TL;DR
Waffle House founder Joe Rogers died at 97, leaving behind a legacy of 24-hour restaurants and a commitment to customer service. He opened the first Waffle House in Avondale Estates, Ga. in 1955 with partner Tony Forkner.
The founder of the 24-hour Waffle House chain died Friday at age 97, according to a recent Nation’s Restaurant News article.
“My father genuinely loved every customer who walked into a Waffle House, and customers immediately understood that,” said Rogers’ son, Joe Rogers Jr., chairman of Norcross, Ga.-based Waffle House Inc., said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
In 1955, the Tennessee native opened the first restaurant in Avondale Estates, Ga., with his partner Tony Forkner. Forkner was in the real estate business and had sold Rogers his home before they became partners. The two were known to spend time together at the Norcross headquarters all the way into their late 80s.
In this story
This story was originally published in 1851 Franchise on March 7, 2017. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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