Photo : SeanPavonePhoto ( iStock )

Sometimes you just have to be the change you wish to see in a Waffle House.

Last Saturday night, thanks to a scheduling error, a gentleman named Ben was the only employee who showed up to work the late night shift at a Waffle House in Birmingham, Alabama. According to what witnesses told AL.com, around midnight, a mysterious man in a blue shirt stood up from the counter, asked Ben for an apron, and went to work bussing tables and washing dishes. A representative from Waffle House said that security footage from that night confirms the existence of the mysterious man in blue, and also shows two other customers who—instead of jumping on their phones to complain about Ben’s lousy service on Yelp—jumped in to run food and stack plates while Ben took orders and ran the grill.




We may never know who you are, Blue Man and friends, but know that we, as a people, salute you. Every person that has ever worked in the service industry has a story about a hell shift such as Ben’s, the kind of story that sticks into your brain until the day you die, and for a customer to not only understand the situation but actually help? That is the kind of bravery I needed to read about today. Anyone who stands up to save a Waffle House deserves our applause.