Scattered, covered and closed: A Midlands Waffle House is currently shuttered. Here’s why

“It is indeed, marvelous. An irony-free zone where everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts.”

That was how the late chef and travel biographer Anthony Bourdain once described the Waffle House, the chain of 24-hour diners that dot the highways of towns big and small throughout the South, beckoning weary travelers and hungry truckers with the yellow glow of its signs and the promise of a heaping portion of hash browns.

Now one Midlands area Waffle House is taking a pause to become, as Bourdain might have suggested, a bit more marvelous.

The Waffle House located at 2506 Augusta Road in West Columbia currently is closed as the store undergoes an extensive remodeling. That Waffle House location is just east of Interstate 26 in a bustling corridor that is stocked with commercial businesses. There is a Lowe’s Home Improvement just to the west of the Waffle House, and a Walmart store across the road.

More than 36,000 cars per day pass down that stretch of Augusta Road, per state Department of Transportation data.

Waffle House spokesperson Njeri Boss said the restaurant’s renovations will will bring a refresh to a 35-year-old building.

“The restaurant’s look should be familiar while appearing newer,” she said.

Work is set to be completed by late July, and a reopening date has not been announced.

There are about 2,000 Waffle Houses across the U.S. and more than a dozen across the Midlands area.