they have free WiFi. Just the idea of like sticky 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:10.840 syrup and the computers that I don't know about that, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.600 but but it is why waffle House was so late 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.320 to take credit cards, Like they only started taking credit 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:17.960 cards I think it was in two thousand and six 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.280 because cash was just that much faster. But the system 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.560 for ordering is fascinating. It's called pull, drop and mark, 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:26.919 So after an order gets taken, the server writes it 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.080 on a pad and then they yell pull, and if 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.120 you've been there, you've noticed them doing this, like pull 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.919 three bacons, which gets pulled from the fridge. Then they 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.520 yell the drop, which means drop to hash browns on 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.439 the grill or whatever specifics they're mentioning, and then they 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.200 yell mark, and that's where the grill operator marks down 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.119 the combination on a plate. This all comes from this 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.280 bone Apotite article where the writer Andrew Knowlton, he tried 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.479 to work at a waffle house I think for twenty 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.680 four hours. Definitely got to work out in the process. 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.280 So obviously the mark part of that is where all 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.120 that like elaborate plating stuff happens. And you know, I've 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.440 seen on social media how if you range a pat 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.680 of butter on a plate, it tells the cheft that 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:06.560 not only do they need to cook a t bone, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.280 but the direction of the butter actually says how well 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.320 to cook it? Yeah, and and speaking which they actually 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.919 serve four tea bones a minute. You somehow forgot this 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.119