Southerners love their Waffle House, and now Atlanta residents have a rare chance to see where the institution that put "smothered and covered" in the lexicon started.

The Waffle House Museum is not often open to the general public, but it will be this weekend.

From the outside, the store on East College Avenue in Decatur looks like an older Waffle House, but the rubber bacon on the grill makes it very clear this is not the modern-day Atlanta staple.

"This is the very first Waffle House location," said Waffle House Archivist Julia Bushman. "We opened Labor Day 1955, and this is what we looked like when we first opened. It's a recreation all the way down to the stools."

The Waffle House Museum hosts open houses four times a year on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and this weekend is one of them. It's your chance to step inside the time capsule, and of course, have a waffle.

"Look at the prices," Bushman said, pointing to a menu. "Waffle and sausage for 65 cents, just so we're clear on what's happening here. Inflation!"

In addition to the nostalgic feel, you can learn some fun facts, too.

"We are on a handshake agreement with Coca-Cola. We've been serving them since day one," Bushman said.

There's also some interesting history about another Georgia-based fast food chain.

"S. Truett Cathy, the Chick-fil-A founder, used to test his chicken recipe around Atlanta, and we were one of those restaurants," Bushman said. "It didn't last too long after he patented the recipe."

The Waffle House staff had to make the chicken in the back instead of the grill out front because the recipe was a secret!

Next to the replica restaurant is where you can find all of Waffle House's paraphernalia — is there a better word to describe what we're seeing? Did you know that Waffle House has its own record label?

"In the 80s, we wanted to enhance the customer experience and add some songs about Waffle House to our jukeboxes," Bushman said.

All tours are self-guided, and no appointment is needed during the open house. You can learn more about the Waffle House Museum and Saturday's event here.