Syrup on that? Highland City IHOP won’t be the only waffle in town for long.
A new Waffle House, known for no-frills, Southern-style breakfast food, is expected to be built in Highland City on a lot near an enclave of existing chain restaurants along U.S. 98 – a short calorie-burning walk from the Fort Fraiser Trail.
The property is at Clubhouse Road and Wallace Court, just behind the existing McDonald’s, a Polk County planning report shows.
The proposal is for a 1,890-square-foot Waffle House, which is expected to be adjacent to an 11,000-square-foot proposed Ace Hardware in the future. The property will be split into separate lots for each project.
Breakfast is served!
Waffle House will be the latest of several chain restaurants to dot the highway in Highland City not far from an apartment complex built in 2021, as well as ongoing developments of subdivisions, all within the past 15 years.
There is also an IHOP, McDonalds, Culver’s, Panda Express, day cares, retail plazas and a gas station all clustered near Clubhouse Road and U.S. 98. Many of the biggest brands popped up within the past four years.
Across the highway from that commercial cluster on U.S. 98, there is a Gators Dockside and a Publix supermarket, along with several other restaurants and retail shops.
The Waffle House project applicant is listed as Jennifer Yarbrough with Contineo Group. The Polk County planning department reviewed the application for the 1,890-square-foot, sit-down restaurant to take its place within a Town Center land use district.
But before the iconic Southern diner project could start cooking, the project team needed a conditional use approval. It got one by unanimous vote on June 3 in Bartow from the Polk County Planning Commission, after no complaints at a public hearing.
County Planner Andrew Grohowski had presented the case to the commission and recommended the Waffle House proceed prior to the vote and hearing.
“Staff finds this request is compatible with the surrounding area and adjacent uses and recommends approval,” the report said.
Waffle House needed a ‘special order’ from Polk County
The Town Center district within the U.S. 98 Selected Area Plan allows conditional use requests for signs (as long as they are not on poles), setbacks and build-to-lines when circumstances create hardship for unique properties ― in this case, its odd shape and a strip of land for utilities.
The Waffle House will setback 70 feet on Clubhouse Road instead of the zero-to-15-feet county standard in a Town Center because it will sit on a corner lot formed on two sides by roads at an awkward angle.
Secondly, there was the added challenge of putting the restaurant on a lot containing land for a 50-foot utility easement.
Town Center districts require at least 60% of the parcel frontage along the rights-of-way of all roads, which this property cannot achieve because of the utility easement on the southern portion of the property and the dual frontage on Clubhouse Road and Wallace Court, the county report said.
With dual frontage, a typical Waffle House is not large enough to accommodate the frontage requirements, the report added.
The conditional use approval took care of those potential roadblocks.
Of the 2.17-acre property, the restaurant will sit on 0.75 acres and the hardware store on 1.22 acres. The property owner is MLM Properties of Polk County LLC.
The 24/7 diner and hardware store will share a common driveway on Wallace Court, which is a private road maintained by HC Town Center Owners’ Association Inc. The site will connect to the water and wastewater utilities provided by Lakeland.
In terms of the size of the restaurant, the county report used the Waffle House on U.S. 27 near Access Road to judge the number of seats. That location has 38 seats, but it is smaller at 1,592 square feet. After doing the math, the county planning staff estimated the Highland City location will have about 45 seats.
For diners arriving by car, the Highland City plans call for 29 parking spaces with two handicap parking spots, as well as awnings to cover pedestrians along the sides of the restaurant. Walkways to and from the restaurant are to connect pedestrians to other areas of the Town Center.
Waffle House will likely open without an egg surcharge
Waffle House did not respond to requests for more details on the restaurant and a construction date.
But in early June on the social media platform X, the chain announced it had removed a surcharge on June 2 that it had imposed on orders that included eggs during a recent period of higher than normal prices for the breakfast staple.
According to its website, “the first Waffle House was just a tiny rectangular box, a neighborhood restaurant where the food was cheap, made to order and, as a nutritionist would say, ‘calorically dense.’”
Founded in 1955, Waffle House stays open every day of the year for 24 hours a day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
They are famous for their all-day breakfast and legendary hash browns. They offer a bacon Angus cheeseburger deluxe, a T-bone dinner, trademarked “hashbrowns scattered, smothered & covered” or cheesesteak hashbrown bowl, and slices of Southern pecan pie.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Highland City’s food scene is sizzling, and this classic chain is next
Reporting by Paul Nutcher, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Paul Nutcher, Lakeland Ledger | USA TODAY Network
