History of the Waffle Cabin®

Waffle Cabin® started in 1998 in Boston as “Leo’s Gaufres de Liège” from a pushcart. 

Peter Creyf: “It was called Leo’s Gaufres de Liège because Leo was my tutor back in Belgium in 1996-1997”. 

"Leo shared his know-how and remains a dear friend who I visit every time I go back to Belgium. 

I worked with Leo making the dough & I worked with him in his retail outlets. I learned all the basics of this dough, about retail in general and  about retail specifically with this product. “It ain’t rocket science, but yet many still get it wrong!”  As I did when we started our pushcart in 1998. I transplanted the info I knew from what Leo told me, yet it wasn’t working! 

Why? Well... because the US and Belgium are different, and the Liège waffle is still a novelty product in the US. Different markets, different dynamics!

Peter Creyf: “The beginning was not just hard, it was rough !!  We were the pioneers with launching the sugar waffle in the US, and that isn’t always easy. However to also become a settler, one must have staying power.  The positive about this period (where we had some small successes but most were not so good), is that with all the good and the bad we went through, this gave us the lessions we needed to build a strong base of what to do... and what not to do ! 

They form the basics of why, where and how to start a waffle business to be successful.  "In retrospect, I’m extremely glad we went through these lessons, so that our franchisees don’t have to go through these pains."

 

 
For us specifically...

All this led me to contact ski resorts.  We got a lucky break - Thank you Tracy Taylor !! - to set up a pop-up / test at Killington and within days, we know we had a winning formula here ! That same season, Chris Goss who was the F&B director at Stowe gave us that same opportunity and again, we immediately saw the success this could be. I had the feeling after just one week that this product can run a marathon in this niche market.

And so we started building a concept, and the predecessor of the Waffle Cabin® was born, named “Waffle Haus” (Since we couldn’t trademark that name, a couple years later, we changed the name to Waffle Cabin® and trademarked it).

We grew the Waffle Cabins® to many resorts in New England, and learned a lot along the way as well, although it was a relatively easy growth – life was good and “quite easy”... Nice !

Once we covered most resorts that are logistically serviceable within a day’s drive (back and forth), the question arose:
"Do we want to own & run these Waffle Cabins® ourselves, or franchise the concept?"

Franchising was the answer, and the Franchise arm was created, and off to the races we were again...

If you read up to here, I’m guessing you either have an interest in a franchise, or some other interest in the Waffle Cabin®.  Either way, thank you for reading and I hope I didn't bore the hell out of you!  If I did, let me know, so that I change this text... (but then, I guess you would have quit reading before getting to this point, right ?)