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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Huddle
House Wife #1 learned everything she needed to know in romance novels. One day, she read about Huddle House. "Hey dear?" "What." "Is there a chain called 'Huddle House'?" "Huh?" "It's in my book that I'm reading." "What is?" "Huddle House." "Hold, please." "Meow." "Go away, cat." "Wow. They have, like, 400 stores. They look like a Waffle House rip-off." "Really? Where are they?" They're in Waffle House territory, of course. John Sparks started the chain in 1964 "to provide a place for high school football fans of Decatur, Georgia to 'huddle up' and eat after Friday night games." The same page on their website that said this ALSO said the goal was to create a 24-hour restaurant that franchises. A banking group purchased the chain in 1994. "Huddle up", by the way, is a phrase used by servers to announce an order to the line. Huddle
House initially appears to be a total Waffle House rip-off, and in some ways it
is. It’s a similar layout, but
it’s bigger and has a more colorful décor.
The menu is more like Denny’s with multiple pages of breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, and dinners. On my first visit, 80's music played in the background as the cook spoke some of the words of the music out loud, then added his own twist to them as the song played. Literally everybody eating there knew each other and the staff. They probably came there every day until it closed. Huddle House isn't exactly a "fresh-made daily" type place. The first time I ordered chili, the cook went in the back, came out with some chili in a stained plastic container, stuck it in the microwave, heated it up, poured it in a bowl, and served it. It looked like something straight out of a can. And it was fabulous. Seriously...it's currently my favorite chili anywhere. Your mileage may vary because not every Huddle House can replicate that batch. I've even seen it prepped in different ways. Sometimes there's a warmer bin with chili always at the ready, and once that plastic container came out (different location), and the cook put the chili in a sauce pan and heated it up on the grill. I also had a bowl at a Huddle House in Indianapolis that was clearly made from a completely different recipe. It beared no resemblence whatsoever to Huddle House chili. It was chunky, full of vegetables and peppers, and was kind of gross. Everything else I've had has been okay. Some burgers and patty melts have had really dry, overcooked, beef. They know how to cook eggs. They know how to make biscuits and gravy. Speaking of which....WOW do they use a lot of gravy. There must have been a ladle of gravy for each biscuit half. The chili is my favorite thing to get there. Nine times out of ten, I order nothing but a bowl of chili and a Pepsi. One thing I've seen somebody eating that I'd love to try is a breakfast plate that was piled with pretty much every breakfast item they have, then covered in sausage gravy, but I've never been able to match it to anything on the menu. Anyway,
if you find yourself reading a reference to them in a bad romance novel, that's
who they are. I'm sure you'll sleep better knowing that, and have more
time to pet your annoying cat.
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