Waffle House is an iconic part of everyday life in the South. The restaurant chain was founded in nineteen fifty-five in Avondale Estates, Georgia, and has over nineteen hundred locations spread across twenty-five states. Are you a real southerner if you don’t have a favorite Waffle House?
Micah Cash started photographing what he calls “Waffle House Vistas” in 2018. His series of images taken from inside different Waffle Houses, looking out, became a popular book published by the Bitter Southerner, and now it’s a museum exhibition as well. The Georgia Museum of Art is presenting several of Cash’s photographs plus a newly commissioned time-based work on the same topic through June 1.
The natural landscapes beyond the windowpanes are as diverse as the perspectives and stories of each guest. Yet the similarities of the restaurants’ interiors echo across states and time zones. These familiar, well-worn interiors make us think about what we have in common, and the differences in the outside environment call to mind our different experiences.
Cash said, “At its best, Waffle House creates a sense of belonging unlike most other places. Waffle House does not care how much you are worth, what you look like, where you are from, what your political beliefs are, or where you've been so long as you respect the unwritten rules of Waffle House: Be kind, be respectful, and don't overstay when others are waiting for a table. Besides, everyone who has ever stepped foot in a Waffle House has a story to tell.”