Photo by Rachel Slade
Photo by Rachel Slade
Photo by Rachel SladeLandmark Grapevine eatery dishes it out
Stop by Waffle Way any morning, and you're likely to see a tableful of men just to the right of the entrance sharing food and stories. They are known to the servers who see them once, sometimes twice a day as the "Coffee Critters" or, more recently, as the ROMEOs.
"Retired Old Men Eating Out," Owner Lynda Hawkins explains with a hearty laugh. "My customers are what have kept me going all these years. Especially with the economy as bad as it's been, we've gone through some bleak times, but we've struggled and kept on."
Hawkins has owned Waffle Way since Sept. 28, 2001, but her history with the Northwest Highway diner serving up breakfast and lunch six days a week started 14 years before, when Arlene and Doyle Dickerson built the restaurant where a gas station once stood.
Hawkins knew the Dickersons growing up because back then, she says, "everybody knew everybody," so she was not surprised when Arlene asked her at church one day whether she wanted to help out with the new venture. Hawkins had been working at the Burger Box, where Burritos Locos now stands, and decided about a week before Waffle Way's opening in August 1987 to join the team.
