Short Stuff: Waffle House Index | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too sitting in for Dave and we're just. cooking it up here at stuff you should. know that's right uh we've talked about. Waffle House here and there quite a bit. over the years and I was going to do a. full Waffle House episode that was in. the. pipeline maybe still but maybe not after. this I feel like we've taken a pretty. good chunk out of what would have been a. Waffle House episode.

agreed because we're talking about the. Waffle House Index and yes there's. plenty of interesting stuff about the. waffle house but I would argue that the. Waffle House Index is possibly the most. interesting thing about the chain of uh. what everyone in the South or Southeast. knows is uh 247 restaurants that are um. legendary for staying open Against All. Odds that's right and a lot of. restaurants and chains may claim to be. open 365 days a year and they you know a.

lot of them are in general but the. Waffle House in particular uh Prides. itself and has taken great great great. efforts to really stay open like it's. got to be a uh and as you'll see with. the Waffle House Index if a Waffle House. is closed that is that is very bad news. for the area that that place is in. because they stay open at all costs yeah. and they don't just stay open at all. cost because they couldn't care less. about their staff and they're just GRE.

and want to make money this is actually. like by Design there's a corporate. um Mand. ideology work sure um that Waffle House. should serve as essentially a community. center during disasters and during. normal times they're just waffle houses. but during a natural disaster in. particular uh you you should just stand. back and watch them go because they have. actual plans that the company has. developed to figure out how to stay open.

to serve the. community yeah for sure uh we're going. to talk about a few of them uh here and. there one one of them is they have a. limited menu and it's not like oh what. do we have on hand it's like all right. we're going to um you know I don't know. what they call it on the inside but. let's just say like we're going to to. plan b or something and that means we're. switching to the official limited menu. uh when there are food shortages uh when. the power's out and stuff like that um. most I don't think all of them do at.

this point but most of them and I'm sure. they want to have them all on backup. generators uh that's been a thing for a. while so if you you know if the power's. out you can still probably go to a. waffle house uh and and not only get. power but um you know get a a hot meal. yeah whether you're like somebody whose. house just got ravaged or a first. responder helping people whose house. just got ravaged yeah or just hungry. it's a really important thing that you. just totally Overlook like if your.

kitchen is gone um and all of the other. restaurants in town are shut down having. a Waffle House open is a really really. big deal um and they have like actual. what they called Waffle House jump teams. that can show up uh parachuters they. parachute in they do parachute in uh and. I hope they have better names for these. things than Plan B I hope it's more like. playing Dark Star or playing sorcerer. sleeve or something like that okay. better than Plan B but they parachute in.

like you said um and they will open a. waffle house faster than you can say. Waffle House yeah that's right uh wait. hold on uh faster than you can say. scattered covered smothered and. chunked I know I've asked you how you. got yours how do you get yours your BRS. said oh you do so chunked as ham right. yeah I don't eat ham anymore but I. haven't been to a waffle house since I. stopped eating ham so yes I always got. it with ham cheese and and sauteed.

onions yeah I think I told I I mean I. just get mine straight up I'm I'm the. weirdo that gets uh unadorned hash. browns at Waffle House uh but I do get a. double order because I just two of those. one isn't enough yeah agreed but I don't. go anymore uh I think I mentioned on an. episode last time I went it was actually. with Hodgman uh after he went camping. with a group a group of dudes here on. the way out I was like we're stopping at. Waffle House right and he went oh yeah. yeah we definitely are you don't go.

anymore no I mean I I that was the only. time I've been in in years I see I got. you I thought you were saying like you. don't want to replace that memory with. another oh no no that that was just a. year and a half ago but I I just it's. just not you know I I went a lot in. college like you know late night after. the bars but right you know you grow up. a little bit and you realize you can't. eat Waffle House every week it's true. it's a sad realization everybody it's. coming your way though if you're young. yep uh so I say we take a break and come. back and talk more about this Waffle.

House Index and what it is and where it. came from all right let's do it. [Music].

so you know we talked about Waffle House. being set up with generators and jump. teams and limited menus uh they also. have temporary warehouses where they can. store stuff uh you know on that limited. menu at least and um this all started. after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 I think. uh seven of the restaurants were. completely destroyed very sadly 100 of. them shut down down but they got up and.

running again very very fast and the. company basically decided like hey this. is such a valuable thing we need to come. up with that official plan like a. literal book of how to open as quickly. as possible during an emergency or stay. open during an emergency yeah for sure. not only did they come up with the book. that's when they figured out okay what. kind of limited menu can we come up with. how can we store it they identified like. local temporary food storage they could.

use that was you know I'm sure Central. to a number of waffle houses not one for. each one um and we're just basically. ready it's called disaster preparedness. I had no idea about this I really just. thought Waffle House just stayed o. stayed open just out of sheer will until. I researched this um but they have a. disaster preparedness um plan and. apparently other companies do in the. United States too like Lowe's and Home. Depot will because people need Lumber.

and shovels and Hammers and stuff. because they're blew away and they need. to rebuild um and probably also more. like generators and and gas cans and so. on and so forth I don't know why I'm. staying on this list but um Waffle House. isn't the only one but they're just part. of a handful of companies who've. essentially made themselves like de. facto essential operations for post. disaster preparedness stuff yeah for. sure uh which leads us finally to the. Waffle House Index uh which is a pretty.

unique thing it was the brainchild of a. guy named Craig Fugate uh who is the. FEMA administrator uh back in the early. 2010s uh and he had that position after. the Joplin tornado of uh. 2011 uh in May of that year and he had. kind of had this idea for a little while. um because he had noticed after you know. various hurricanes at Waffle House was. one of if not the only thing open and he. started to notice his sort of Trend like.

hey your community doesn't have water. you don't have power yet The Waffle. House was open and he started looking at. maps and realized that like hey if you. actually look at where um the weather. hit it the hardest and the the damage. was the most severe um you can kind of. rate that according to whether or not. that Waffle House is either open closed. or serving a full menu limited menu and. just how they're doing and he really. like that was sort of like the the light. bulb above the head moment when he said.

this could be a real thing The Waffle. House Index could really help us out. yeah and I mean it's as simple as like. calling the local Waffle House in Tampa. after a hurricane just passed through. and saying are you guys still open and. if they don't answer the phone there's. trouble in that community and he was. saying like that's where FEMA should. start sending its people first because. that's as bad as it gets if the waffle. house isn't open and they actually. colorcoded it um there's uh green is the.

best part of the index it means that. your Waffle House is totally fine uh. maybe there's like a cracked window but. everything else is good and everyone in. the community can come there yellow has. a limited menu uh and they're probably. using a generator and then red is like. it's closed the Waffle House is toast um. come here because this is the community. that's hardest hit that's how like. dedicated Waffle House is to staying. open that if they're closed Fe that. that's where you should go first yeah.

absolutely uh it you don't get the red. index a lot uh but again if if you do. then that's you know that's the really. bad sign um if you know they know a. hurricane or something like that is. coming um and they uh like there's. evacuation orders and stuff like that uh. you you you know if it's mandatory a. Waffle House might close but the very. first chance they get to open that thing. up they're going to open it back up. there yeah there's this really story uh.

I read on the Waffle House blog um it w. in North Carolina back in 2011 Hurricane. Irene passed through there and uh The. Waffle House the local Waffle House lost. its power but the gas was still going to. the grill and so it St The Waffle House. stayed open and was cooking for people. as long as it was light enough for them. to see what they were doing and then it. just became too dark to keep going they. closed and then opened at first light in. at dawn.

yeah I love that story but I was so. ready when I was reading it to hear they. cooked by candlelight through the night. yeah sorry sorry Chuck I didn't say I. expected them to I just that that would. have been uh even more amazing uh but. maybe also dangerous so that that might. have had something to do with it or. maybe they just didn't have candles and. then the Waffle House employee or the. manual afterward was like buy candles. make sure you have plenty of candles we. learned from Hurricane Irene uh I looked. up by the way I tried to find that um. they have a uh a mobile emergency what.

is it like a it's like a RV like a a a. command center yeah but the only thing I. could find looked like a food truck oh. is that right yeah I mean I tried to. find a picture and everything it just. kept showing me this food truck and I. couldn't when it was called the command. center I was like is it dressed to look. like a waffle house cuz it looks like a. little tiny Waffle House does it and is. there like Communications inside or are.

they showing up in cooking like I. couldn't I couldn't figure that part out. if it is a food truck though there's. 100% chance that they're serving EMP. yatas right even even from the Waffle. House food truck but they have a great. nickname for it though at least uh yeah. what was from Stripes what what they. call it em the em50 which is apparently. the assault vehicle that Bill Murray. drives in Stripes was the em50 I never. got into that. movie like liked it or saw it all the. way through all the way through oh.

Stripes is great uh I think it's a movie. in two parts so the first half is a lot. better uh than when they go on the. mission in the RV. gotcha okay but you know not not the. best movie in the world but I love. Harold Ramos well yeah of course I feel. like it might have just been a couple of. years ahead of me when I was younger I. was more a me guy yeah I mean that stuff. I wasn't allowed to watch any of that at. the time so I had to sneak it a little. later yeah I don't know how I was. allowed to watch meatballs cuz I was.

never allowed to watch porkys or just. about anything my mom wouldn't even let. me watch um sford and son because she. thought red fox was a dirty old. man oh interesting that's funny yeah. well it wasn't funny when you're a kid. and you want to watch sford and son it's. not funny at all I I learned two things. about your mom this week that and that. she played the banjo which just floors. me how cool that is she loved playing. the banjo I love that uh and I love the. waffle House Index and Waffle House.

didn't even sponsor this everybody. that's just how impressed we are with. the Waffle House Index I always thought. it was just some fool in around pop. culture thing nope it's a real thing. yeah if if you've never been if you're. ever in the South go check out a Waffle. House the coolest most awesome fun. people work there and uh you might be. able to get into a fist bite with Kid. Rock you never know yeah there's a. pretty good chance you. will uh short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of ihart heart radio for more.

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