CRESTVIEW — While Waffle House restaurants gear up to observe Waffle Week Sept. 4-10, the local Comfort Inn welcomed public safety officers and Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce members to observe National Waffle Day.
For four hours Wednesday morning, the Ferdon Boulevard South hotel’s lobby was filled with the aroma of baking waffles as a steady procession of hungry breakfasters trooped in and out.
“We just wanted to do something nice for our first responders, and we invited business leaders as well,” front desk and sales manager Jillian Davis said.
During the event, Davis said she added “waffle bar expert” to her title.
Aug. 24 was National Waffle Day, marking the 147th anniversary of Cornelius Swarthout’s 1869 patent of the first waffle iron.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Crestview Police officers, office workers, executives and business owners mingled over a pair of waffle makers and several toppings.
“We appreciate the community a-‘waffle’ lot,” Davis joked.
General manager Becky Triplett said the Waffle Day observance is one way the hotel gives back to its community supporters, who helped propel the property from 899th among the country’s 1,100 Comfort Inns to sixth in four years.
“Our goal is to be the number one hotel in the nation,” Triplett said.
Davis and Triplett said credit for the hotel’s success can be traced directly to its workers.
“We make sure we have a lot of reward programs for our staff to keep them motivated,” Davis said.
“The better you treat your staff, the better they treat their customers,” Triplett said.
FAST FACTS
Here is some trivia about one of America’s favorite breakfast foods:
●Waffles originated in 15th-century France and Belgium, derived from early communion wafer recipes. Flour, salt and wine were the main ingredients. Sugar was added about a century later.
●As waffles gained popularity, French King Charles IX issued waffle rules in 1560 to keep waffle makers from fighting. After his ruling, chefs had to remain a minimum of four yards apart.
●Leavened dough was first used for waffles in the late 16th or early 17th century, with beer yeast as the leavening agent.
●The word “waffle” first appeared in English in a 1725 cookbook.
●Waffles were first documented in colonial America in 1744 with “waffle frolics,” or parties, in New Jersey and the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (present-day New York).
●Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York, patented the first waffle iron on Aug. 24, 1869.
●The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, when an ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling his waffles into a cone-shaped holder.
●General Electric sold the first electric waffle maker in 1918.
●The three Dorsa brothers introduced Eggo frozen waffles in 1953.
●Belgian waffles, an American creation derived from a variation of the traditional Brussels waffle recipe, are first served at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, then marketed under the name Bel-Gem at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, where they caught on. Belgian waffles have deeper holes than standard waffles.
●There are more than 2,100 Waffle House restaurants in the U.S., including two in Crestview.
Sources: Waffle House, Gone-ta-Pott.com
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview hotel celebrates National Waffle Day (VIDEO)