LSU is busy. Campus is downright bustling during the day. The union is flooded with hungry students, and the sidewalks are rage-inducing clusters of slow walkers. Meanwhile, record-shattering heat makes stepping outside insufferable. At night, students are out and about – going to the UREC, or Tigerland or whatever other holy activities college students get up to.
The staggering number of students who attend LSU is most powerfully felt in the various dining locations on campus. At lunch and dinner time, the lines wrap around the union and dining halls, and Popeyes has students spilling out of its orange gates just to get a three-piece spicy chicken tender meal.
Interestingly, most of LSU’s dining spots are ghost towns during breakfast for two main reasons: Students avoid morning classes like the plague, and the breakfast spots on campus are slightly… lackluster.
The breakfast spots on campus, excluding official dining halls, are Einstein Bros., Chick-fil-A, CC’s Coffee, Smoothie King and 3 Little Pigs Café & Eatery. That’s five breakfast focused restaurants, none of which are open late, which is disappointing as most students are up at ungodly hours.
We, the tigers of LSU, are missing something desperately – a 24/7 breakfast joint. A place filled with yellow, love and goodness. LSU is missing a Waffle House.
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A Waffle House on campus would give students a place to safely connect 24/7. As stated earlier, students are up at all hours of the day, so a place that’s open 24/7 is a necessity, especially for students lacking consistent transportation.
A campus Waffle House would also give LSU the chance to flex a new style of food: greasy and buttery breakfast food (something desperately missing). One of the best parts of Waffle House is its truly expansive menu. They have hash browns, omelets, Texas melts, sandwiches, biscuits, crispy bacon, burgers and, well, waffles.
Another reason Waffle House is a necessary addition to campus is the culture it brings. Waffle House is beloved, accessible and well-known. It’s like a slice of home. Everyone has eaten at the breakfast restaurant, so students from all walks of life can mingle and taste a bit of home at a familiar space, even in an unfamiliar area.
This isn’t to mention the presence that the Waffle House workers themselves would bring to campus. A very specific type of person works at a Waffle House, and they’re either the most comforting and understanding person alive or a demon who will spew vitriol at you whilst making you the best meal of your month. It’s also my firm belief that many LSU students need to be humbled by a Waffle House worker.
The plethora of reasons listed above are all well and good, but just in case more praise for Waffle House is required, here are some student testimonials.
Amaria Jorden, a political science junior, believes emphatically in the good a campus Waffle House would bring.
“Yes! We do need a Waffle House. It’s so convenient, open all the time for students like me that are on campus late and have early classes,” Jorden said.
Freshman psychology student Michael Brown thinks there wouldn’t really be a downside to the addition.
“Adding another option will never be a bad move, and it definitely can be a place that people gather. People love to hangout in Waffle Houses,” Brown said.
More than anything else, LSU needs a Waffle House to connect its diverse student body and nourish its thinkers. LSU needs a Waffle House, so we can have a Waffle Home.
Garrett McEntee is an 18-year-old English freshman from Benton.
