Giving Thanks for the Best Chain Resaurant Dishes in America
- gelkote.net
The Patty Melt at Waffle House
Growing up in New York, I never experienced a Waffle House until visiting my college roommate in her hometown of Hazard, Kentucky, the summer after our freshman year. A lot of strange things happened on that trip. I saw a little girl who kept a raccoon as a pet. A boy asked me if I had ever seen a “chicken heart” and then showed me his testicles, which he had squeezed through the fly of his pants.
But the real highlight was going to my first Waffle House and getting a patty melt. Greasy and hot, the cheese melted into the burger while the mustard and onions added just the right amount of bite. The bread was crispy and superior to any old squishy traditional roll. I might have audibly groaned while eating it. Recently though, I stopped at another Waffle House while driving through rural central Pennsylvania. I wasn’t even hungry but I had to have a patty melt. It was, sadly, disappointing. The bread is much thicker now—some abomination called “Texas Toast”—and it ruined the balance of the sandwich as I remember it. Yet another example of how you can’t go back again.
Kristin Iversen, associate editor