GREENVILLE — In the latest sign of the coming winter storm’s expected severity, a diner chain known for serving up hashbrowns to order and acting as a gauge for disaster warns that the Upstate should expect to be covered with ice.
A number of Waffle House locations plan to close ahead of the arrival of sleet and freezing rain the night of Saturday, Jan. 24, that forecasters warn could be “crippling” across the Upstate and wide swaths of the Southeast.
The corporate office did not respond to emails or a Facebook message, and it has no listed media contact phone number. However, a waitress at the location on East Stone Avenue near North Main Street in Greenville told The Post and Courier the restaurant got word this morning that it was to close by 5 p.m. today, Jan. 24.
The 24/7 restaurant chain is known for a no-nonsense approach to staying open.
It’s so rare that locations close that a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency referenced it as an impromptu measure of a disaster’s severity. The restaurant chain has embraced what came to be known as the Waffle House Index:
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Green: The restaurant is serving a full menu, which means damage is limited and power is on.
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Yellow: The location is serving a limited menu, a sign that it’s operating on a generator or food supplies are running low.
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Red: The restaurant is closed, which typically indicates an area suffered severe damage or has unsafe conditions.
But with this coming system — the first to trigger an ice storm warning for the region since the historic 2005 ice storm — Waffle House decided to take no chances.
The waitress told The Post and Courier she had worked there for the better part of a de
A sign alerts patrons that the Waffle House on East Stone Avenue near North Main in Greenville has shut down Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in anticipation of a coming winter storm. Staff said the restaurant shut down at 5 p.m., and a wintry mix of sleet and frozen rain started to fall in the area around midnight.
cade and had never before seen a preemptive closure because of a weather forecast.
Still, the Stone Avenue eatery was bustling early Saturday, with a waiting line for counter seats by midmorning.
Calls to other locations across Greenville turned up an automated message to order online as they no longer take orders over the phone.
But a number of posts on social media — some including signs announcing a closure — had people reacting to closures well beyond the Upstate as the chain prepares for a system that has potential to bring close to an inch of ice in Greenville and Spartanburg.
An employee of an Upstate location had different hours for when they would turn off the waffle irons and power down the grill, but they indicated the closures were widespread.
And another employee — this one in Georgia — said it was the first time in her five years on the job the restaurant had closed, adding: “That’s insane! Stay safe everyone!”
