The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I drove back from North Port yesterday with two stops for fuel and food.  I found a McD's gift card from somewhere that had $20 on it.  That covered the food part.  The GA gasoline tax is back and that raised fuel costs of course.  Premium was over $4.  I filled up in Sarasota at a Costco and regular was barely cheaper than elsewhere.  Here it's quite a bit cheaper.  We're almost past 30 K miles on a car that is about to be 5 years old.

The drive from Macon on was rain, hard at times to where folks slowed down (some).  Not a fan ...

Waffle House started near where I grew up apparently, my wife doesn't like them either.

Waffle House is a guilty pleasure of mine.  But I really think for the experience to be right, it has to be late or middle of the night, you should wonder when's the last time everything was disinfected, the waitress should have questionable hygiene, and you should feel mildly unsafe in the neighborhood at night and with the variety of characters present.  

Austin didn't have a Waffle House when I moved there.  I thought "Of course....buncha rich, aristocratic Texans could never have a place like that."  Then to my surprise they got one, so I went to try it out one day.  The place was clean, the staff was good-looking, wholesome families with small children filled up the place.  

It was completely wrong and I never went back.  

Waffle House is a guilty pleasure of mine.  But I really think for the experience to be right, it has to be late or middle of the night, you should wonder when's the last time everything was disinfected, the waitress should have questionable hygiene, and you should feel mildly unsafe in the neighborhood at night and with the variety of characters present. 

Austin didn't have a Waffle House when I moved there.  I thought "Of course....buncha rich, aristocratic Texans could never have a place like that."  Then to my surprise they got one, so I went to try it out one day.  The place was clean, the staff was good-looking, wholesome families with small children filled up the place. 

It was completely wrong and I never went back. 

Austin has had a Waffle House since at least the early 90s, down on I35 south of the river.  We used to go there occasionally after partying downtown on 6th Street.  I was either still in college, or JUST graduated, so 1993 at the very latest, is when that one would have opened.  But I feel like it was there well before that.

It's fine for late night after-party food.  I don't have much of an opinion beyond that.  I don't consider it to be considerably better, or worse, than Denny's.

Apparently there is some kind of SEC-Waffle House meme thing that goes on, and it's often mentioned there is no Waffle House in CSTAT ( or at least there wasn't) 

Austin has had a Waffle House since at least the early 90s, down on I35 south of the river.  We used to go there occasionally after partying downtown on 6th Street.  I was either still in college, or JUST graduated, so 1993 at the very latest, is when that one would have opened.  But I feel like it was there well before that.

Then Google circa 2004 failed me.

Somebody told me one had just opened, and it's close to where you describe.  The building was seemingly new and someone there said something about recently opening. 

I'm thinking perhaps they remodeled and were closed for a bit, or something like that, and I moved there during the time they were not open.  That, or we're talking about two different locations and the locals there didn't know about one when I originally asked.  

Either way, the point stands.  It was too nice to be a real Waffle House.  

2004.....damn.

Actually, December of this year will be 20 years since I moved to Austin.  I was 24 but still a kid, though I probably didn't think so at the time.

Had a heckuva time getting a job there, took far longer than I anticipated, and my little savings account that I thought was more than enough to float me along for a few months was bone dry by the time I got any traction.  I took odd jobs and quick-cash gigs along with other.....er, "locals" who possibly didn't have citizenship that first year...anything I could get.

Always have had a weird regret about life there.  Seems I either had time to enjoy the place but no money, or else I had a great job with plenty of $ and ZERO time to enjoy the city.  I wasn't even there most of the time during the week, and my weekends were largely spent helping my church and taking a breather before the long week to come.  Never really had time and money at the same time to just be there and enjoy things like I wanted.

That said, somehow I did manage to do a lot of things that first year, and still pushed myself to do things on weekends when I worked off and came home for a couple days.  Just never felt like I got to enjoy everything nearly as much as I wanted.

Now when I visit the GD roads have changed so much I feel like I can barely navigate anywhere without a GPS.  Somehow I meander around and I get there though.  But it's the same thing now.  Due to health problems I can't do any walking around or any fun touring like I want. 

Me and Austin were just not meant to be, I suppose. 

Still loved it, tho.