Charlie Checks Out the Famous Red Velvet Waffle at Johnny D’s

Charlie Rymer recently stopped by one of the Myrtle Beach area’s top breakfast hangouts, Johnny D’s Waffles & Biscuits, to see how they make their famous Red Velvet Waffle. Chef Jamie Daskalis took him behind the scenes to see how it’s done!

Charlie:
So you’re in Myrtle Beach and you’ve got a full day of golf ahead of you. When you wake up in the morning, you better make sure you get a great breakfast – and there’s no better place to do that than right here at Johnny D’s. And just check out the sign, this is the best waffle in South Carolina. Let’s go see what they got!

Charlie:
You’re coming from out of town, you’re going to play a little golf in Myrtle Beach, this is the place to grab some breakfast.

Jamie:
For sure.

Charlie:
What I want to know is, what do I need to get? I mean I’m interested in everything, but what if there’s one thing I needed to get, what would that be?

Jamie:
I would say the Red Velvet Waffle. When I was trying to come up with the menu here at Johnny D’s, I knew I needed a knock-your-socks-off, different kind of waffle, like a “wow” factor. This is actually cake, so it has the consistency of cake and the taste of waffles. You can tell it’s a lot thicker and it has more of the consistency because our chocolate cake batter.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Jamie:
That’s the way it comes with the little ribbons here. So it has more of the consistency of chocolate cake batter. It takes about two minutes to cook each waffle. We’re going to do one full ladle.

Charlie:
So that’s it, that’s what you’re measuring is one full ladle.

Jamie:
Yeah, one full ladle. And we’re going to spread it out just a little bit.

Charlie:
Hey, real quick, I’ve got to ask you. I’ve got to ask you, is something smoking over there?

Jamie:
No. Oh, oh, I fell for that one. I fell for that hard. All right, so we’re going to set these timers here, two minutes.

Charlie:
Two minutes.

Jamie:
So when this comes out, what we do is we put powdered sugar that has a little bit of cinnamon in it.

Charlie:
Does it come with bacon?

Jamie:
If you want it to.

Charlie:
I do.

Jamie:
I mean I’ll just give you that whole plate, now, that. Cream cheese icing, we make this here, it’s delicious. And this is another part of … This icing goes on a few of our waffles, and I think it really brings that homage to the red velvet waffle together, because you always fill it with cream cheese icing.

Charlie:
You’re plugged into the community as well. Tell me some of the things that you do to give back to this community.

Jamie:
My son James was diagnosed with autism. My heart is with autism awareness, autism acceptance. I raise money for two local organizations here in Myrtle Beach, and I help sponsor events and stuff like that that they do to help kids and families with autism. People that don’t have any ties to the autism community can learn and help accept our children for who they are, just like everyone else wants to be accepted for who they are.

Charlie:
We’re at a minute.

Jamie:
That’s it. So we’re going to get our plates here.

Charlie:
It’s chocolate batter.

Jamie:
It’s chocolate batter and vanilla batter. We make both fresh here in-house.

Charlie:
And a little red color.

Jamie:
A little red color, yeah. And then waffle batter, too. So it’s three batters, we all make them here, and they go in there. It’s like a ratio that I created. So it’s a perfect combination of cake, a cake texture with a waffle taste.

Charlie:
That’ll get you through anything right there.

Jamie:
That’s it.

Charlie:
That looks good, thank you.

Jamie:
Are you ready to eat them?

Charlie:
Yeah, I’m ready to eat them.

Jamie:
All right then. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Charlie:
This looks wonderful.

Jamie:
Thank you.

Charlie:
Now I’m going to try this without the –

Jamie:
Yeah, try it without the syrup. So you can spread the butter out a little bit. It’s good with the syrup. You do need to try just a little bit so it’s not overwhelming.

Charlie:
I’ll put some on in a second, but I want to just taste the waffle first.

Jamie:
And then the butter, we whip it up here. We make fresh whipped butter so it has a little bit of a sweet flavor to it.

Charlie:
I’ve gotta tell you, I’m not a big waffle fan, but this is really good.

Jamie:
Yeah, because I have that cake consistency to it.

Charlie:
Yeah, that is wonderful. I’ll put just a little bit of syrup.

Jamie:
It has that little hint of chocolate you would expect from a red velvet cake without being overwhelming. But I love this, this is one of my favorite. This is my favorite waffle here. Sometimes I’ll put a little chocolate chips on top or inside, or I’ll put a little … it’s something that’s really good with blueberries, fresh fruit on tap, bananas.

Charlie:
Well, thank you, this is wonderful.

Jamie:
Oh, you’re welcome, thank you.

Charlie:
I’m going to dig back in here.

Jamie:
Don’t forget your bacon. I’ve done that, especially-

Charlie:
Don’t worry!