Yesterday I did one of my most favorite things in the whole wide world. I had breakfast with a friend. I do this often. I'm sure that some would think that this could get to be quite expensive. But my ready reply is that it is much cheaper than a therapist or prozac. Having these heart-to-heart sessions a few times a month with a sane female friend is good for the soul.
We were trying to decide where to go for breakfast. Usually, I like to try someplace new, unique or special. If not, I will settle for one of my tried and true breakfast spots. My friend Karen often allows me to pick the restaurant. After tossing a few ideas back and forth over email, Karen said we can always go to Waffle House. When I saw the name Waffle House on my laptop screen, I must say that I was a little surprised. You can find a Waffle House on just about every other street in metro Atlanta. In a knee-jerk reaction, I started to rapidly reply with another suggestion. However, I paused for a moment. Let me think about this.
There was a time when I was very familiar with Waffle House back in the 90's when I was still twenty-something. Waffle House was what I, and my friends, could afford at that time. I'm not sure if I even had an awareness of any other breakfast joint. Way back then, I remember being in Waffle House with another friend Joyce. It was either at the end of the year or the start of a new year. I recall Joyce saying to me Hey Kurrrrn... And she said Kurrrn instead of Karen because that is how many a black folk born and raised in the D.C. and Baltimore area or urrrea say Karen. So Joyce said, Hey Kurrrn, let's make a New Year's resolution. We ain't eating at no more places where our feet stick to the floor and the servers are missing teeth! She said this while looking around Waffle House with contempt and suspicion - as if the two naturally went together. At that point I stopped eating at the Waffle House for many years and have been back less than 5 times.
But after I got over that memory and myself and then climbed down from my high, high horse; I decided there wasn't anything wrong with going to the Waffle House for breakfast.
I initially tried to order a waffle, eggs and meat and coffee. However, the waitress said that it was cheaper to get the All Star Breakfast which included much more and coffee for about $6.49 (not including tax). There are various combinations of All Star specials but here's what I had:
As it is my duty, I must point out the real stars of this All Star Breakfast -the grits and the pecan waffles. These are not gourmet grits nor are they the best grits I've had in my life. However, I consider these to be pretty good grits. The pecan waffle was cooked well and arrived warm and full of pecans. At times, there were almost too many pecans for my liking. I guess Waffle House is not affected by the soaring price of pecans. Nevertheless, this was a tasty waffle. Everything else was decent. I didn't try the wheat toast as this was already a lot of food to consume.
The service was good in terms of friendliness and getting our orders correct the first time around. The coffee was hot and flowing which I attribute to good customer service. One important area of customer service that was neglected was that the syrup bottle was brought to our table with syrup running down the sides. It was dripping so much that we placed a napkin underneath it. Karen and I looked at each other like....eeeuuuuuuwwwwww! Karen said something like Well, we are at the Waffle House! We shrugged and kept on eating.
