Waffle House closing restaurants due to coronavirus - Why does Springfield not have a Waffle House?

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Waffle House has announced that it is closing 365 of its locations across the United States, including several in the Miami Valley due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Springfield does not have a Waffle House. 

The closest Waffle House to the Springfield area is located at 1107 E. Dayton Yellow Springs Rd. in Fairborn.

Will there be a Waffle House in Springfield anytime soon?

“We would love to open a restaurant or many restaurants in the Springfield, Ohio area,” said Pat Warner, Director of Public Relations for Waffle House, Inc. “We have a couple of great markets for us nearby in Dayton and Columbus.

However, Warner said he does have some frustrating news for fans of the 24/7 breakfast chain. He doesn’t know when a restaurant will be opening in Springfield.

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“Right now, there are no active locations secured in Springfield,” Warner said. “However, we hope to get there soon.”

There are 2,100 Waffle House restaurants nationwide, mostly in the Southeast region of the country, although there are restaurants in 25 states, according to Waffle House’s website.

The 24/7 breakfast chain posted a graphic on their Twitter and Facebook pages showing that 365 Waffle House restaurants are closed and 1,627 are open.

The hashtag “WaffleHouseIndexRed” added to the post refers to the Waffle House Index, which is an informal test for how bad a disaster is, based on whether the local Waffle House is open.

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Green means the store is open with a full menu, yellow means a reduced menu, and red means it is closed. The test has been associated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

In short, Warner said the restaurant hopes to bring a location to Springfield soon, but doesn’t know when that day will be.

“I can tell you we will be in Springfield someday, however I don’t know what day that will be,” Warner said.

Waffle House has been operating since 1955, with each restaurant remaining open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. According to their website, the diner has sold 2,501,866,574 orders of eggs, 1,684,212,442 orders of bacon and 1,289,801,887 cups of coffee.

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