An 84-year-old Bartow, Florida, man is suing Waffle House after he says a window advertisement for the chain’s limited-edition strawberry shortcake waffle proved more powerful than his own legs.
Edward Bowlds was crossing the parking lot with his wife on April 17, 2025, when the promo display caught his eye. While his attention stayed locked on the waffle, his feet found an “abnormally high” curb with no paint or markings to warn him it was coming — and down he went, the lawsuit filed earlier this year claimed.
It would be ‘disingenuous for Waffle House to suggest that Mr. Bowlds should have been watching where he was walking,’ letter claims.
The lawsuit doesn’t hold back on the marketing critique, either. The ad was, according to the lawsuit, sized and placed specifically to grab the attention of customers who had already parked — a strawberry-frosted trap, apparently, for anyone weak enough to glance at it.
A pre-lawsuit demand letter put it more bluntly: It would be “disingenuous for Waffle House to suggest that Mr. Bowlds should have been watching where he was walking when it was Waffle House who distracted his attention away from where he was walking.”
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Nicole Craine/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The fall allegedly left Bowlds with a fractured nose and a torn rotator cuff, and his attorney says the injuries have taken a real toll — he is largely confined to a recliner now and can’t help his wife with groceries or yard work like he used to, the letter claimed.
Bowlds and his wife reportedly sought a $300,000 settlement before filing suit. Waffle House declined, and now a jury will get to decide just how irresistible a picture of a waffle can legally be.
Waffle House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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