Each morning, workers at the Highway 55 Waffle House in Durham serve a regular they know as “Mr. Mack” the same precise order: chicken cut up (though sometimes pork chops), two eggs scrambled (never any cheese, he will complain), pecan waffles with sugar-free syrup, hot sauce for the chicken, a Coke Zero, and two cold butters. Waffle House typically serves butter at room temperature, so the last request requires staff to fetch cold containers from storage.
If Mr. Mack ever tired of this Waffle House location, he’d have several others near South Durham to try. Drive six minutes west. Or 10 minutes northeast. Or 10 minutes southeast.
North Carolina isn’t the Waffle House state. That would be Georgia, which supports more than twice as many stores (around 435) as any other state. In 1955, two neighbors in an Atlanta suburb opened the first Waffle House, a moment the company website states, “that would change the world.”…