Waffle House

Waffle House
Madison, Madison County

This joint is not on the AL.com list of 22 Greasy Spoon Burger Joints in Alabama you have to visit before you die. 

When they open a Waffle House, it will be in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year. They turn out the lights for the first time when they close it for good. They serve Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner all the time, independent of the time of day, no questions asked. At three in the morning on any given Saturday, you will probably find every Waffle House in the South crowded with hunters and anglers. You will be called sweetie and honey by the servers, and if you want to have your waffles with pickles, strawberry jam, and bacon, they will not refuse you – they probably have seen stranger things. It is an icon of southern culture. My son told me the story of a friend, who does not own a smart phone or a GPS, but is able to navigate his way through Alabama by using the Waffle Houses as landmarks. So, for some it is not only an icon, but also a beacon.

Waffle House Number 1956 is located in Madison, Alabama. It opened just a year ago or so, and so it has at least two more decades of service in it before the lights go out. I’ve been to countless Waffle Houses during my travels through the South, and of course, its layout is the same as all the other restaurants of this chain. There is a counter with half a dozen stools, half a dozen booths at the walls, windows all around the dining room, and an open kitchen where you can witness first hand how your meal is prepared, if you sit at the counter. The menu is fairly simple, with typical American breakfast stuff, basic sandwiches and burgers on it. Although the waffles are a southern icon of their own, I usually come here to get a sandwich or burger – I am not a breakfast person at all, preferring hearty food over fluffy sweet stuff, even in the morning.

I chose the Angus Bacon Cheeseburger, make it a double please, with all the fixins’ and hash browns. This is a very basic burger, no frills, no bells and whistles, no nonsense. Just a bun, two beef patties, cheese and sautéed onions (if you like …). Lettuce, tomato, and pickle slices came on the side, probably in case somebody is allergic to veggies or is on a meat-only diet. Since I don’t have any reservations to eat the food for the food, I put all those veggies on the burger, plus a good helping of ketchup. The plate also came with a pouch of mayonnaise, which I pushed aside indignantly. Veggies is as far as I am prepared to go on my burgers.

So, as one can see, no fru-fru stuff, just a plain basic bacon cheeseburger. Well, I do not kid you, as I write this, saliva is gathering in my mouth, only from thinking about the burger. I hereby declare the Waffle House Number 1956 bacon cheeseburger the standard on which every other burger has to be measured against.

Juicy, flavorful, succulent, tasty, awesome. A splendid experience. Nough said.

And the hash browns – divine. Crispy and savory, in an entirely different league than your ordinary potato based side item.

And for roughly ten Bucks, including a sweet tea, it is a very fair deal.

I do not know if this particular burger is equally good in other restaurants of this chain. That could be a kind of weird quest of its own, to travel from Waffle House to Waffle House, comparing their Angus Bacon Cheeseburgers. Weird, but certainly entertaining and truly iconic.