Huddle House

Christmas Day, a family emergency called four of us to Jackson, MS. Not many places open, understandably. Seeing this Huddle House was, we decided to break up the 10 hour drive and grab a quick bite.
We were greeted by a hostess and seated near the counter, with a clear line of vision to the wait station and waffle machines. There were perhaps six other tables at the time, and at least three times that amount sat empty. (This is just to indicate that over-​crowding was not an issue.)
A waitress came and took our drink order, two iced teas. She wasn’t terribly pleasant, but she wasn’t awful. We put it down to working on Christmas and let it go. Waiting for her and waiting for the order took about ten minutes, during which we had plenty of time to look at the overflowing waffle machines laid out on the counter at the back of the wait station. They were over-​flowing onto the counters, onto the floor, just everywhere.
All the wait staff were hanging around that area — can’t really blame them, because who wants to work Christmas Day? Still, a little bit of cheerfulness would have gone a long way.
I will note, politically incorrect though it may be, that the white cashiers and white hostess and white wait staff were unpleasant. In contrast, our second waitress, who was black, was lovely. The obvious hierarchy in the restaurant was surprising to the two Europeans with us, by the way.
When the second waitress came to take our food order, we ordered a couple of simple things, and she was kind enough to tell us there’d be a 30 – 40 minute wait. «But we’re not ordering dinners, or anything special!» Yes, but everything was backed up 30 – 40 minutes.
We looked over at the kitchen staff, leaning over their window area and talking, and at the hostess and other wait staff, still congregated by the waffle machines with no one on the floor serving the tables but our waitress.
«Why didn’t anyone tell us when we came in?» Shrug. We said we couldn’t wait 30 – 40 minutes, and asked for the check.
We were charged $ 4.12 for two small iced teas. We weren’t even offered the option of to-​go cups.
I got up to pay the bill, heading toward the door where there was a cashier and a line of people waiting to pay their own tabs. I’d gone about 5 yards when a different cashier, this one behind the counter we’d been sitting next to, yelled at me and angrily pointed to the counter cash register. Which had no line, and no sign that I should be paying there.
I stared at her and gestured at the other register, by the door, and she again yelled that I needed to pay RIGHT NOW, stabbing her finger toward her cash register.
I don’t know why she thought I’d run out on a four dollar tab; the rest of my party, all older people, were still sitting at the table, so it’s not like she didn’t have hostages. They were dumbstruck at her rage and, as one said, «Sheesh. After getting our money for two little ice teas, and not telling us about the long wait for food until we’d gotten them, they could have given us the tea!»
I went over to her cash register and gave her the money, which she angrily snatched out of my hand. Yes, snatched. As though I’d grab it back if she didn’t. Our first waitress (who hadn’t told us about the wait) stood next to her, glaring at me — again, I have no idea why. The second waitress stood there too, trying to smile at me but pretty helpless in the face of all this rage.
When you enter a restaurant and sit down, you don’t expect get your drinks and THEN be told there’ll be a long wait for food, especially for a simple sandwich. You don’t expect to be treated like a thief. And you don’t expect to bear the brunt of staff anger, whatever the reason.
I did write to
about our experience with store #540, but received no response. Which I guess just sums up the whole thing, because after all, it starts at the top.

Not impressed but I didn’t expect to be. it would have probably tasted better had I been intoxicated. So I guess that’s my fault! Lol :)

It was Huddle house ok? But I enjoyed it, very tasty omlets.