Lone Waffle House Employee Swamped With Orders–Then Customer Suddenly Starts Bussing Tables

A Waffle House in a file photograph. Illustration - Shutterstock

Busy restaurants rely upon rosters for smooth sailing. So when one Waffle House employee suddenly and unexpectedly found himself all alone on the overnight shift and swamped with orders, some kindhearted customers took pity and stepped in to lend a helping hand.

Ben, the lone nightshift employee at the Birmingham, Alabama, eatery on Nov. 3, 2019, was working frantically. When customer Ethan Crispo walked in for a snack after attending a birthday party at 12:30 a.m., the roster fiasco was immediately apparent.

Ben, whom Crispo described as “awash in bewilderment,” was trying to serve over 30 customers solo.

“I’ve just sat down at my table and it’s becoming clear I’ll be going home with an empty stomach,” Crispo, 24, wrote in an email to Alabama Life. Then, “[f]rom the blue,” Crispo continued, “a man from the bar stands up, asks Ben for an apron, and begins to work behind the counter.”

Describing the gesture as a “transition so smooth I initially assumed it was a staff member,” Crispo observed the kind stranger bussing tables, washing dishes, and even stacking plates to help Ben.

When the lone waiter was finally able to bus Crispo’s table, the customer managed to ascertain that the kind stranger had no affiliation with the Waffle House. “He just saw this other person in a bad spot and just jumped in,” Crispo explained.

Over the course of the next hour, two additional good Samaritans stepped in to assist, one being a woman dressed to the nines from an evening out. “She figured out how to do the coffee maker,” Crispo later told The Washington Post. “She was in a sequined dress and heels. She tried to take an order or two but then she went to busing tables.”

“I don’t think it’s anything that special,” the immaculately dressed volunteer, Alison Stanley, later told Today. “He needed help,” she added, “so I got up and helped out!”

Meanwhile, Ben, the only official Waffle House staff member working the nightshift, was able to concentrate on manning the cash register and cooking food orders at the grill.

Illustration - Shutterstock | Jonathan Weiss

The customers in the restaurant didn’t seem perturbed by the impromptu restaffing, Ethan said; Ben and his newfound, temporary colleagues continued on the nightshift like Waffle House family as the orders came and went.

Waffle House Director of PR and External Affairs Pat Warner, who cited a miscommunication in scheduling as being responsible for Ben’s nightshift nightmare, sent comments on behalf of the eatery to Alabama Life. “We really appreciate their efforts, though we do prefer our associates to be behind the counter,” Warner said.

“The key to our concept is, we’re there to serve you,” the PR director added, “not the other way around.” Warner then offered the first volunteer—who was incidentally caught helping on the eatery’s security cameras—a job, if he wanted one.

“It was the most fascinating thing,” Crispo reflected. “It was just one of the most wild instances of really, really cool people just coming together.”

Illustration - Shutterstock | Eric Glenn

Crispo even received his own order in the end thanks to the extra help: a double waffle, no syrup.

The customers didn’t have to help, and Ben could very well have quit on the spot, overwhelmed by the task at hand. But instead, everybody came together to prove that many hands make light work; the result is a story of camaraderie that is lighting up the internet.