America Runs on Waffles
The Hidden World Behind America’s 24/7 Restaurants
By Troy Coleman
The dining room never sleeps. Neither does the work behind it.
What keeps an always-open restaurant moving when equipment fails, pressure climbs, and everyone is waiting? Troy Coleman takes readers inside a nine-store Florida–South Georgia maintenance route and the judgment, mistakes, burnout, teamwork, and resilience behind the work customers rarely see.
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Free Chapter 1 · About Troy · Book clubs · Free resources · Media · Speaking & group orders
Inside the book
Across 36 chapters and 43 Field Notes, Coleman writes about HVAC and refrigeration, hot water, gas equipment, plumbing, lighting controls, roof leaks, urgent service calls, long drives, safety, responsibility, burnout, growth, and resilience.
This workplace memoir is for skilled-trades and field-service professionals, restaurant teams, on-call workers, frontline leaders, and readers of narrative nonfiction.
U.S. editions
| Format | Edition identifier | U.S. listing |
|---|---|---|
| Kindle eBook | ASIN B0HF6YQRST | Amazon.com Kindle |
| Paperback | ISBN 9798196415715 · ASIN B0HF6BBH34 | Amazon.com paperback |
| Hardcover | ISBN 9798192191101 · ASIN B0HF6VR73F | Amazon.com hardcover |
Find Troy on Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub.
Read Chapter 1 free
The Real Load Behind One Restaurant
One restaurant alone was enough to show how heavy the responsibility could become.
| Equipment / Responsibility | One Store | Nine Stores |
|---|---|---|
| 5-Ton Rooftop HVAC Units | 4 | 36 |
| Walk-In Coolers | 1 | 9 |
| Walk-In Freezers | 1 | 9 |
| Reach-In Refrigerators | 2 | 18 |
| Coffee Machines | 2 | 18 |
| Commercial Grills | 2 | 18 |
| Waffle Bakers | 6 | 54 |
| Gas Valves & Regulators | 5 | 45 |
| Steam Tables | 3 | 27 |
| Dish Machines | 1 | 9 |
| Photocells with Contactors | 2 | 18 |
This chart is not just inventory. It is a map of possible emergencies across nine stores: air, water, heat, cooling, power, communication, and responsibility moving at the same time.
Most people never think about what it takes to keep a twenty-four-hour restaurant alive. They walk in and expect the world to already be working: cold air, hot coffee, bright lights, clean bathrooms, hot grills, cold refrigeration, and a building that feels normal before they ever sit down. That is the side customers see. The side I saw was pressure.
I saw rooftops in Florida heat, walk-in freezers icing over, managers waiting for answers, old equipment fighting nonstop operation, grease, rust, drains, leaks, gas valves, coffee systems, dish areas, steam tables, waffle bakers, and the kind of chaos that does not show up on a receipt. One restaurant alone could carry four rooftop HVAC units, refrigeration systems, plumbing, electrical controls, drains, gas equipment, emergency calls, and constant responsibility. Now multiply that by nine stores. That is not just a route.
That is a moving system of pressure, timing, decisions, and consequences. Within my first year, I earned recognition as #1 Best MTX Practice 2025. That mattered because it was not handed to me for standing around. It represented long drives, emergency calls, roof work, documentation, persistence, questions asked, mistakes survived, and the discipline to keep showing up when the day was already heavy.
I was not perfect. I was learning under pressure. But I kept moving, kept improving, kept listening to veteran technicians, and kept trying to protect the operation when most people only saw the restaurant from the dining room. This book begins there because the story is not only about maintenance.
Maintenance is the world the story happens in. The deeper story is pressure, resilience, chaos, invisible labor, and what responsibility does to a person when nobody sees the full weight of it.
Excerpt © 2026 Troy Coleman. All rights reserved.
Continue the story: choose your edition.
About Troy Coleman
Troy Coleman is a commercial maintenance technician and author. He personally covered a nine-store Florida–South Georgia route, working on HVAC, refrigeration, hot-water systems, gas and restaurant equipment, plumbing, lighting controls, roof leaks, and emergency maintenance while 24-hour restaurants stayed open.
In 2025, during his first year with the system, Troy received his employer’s internal #1 Best MTX Practice recognition across an unnamed restaurant network of more than 2,000 locations.
The memoir honors technicians, managers, cooks, servers, and the workers whose judgment and resilience keep nonstop operations moving. The book is independent, and no employer endorsement is implied.
Book clubs and classrooms
Use the free six-page discussion guide for a focused 45- to 60-minute conversation. It includes ten discussion questions, three group activities, and a facilitator agenda for book clubs, skilled-trades programs, hospitality teams, and leadership groups.
- Choose four to six questions about pressure, invisible labor, trust, burnout, and responsibility.
- Run one activity: a handoff map, visible-work map, or decision ladder.
- Close with one communication practice the group can use in its own setting.
Ask about an author Q&A or group order.
Free maintenance resources
Printable forms for observation, recordkeeping, escalation, and service follow-up:
- Restaurant Equipment Inspection Checklist (PDF)
- HVAC Preventive Maintenance Checklist (PDF)
- Commercial Refrigeration Temperature & Inspection Log (PDF)
- General Restaurant Facility Maintenance Checklist (PDF)
Adapt these forms to the site’s approved procedures and limits. They support observation and recordkeeping; they do not replace manufacturer instructions, safety programs, or qualified professional judgment.
The Invisible Shift
A free companion guide with seven field lessons about clearer observation, sound priorities, responsible judgment, and the work behind an ordinary day.
Request the free companion guide from Troy.
Media and interview resources
For podcast hosts, journalists, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and event organizers:
Interview topics
- Managing a nine-store maintenance route across Florida and Georgia.
- What good maintenance practice looks like while a restaurant stays open.
- Maintenance as leadership: earning trust under pressure.
- Emergency calls, burnout, long drives, and the human cost of always-on operations.
For an interview or review copy, email topflbusinessnetwork@gmail.com. Include your outlet or platform, audience, format, and timing. A review copy never requires positive coverage or a particular rating.
For editorial use, credit “America Runs on Waffles by Troy Coleman.” Contact Troy before commercial reuse or substantial alteration of the supplied assets.
Speaking, signed copies, and group orders
Request an author Q&A, a discussion on invisible work and frontline judgment, signed copies, or an organizational book order. Classroom, department, association, and conference programs can be discussed around the audience and event.
Topics include stronger first reports and handoffs, responsibility across multiple locations, decisions under pressure, and the people behind 24/7 operations.
Download the institutional sales and speaking kit (PDF).
Email topflbusinessnetwork@gmail.com with the quantity, preferred format, destination, date, audience, and whether you want a virtual or in-person discussion. Scope, pricing, availability, and delivery are confirmed directly with Troy.
Rights and professional inquiries
For translation, territorial, or audio-rights inquiries, email topflbusinessnetwork@gmail.com with the language, territory, format, and organization.