‘I’m not an executive, I’m a waffle cook’
Co-founder of Waffle House helped grow chain across U.S. using old-fashioned recipes
ATLANTA— Joseph Wilson Rogers Sr. went from short-order cook to build of one of America’s largest restaurant chains — Waffle House.
Rogers, born in Jackson, Tenn., was the son of a railway worker who was laid off during the Great Depression, the company said in a statement announcing that Rogers had died at age 97. After his father’s layoff, Rogers delivered newspapers and laundry to contribute to the family income.
During the Second World War, he joined the Army Air Corps, learned to fly and also trained B-24 pilots, eventually earning the rank of captain, the company said.
After the war, he found work grilling burgers during the day at a Toddle House restaurant in New Haven, Conn. At night, he learned accounting and other aspects of the business from the manager and his wife.
He was quickly promoted to local and regional management positions, the company said.
After moving to Georgia, Rogers and Tom Forkner opened the first Waffle House restaurant just east of Atlanta in Avondale Estates, in 1955. Under their leadership, the Waffle House chain grew to 400 restaurants by the end of the 1970s.
Today, there are nearly 1,900 Waffle Houses in the United States, primarily in the Southeast, often along interstate highways.
Borrowing much from his previous employer — down to the waffle recipe, his son said — Rogers made Waffle House into a success in part by paying meticulous attention to customers, a management philosophy he imparted through- out the chain.
“I’ve walked into restaurants where workers are on the telephone calling, looking for an elderly customer who hadn’t been in in a while,” Joe Jr. told the New York Times. “So it was all about the whole personal experience, relationships.”
Rivals such as the International House of Pancakes have significantly altered their menus over the years, said Darren Tristano, president of Technomic, a restaurant industry consulting firm in Chicago, but Waffle House has remained faithful to its original model, allowing generations of adults to dine in roughly the same setting they did as children.
“This is something that’s very nostalgic,” Tristano said. “They’re true to their brand.”
Rogers still spent time at the corporate headquarters in Norcross until a few years ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“I’m not an executive, I’m a waffle cook,” Rogers once told the newspaper. With files from the New York Times