Page 28
features
Feb. 7, 2002
Jessica Vitak
Managing Editor
It’s 3:27 on a chilly
October morning.
Church Street, running
through downtown
Burlington, is all but empty, except
for the occasional police car driving
by. A burst water main on a side
street seems to be the only activity
going on anywhere in the city.
Just down Alamance Road, next
to the 1-85/40 ramp, however, one
business thrives late into the night.
Bright lights appear to be a beacon,
bringing in the steady stream of
night owls, early risers, long-haul
truckers and local college students.
The yellow and brown striped
awnings outside and orange and
brown motif inside have not
changed in years.
Fifty people can sit comfortably
at the numerous booths and counter
seats, although weekend nights can
pack in almost twice that with more
waiting. A jukebox sits alone in the
back, breaking the silence as it starts
to play a Backstreet Boys’ song
without any prompting from a
customer.
Servers bustle from table to table
during heavy business, greeting
customers with a smile and friendly
while their backgrounds may
be different, these people share
a common bond through their
patronage at the only 24-hour-
a-day, 365-day-a-year diner in
Burlington.
For waitresses like Vicki, a
cheerful and easy-to-talk-to
Burlington resident who has
worked at the Waffle House for the
last two and a half years, the best
24 hours a day,
days a year
mm
Jessica Vitak/Photographer
One of the reasons so many customers say they keep coming back
to the Waffle House is the friendly service. Waitresses chat with
customers while providing fast, efficient service.
1
Jessica Vitak/Photographer
Senior John Kline enjoys spend
ing late nights at the Waffle
House with friends.
chatter that belies the late hour.
When it slows down, they usually
stop to talk a little longer with
customers or take a quick cigarette
break. Coffee is a mainstay of
operation for everyone, while
burgers, hash browns and eggs fly
off the grill every minute.
Welcome to after hours nightlife
in Burlington. Welcome to the
Waffle House, a 1,300-unit chain of
restaurants spread across 26 states,
68 of them in North Carolina.
“It’s a great place to come with
your friends and just talk about
things on your mind,” Elon Univer
sity senior John Kline, a regular
patron of late-night Waffle House
visits, said. “Sometimes, this time
of night is the only time we can get
together because of our schedules.”
Busy schedules aside, the
average person would probably not
consider going to a restaurant in the
middle of the night to be a good
idea. It is a separate breed of people
the Waffle House sees each night
between midnight and 5 a.m., and
part of the job is definitely the cus
tomers. The regulars she knows by
name, not even needing to ask what
they are going to order,
“Quick, Katie, put on a new pot
of coffee, he’ll want it fresh,” Vicki
said as an old truck pulls up and an
elderly man steps out, walking to
the newspaper bin before turning to
come inside.
Vicki prides herself on knowing
her customers. “It’s nice when you
know what someone wants before
they even step in the door. It makes
it easier for us that way,” she said.
On most nights, it’s not uncom
mon to hear customers ask for the
usual. For Clyde Jones, a retired
mechanic originally from Miami,
this is an egg sandwich and a cof
fee, which he eats at the counter
while he reads the morning’s paper,
which arrives each night at 2:15,
give or take a few minutes.
“I guess I’m just a night person,”
Jones said, smiling in a grandfa-
therly fashion as he takes a sip of
coffee. “Oh yeah, and the coffee is
good. I do like the coffee.”
Coffee is not the only reason
customers like Jones come back to
the Waffle House again and again.
With affordable prices (a bottom
less cup of coffee costs less than one
dollar) and friendly service, there
are many reasons people come back
to the Waffle House night after
night.
“It has a relaxed atmosphere and
I always get good service,” Jones
said. “You get used to going to the
same place. The waitresses are nice
and they take good care of me.
Sometimes, they take too good care
of me,” he said, laughing as Vicki
filled his coffee cup to the brim one
more time.
College students sit scattered
throughout groups of locals. With
the stress of papers due, procrasti
nation often sets in and many stu
dents turn to the Waffle House as
an alternative to work.
With a paper due at 9 a.m. the
next morning, Elon freshman
Katherine Walker decided to see if
the Waffle House really was as great
as her friends had been telling her.
Originally from Lewisburg, W. Va.,
she had never been to a Waffle
House, so at 2:45 a.m., she and two
friends came in to get a late-night
“snack.”
“I can’t believe I have class in
six hours and my paper isn’t done
yet,” Walker said as Katie brought
over a feast of breakfast foods, with
heaps of hash browns the way only
the Waffle House makes them -
scattered, smothered, covered,
chunked, topped; diced and pep
pered. “I was a little disappointed
they don’t have pancakes, but this
is still great.”
When asked if she thinks she’ll
ever return to the Waffle House
again. Walker nodded. “I’ll be back
again, I’m sure. There’s always go
ing to be more papers, and I’ll al
ways be procrastinating,” she said.
As the hours go by, customers
flood in and out, some stopping in
only long enough to get a couple
coffees for the road, some staying
for hours after they finish eating,
talking until the early hours of the
morning.
“I remember staying here until
7 a.m. two years ago,” Kline said.
“It was the week before the bliz
zard and we got seven or eight
inches of snow that night. My friend
and I drank coffee and Coke and
watched the snow fall until dawn.
It was great. It still is one of my fa
vorite memories from my four years
at Elon.”
Whatever the reason,
Burlington’s Waffle House is al
most never empty. They come to
eat, read the newspaper or catch up
with friends. They come alone, in
pairs and in groups so large they
take up multiple tables. They are
from out-of-state, just down the
road or the local college. It does not
matter who they are. Everyone is
welcome at the Waffle House, any
day, anytime. All they need to do is
sit back and enjoy the atmosphere.
Waffles, waffles evetj^here!
North Carolina is home tp 6S Waffle Houses, raaiiy lo
cated in the Triad, Students can satisfy late-night mtinchies
or fill up on coffee to last through an all-nighter at one of
the many Waffle Houises within a short driye of Elon. Be
low are listed the closest locations.
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