BRINGING UP THE HOUSE

Fifty-four years ago, Waffle House founders Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers created an American icon. Today, they're stars in their own right.

Fifty-four years ago, Waffle House founders Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers created an American icon. Today, they're stars in their own right.

Next time you're at a Waffle House, take a look around. If you see two older gentlemen seated at the counter, one chatting up the cooks and the other ordering a breakfast wrap, get a good gander at their faces. If they resemble the men whose portraits grace the front doors of Waffle Houses across the country, you're likely in the presence of 90-year-old Tom Forkner and 89-year-old Joe Rogers, the chain's founders.

"We eat at Waffle House a few times a week," Rogers, the chatter, says. "I like to order different things all the time just to see how the restaurants are doing."

"Sometimes, nobody recognizes us," Forkner, the breakfast wrap-lover, says. "I'll walk in, have a meal, pay my check, walk out and never say a word. Nobody behind the counter has the slightest idea who I am."

The cooks and servers may not recognize Forkner and Rogers, but Waffle House executives do-the duo still report to the Atlanta headquarters every day. It's the latest chapter in the story they began more than 50 years ago, when they were neighbors in an Atlanta suburb who dreamed of opening a restaurant that served breakfast night and day.

It all began in 1949, when Forkner, a successful real estate agent, sold a home to Rogers, a regional manager for a national restaurant chain called Toddle House. The home happened to be a few doors down from Forkner's own residence, and it wasn't long before the two became friends. One day, Forkner said that he wished there was a Toddle House in their neighborhood, and Rogers replied that it wasn't a fit for the restaurant.

"I said, 'Well, we need some food around us,'" Forkner says. "And Joe told me, 'If you can build a restaurant, I'll show you how to run it.'"

It wasn't long before they were outlining their vision for their future dining establishment-people-focused, affordable, always open-and scouting locations. Rogers suggested they call the restaurant Waffle House, a name Forkner wasn't wild about (after all, they planned to serve more than just waffles), but one that Rogers ultimately persuaded him to embrace.

"McDonald's started the same year we did, and more and more people were going to take-out food," Rogers writes in his autobiography. "I figured that everybody had sense enough to know you couldn't take a waffle out. People had to come in and sit down and eat, and that's where I wanted them-right there where we could expose them to a little bit of our kindness and convert them into customers."

In 1955, Forkner and Rogers opened the first Waffle House just minutes from their homes, paying $150 a month for the lease and borrowing $6,000 for equipment. Neither of them quit their day jobs, and they didn't necessarily plan to. "We had the idea that if we could open 25 restaurants, they'd run themselves," Forkner says. "We didn't realize that the more you get, the harder they are to run."

Thanks to Waffle House's combination of customer service and comfort food, this was a lesson Forkner and Rogers quickly learned. By 1961, the restaurant had expanded to four locations; that same year, both men quit their other jobs to focus on their joint endeavor full-time. Rogers concentrated on the food and human relations side of the business, while Forkner handled the financial and real-estate operations.

By the end of the '60s, there were 48 restaurants, and by the time the '70s came to a close, that number had jumped to 401. Today, the Waffle House system boasts 1,600 eateries in 25 states, employing 32,000 people. "I think the reason our expansions have been so successful is we've only grown as fast as we could train management properly," Rogers says. "We've always been more interested in quality of service than the number of restaurants we have."

Rogers' son, Joe Jr., is now in charge of day-to-day operations, but Forkner and Rogers Sr. still relish their roles in the company. Neither has plans to retire ("You prolong your marriage by getting out of the house," Rogers quips), and they say they can't imagine seeing the spat-free partnership they've enjoyed for five decades come to an end. "I've never tried to get in his business, and he's never tried to get in mine," Rogers Sr. says. "We respect each other and don't get in the other's way."

Looking back, both men acknowledge they've made mistakes, but neither dwells on the negative. Instead, they say they're most proud of the jobs they've created and the people whose lives they've touched, one smile, one omelet and one waffle at a time.

"We love when people recognize us at Waffle House and make it a point to tell us it's one of their favorite places to have a hot breakfast and good conversation," Rogers says. "It has always been people who make our jobs worthwhile."

DO IT THE WAFFLE WAY

INVERT YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL CHART. "Put other people first and yourself at the bottom," Waffle House cofounder Joe Rogers says. "On our organizational chart, the first thing at the top is the customer."

KEEP IT REAL. "You need total honesty," Waffle House cofounder Tom Forkner says. "I've seen so many young people ruin themselves on the slightest little lie that just got bigger and bigger. They've wound up in huge trouble and wondered how they got there."

BE BETTER BEFORE BIGGER. "If you hear a company say, 'We're going to open so-and-so number of units next year,' you can be real sure they've just made their first mistake," Forkner says. "You open how many you can run well. Period."

SOLVE PROBLEMS OUTSIDE THE VACUUM. "When problems would come up, Joe would say, 'We don't know the answer to this, so I'm going to take the positive side, you take the negative side, and let's discuss it,'" Forkner says. "We've done that several times to see what we come up with, instead of just making decisions on our own."

CHANNEL YOUR INNER DUCK. "Decide where you want to go and move like a duck," Forkner says. "They're calm on top but they're paddling on the bottom."