The chairs were gone, nothing allowed out that might encourage a patron to sit down and stay for awhile-a philosophy in total contrast to the store’s typically approachable demeanor and my own personal experiences. It was unsettling seeing the “low counter” arranged with no accommodations. In a brief visit, those few employees and I managed to have the same conversation that seemingly everyone else has been having in the last few weeks or minutes: what we’d heard, what we’d seen, what we all speculated might come next. The air on this day was different, though, like anxiety was swirling straight out of the old cigarette smoke stained vents and directly into our spoken thoughts. I had been in this Waffle House at all hours and I’d spent countless moments as the only customer drinking coffee during slow times. Something felt different and it wasn’t solely due to the lack of salt shakers, condiments, and menus on the counter. There was some chatter about the pay scale, a policy I didn’t really understand in terms of implementation or potential duration. One said that the company had taken some steps to look out for the staff.

I only knew one person in the restaurant that day (good to see you, Josh), but the other two employees spoke as if we all had some familiarity-like I was still a regular, not just a person who occasionally stopped in now and again. We were amongst a global pandemic, a situation in which the index had never been tested. But then, the notion of that governmental gauging came back as I was ordering a large coffee, purposefully standing a good distance from the other people inside.

Because I used to hang out at a Waffle House all the time, people often like to send me the “ Waffle House Index.” I’ve gotten so tired of seeing the clickbait story that I had pretty much pushed it out of my thoughts as nothing but Facebook fodder-a repetitive tale of how FEMA can somewhat gauge the severity of a disaster based on whether or not the affected area’s local Waffle House’s are still operating. It had been a day or so since the ‘take-out’ decree went into effect and barred restaurants from offering dining room service. I stopped at Kings Waffle on the way to Cleveland. Photographs and thoughts made between Maand March 30, 2020.

Appointment at apple store kenwood