National restaurant chain targets East Broad Street site for newest Tennessee location
(UCBJ) – Waffle House is moving closer to construction in Smithville.
According to Smithville Mayor Josh Miller, the company plans to break ground June 15 on its new location at 312 East Broad Street.
The project was first reviewed last year when the Smithville Planning Commission considered a final site plan for the restaurant. Once complete, the 24-hour diner will add to Waffle House’s growing footprint across the region, joining existing locations in Sparta, McMinnville and Cookeville.
Waffle House was founded in 1955 in Avondale Estates by neighbors Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner. The company says the concept was built around serving “people on both sides of the counter.”
“As this movement began to expand, new restaurants were built in Georgia as well as neighboring states and the “Yellow Sign” soon became a familiar landmark along city streets and interstate highways across the country,” according to WH.
Today, the company operates more than 1,900 locations across 25 states.
“We aren’t in the food business. We’re in the people business,” Joe Rogers Sr. believed.
Photo by Stephen Miller.
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