Waffle House Refused to Serve a Homeless Veteran

by Brenna Houck

A Nashville-area Waffle House is serving today's helping of fresh and greasy controversy. Musician Jesse Brand said he was out for a bite to eat at the chain on Saturday night when he encountered homeless veteran Roger Hornsby and invited him to dinner. "I saw this guy hobbling across the parking lot with a cane," he says. However, inside the Waffle House the evening turned ugly when an employee at the restaurant insisted Hornsby leave. "Within 30-40 seconds, the gal behind the counter said, ‘You two can stay, he's got to leave,'" recounts Brand. "She said, ‘His shirt's dirty. He can't be in here.'" Brand then turned to the manager and said he would never be back again and drove himself and Hornsby to a different Waffle House.

"She said, ‘His shirt's dirty. He can't be in here.'"
The veteran later revealed to Brand that he sleeps on an embankment beside the restaurant. Hornsby said the Waffle House took and refused to return his wheelchair and sleeping bag. When Hornsby inquired about the items later, a worker said, "We threw it away."
The offending Waffle House has returned Hornsby's belongings. Brand — who "spent several years off and on homeless" — says the way Waffle House treated Hornby was "deplorable." He plans to hold a benefit concert in support of the homeless veteran.