Why New England Is Missing Out On Waffle House Breakfast

The older I get the more I love breakfast food, and the state of our fast casual breakfst dining around here has been replaced with bagel shops and breakfast sandwich peddlers. Has there ever been a time better for Waffle House to finally come to New England?

Get our free mobile app

In the past 20 years did you ever imagine that there would only be a few Friendly's Restaurants left in Connecticut? Did you see the closure of Chip's in Southbury coming? How about Denny's? Sit-down fast casual restaurants have been slowly fading away in Connecticut and all of New England. Have we had enough Johnnycakes? Did the convenience of a bacon, egg, and cheese on a hard roll doom the Lumberjack breakfast?

The closest Waffle House to us right now is in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, and West of Philly in Southern Pennsylvania. There are no locations in New York, New Jersey, or anywhere in New England, and when I've received no official response when I've reached out to their corporate headquarters as to why this is. A Connecticut Reddit user inquired about a franchise here and the response he got was reportedly 'The company wanted to keep' their business 'A Southern thing'.

Waffle House restaurants would be an ideal fit for the I-95 corridor in New England, as well as I-91 in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Most of the current 2,000 locations in 25 states are in the Midwest and South where real estate, cost of living, and prices are significantly lower. Will this happen in 2026?