This story begins as Rolando and I were pulling out of the rental car place in North Carolina. We asked: “where could we get some good grits?” The young guy working at the rental car place said “I like Waffle House, they got the best grits, and eggs too.” His supervisor heard him saying something to us and jumped in. He said “What you tellin them?” then “Oh yeah, Waffle House. There’s none better. And eggs too.”

So with that Rolando and I were on a Waffle House mission. I’d been to Waffle house a long time ago. All I remember was disgusting potatoes and rubbery eggs. But I figured we should try again. A friend I was visiting down there didn’t want me to go. And Rolando’s friends told him “there’s like people without teeth there and stuff.”

We found a Waffle House not far from where we were staying. Down South they are like Dunkin Donuts are up north, everywhere.

Here’s the thing, we had an awesome Waffle House experience. I loved it. In many ways it was like an old diner experience. With a short order cook who had a ton of experience. Really fun to watch. The cooking area was totally exposed. Eggs in a basket ready to go.

And some of these things might not sound super impressive, because when you order eggs you assume an egg has been cracked, right? Most eggs you eat out either came frozen (Dunkin) or from a carton. I’m not kidding. It’s a big deal that this place was cracking the eggs. I’m sure they weren’t really high quality eggs, but at least they were fresh, and the guy knew how to cook them.

So at the end of the meal we were filled with fake butter, potatoes (they have a funny way of calling them “smothered” and some other things), eggs (they were good) and grits. It was delicious. The only thing I couldn’t eat was the waffle. And that’s not because it wasn’t tasty (they made it to order), but because I can’t eat pancakes or waffles without real maple syrup. I think it’s a New England thing. I just can’t eat that fake stuff, it’s disgusting to me.