Did Waffle House announce plans to put floating restaurants on lakes across the southeastern United States to serve boaters, anglers, and waterfront homes? No, that's not true: A Waffle House official told Lead Stories there were no such plans. An image of a floating Waffle House in the middle of a lake, surrounded by boats, was generated by an artificial intelligence tool, according to an AI content detection tool.
The claim originated in a post (archived here) shared by the @MikeBales account on X on February 26, 2026. The caption opened:
Waffle House announced plans to bring floating restaurant locations to lakes across the Southeastern U.S., serving boaters, anglers, and waterfront communities.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
The caption continued:
The concept will feature the classic menu and 24/7 service on floating platforms accessible by boat, with initial sites planned in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas.
Billy Joe Armstrong, a longtime Lake Eufaula, Alabama resident, said he's thrilled about the addition of a Waffle House on his home lake, noting he's tired of grabbing breakfast from Indian gas stations and having his stomach torn up all day while trying to fish. 😂🤣
A call to the Waffle House corporate headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, revealed that this was not a real plan. An official who spoke to Lead Stories was unaware of the X post and confirmed it was a joke:
Yes, sir. There are no plans for that.
The Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool concluded the image of the floating Waffle House was 99.9% "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content."
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of hivemoderation.com)
