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Man cooks own meal as waffle worker sleeps.
What to do when you have the late-night munchies? Go to a Waffle House, of course.
What to do when the late-night Waffle House staffers are asleep? Cook your own meal, of course.
Yup, that’s what happened when South Carolinian Alex Bowen ventured out in West Columbia at around 3 a.m. on a recent night — and the culinary adventure garnered him a job offer from the beloved chain.
The 36-year-old told TV station WIS that he waited for 10 minutes at the register in the empty eatery, at first not noticing a worker sleeping in a booth.
“I walked back outside to look for employees,” Bowen said. “No one in sight.”
He “walked back in and waited a few more minutes, and then it was go time,” Bowen told the television station.
“As I was going around the corner, I saw the sleeping employee, and they looked tired, they were sleeping, I was like, ‘Go ahead and rest fam, I got this,’ ” Bowen told TV station WOLO.
The Army veteran posted selfies on Facebook of himself behind the counter. The images quickly went viral.
“Got hot on the grill with a dou- ble Texas bacon cheesesteak melt with extra pickles,” Bowen told WIS. “When I was done, I cleaned the grill, collected my ill-gotten sandwich and rolled on out.”
“I expected I would share it on Facebook, a couple of my friends would see it, like it, comment on it, and it would pass into history as most things I have done have,” Bowen told WOLO.
Bowen, a flooring installer, admitted that he was a little tipsy during his culinary escapade early Friday.
“I give all the credit to my old friend vodka,” Bowen said. “I wouldn’t normally have done that.”
Later in the day, he returned to the restaurant to pay for his sandwich.
The Waffle House employee who had been sleeping was suspended for a week.
A statement from Waffle House said, “Our local Division Manager has spoken to Alex and apologized. For safety reasons, our customers should never have to go behind the counter. Rather they should get a quality experience delivered by friendly associates.”
The restaurant chain also offered Bowen a job.
“In a related note, obviously Alex has some cooking skills, and we’d like to talk to him about a job since we may have something for him,” the statement said.