You'll Never Guess Which Fan-Favorite Fast Food Menu Item Used To Be Sold At Waffle House

Waffle House, the Southern restaurant chain launched in Georgia in 1955, is known for many things, including its 24-hour-service, unique lingo around its hash browns (scattered, smothered, and covered), and, of course, the waffles. But there are other, more obscure facts about the chain with the iconic black and yellow sign. For instance, since 1984, Waffle House has had its own record label — Waffle Records — that mostly produces food-related novelty songs. Another little known piece of the restaurant's history involves another Georgia-based business. 

Waffle House helped launch Chick-fil-A. That's right. Back in 1964, after S. Truett Cathy came up with his signature quick pressure fried boneless chicken sandwich laden with more than 20 spices, he licensed it to Waffle House after dubbing it the Chick-fil-A sandwich. But by 1967, Cathy parted ways with Waffle House after opening his first Chick-fil-A restaurant in an Atlanta mall, leading to his eventual fast food empire. 

S. Truett Cathy and his brother Ben opened their first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill (later renamed the Dwarf House), in Hapeville, an Atlanta suburb, in 1946. It was near the Atlanta airport, which played a part in the creation of the signature sandwich. A local meat purveyor, Goode Brothers Poultry, got stuck with a large shipment of boneless breasts that didn't fit the requirements for its customer Delta Airlines. Cathy got a good deal on the chicken, began experimenting, and finally hit upon the recipe that the company still uses today. Cathy's Chick-fil-A sandwich remains a best seller today more than 60 years later.

After introducing his new sandwich at a regional trade show, Cathy licensed it to 50 different local eateries, including Waffle House, which was already a well-established chain. Sources differ on exactly why Waffle House and Cathy parted ways. Some claim Waffle House management axed the chicken sandwich because it outsold the rest of the diner's menu. Others believe Cathy wanted more control over how his signature product was being made, which led him to begin opening Chick-fil-A's in malls, a new concept that soon took off, and eventually led to stand-alone restaurants by the mid-1980s. While you can no longer get a Chick-fil-A sandwich at Waffle House, the diner played a pivotal role in helping get the company started.