Business & Tech

Right-Wing Restaurants -- Do You Agree?

Two Atlanta area chains -- Waffle House and Chick-fil-A -- have made a website's list of 5 right-wing restaurants for their owners' anti-gay and anti-abortion views.

Two Georgia-based fast-food chains top a new list on Salon.com about “right-wing food companies.”

The list is of five chains that are owned by business leaders who’ve funded conservative super-PACs. Author and Alternet blogger Lauren Kelley calls the business owners “far right-wingers.”

The owners of these companies, including Norcross-based Waffle House and Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, have spent “significant money opposing gay rights, abortion rights, and other important causes and funding attack ads against left-leaning politicians,” Kelley writes.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

The question is, are the views of the company leaders a reason for you to spend your money with the restaurants, or give your dollars to another chain.

Do the anti-abortion, anti-gay rights views of these restaurant companies influence how you spend your money? Tell us in comments.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Chick-fil-A – which has sparked national boycotts for the owner’s stance on gay rights, plus rallies aimed at countering the boycott -- is No. 1 on Kelley’s list

In a 2012 interview with the Baptist Press Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy, the son of company founder S. Truett Cathy, said that the company supports the “traditional family.”

Cathy said, “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit….We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

That statement sparked dueling rallies for and against the company.

At No. 5 on the list is Waffle House, which Kelley says has given $100,000 this election cycle to the Karl Rove super PAC American Crossroads. CEO Jim Rogers Jr. – who is battling sexual harassment charges by a former housekeeper he claims tried to extort money from him -- is a longtime supporter of Republican causes.

The all-night diner chain has its fans, too. Legions of late-night travelers have stuffed themselves on regular, smothered, covered or peppered versions of hash browns – as in covered in cheese, smothered with onions or chunked with ham.

And this spring, Masters champion Bubba Watson, who won his second title at Augusta National Golf Club in three years, decided the best way to top off his win was with a family trip to Waffle House. Watson tweeted a picture of the celebratory chow-down: “Champ dinner@WaffleHouse! #hashbrowns#covered

Of course, being open around the clock also presents hazards for Waffle House, and the crimes that happen late at night bring the chain as much notoriety as its founders’ views.

Twice in two weeks there have been fatal shootings at Atlanta area Waffle House locations.

At around 4:30 a.m. June 13, a cook at a south Fulton County Waffle House allegedly shot and killed a customer following an argument.

The shooting came after an off-duty Griffin police officer working security at a Spalding County Waffle House was gunned down in late May.



Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here