Ah, speaking of strange and odd, not Huddle House, no, not Waffle House, its Toddle House, and they were a national chain of quick service breakfast joints that were open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The chain was started in the 1920's when an owner of a restaurant chain in Memphis by the name that I am not to familiar with was approached by a man that offered to supply the building goods if he could have him build his restaurants.
By the 1950s, Toddle House had more than 200 locations in almost 90 cities.
It was in the 1980s that the chain began to struggle, as earlier, in 1962, Toddle was bought by competitor Dobbs Houses. Then in January 1988, Carson Pirie Scott of Chicago borrowed 108 million dollars to buy out Dobbs Houses and later sold the chain to a private equity firm, that quickly liquidated the chain.
The chain was unsuccessfully revitalized by Carson's as they projected 500 locations to be opened, with 50 of the proposed to be opened in Florida by 1991.
The plan did not work out as they were sold off with little profit.
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| A picture I took of a former Toddle House in Mt. Vernon, Illinois during a drip down state in August 2013 |
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| Turned into a generic breakfast place, called The Waffle Company
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Many former locations:
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| Green Street- Chicago, Illinois |
Modern day:
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