Waffle Shop in East Liberty offers syrup and sass

If “The Royal Tenenbaums” director Wes Anderson ever made a reality…

If “The Royal Tenenbaums” director Wes Anderson ever made a reality show, it would look like the Waffle Shop. The word “Waffles” is lit up by round, yellow bulbs, shimmering behind a clean, wooden counter aligned with red bar stools. In the back is a small, but glamorous stage, complete with curvy orange chairs and a talk show desk, almost like Conan O’Brien’s old one.

The menu has four simple waffle styles that are all less than $6.50: the classic, choco, omelet and savory. We decided to save the bananas foster — bananas, vanilla ice cream and brown sugar — for dessert. The menu also included add-ons like whipped cream and strawberries for extra cash.

The Waffle Shop started out as a class at Carnegie Mellon University called the Storefront Project and led by professor Jon Rubin. Rather than sit and paint on canvases in a dank basement, art students at Carnegie Mellon had the opportunity to create a work of art at an abandoned storefront. Over the past three years, projects like these have popped up in the South Side and Garfield, but since 2008, the Waffle Shop has been the most successful shop thus far.

Marci Calabretta, a junior at Carnegie Mellon, waitresses for her work-study job at the Waffle Shop every Friday along with six other students who work as cooks or hosts in the shop. Even though she isn’t an art student herself, she knew something about the goals of the artists.

“Their idea was whatever they’re inspired by, they must create a work of art and then leave it wherever they found the inspiration … the people in Pittsburgh were the inspiration for this, just passersby. That’s why we have the talk show — people on the street, our customers or people from the Shadow Lounge next door are our creative subjects,” she said, referring to one of the store’s pet projects.

The students surveyed the area and, noticing a lack of breakfast establishments, decided a waffle restaurant would be the best way to draw in the community. Since the shop is only open during odd hours of the weekend, customers range from hungry bar hoppers leaving the Shadow Lounge at 2 a.m. to families looking for a nice meal after church.

Occasionally, the shop is rented out to local musicians and performers, and every Sunday at 10 a.m. chef Tom Totin gives cooking lessons.

Customers who enter the shop not only have the opportunity to dine but also to participate in their own TV talk show, which is produced every day the shop is open. The stage is equipped with a camcorder, microphones and a computer, allowing each “episode” to be broadcast on the Waffle Shop’s website. Fans at home can even talk to customers on the talk show through Skype and instant messenger.

Calabretta has experienced some pretty strange moments at the shop, including a lightsaber battle between customers trying to re-enact the “Star Wars” saga on stage.

The shop rents the space from the Shadow Lounge owners and operates through grant funding and waffle sales revenue. It was created by a class budget and money from students themselves.

Dawn Weleski was a former student of Jon Rubin and now works as the shop’s assistant director. She sees the shop as an interdisciplinary space for students of all majors to work creatively with the community.

“The one rule is engage the community that walks in the door,” she said. “An unsuspecting waffle patron is a potential participant for someone’s creative project.”

The shop is planning on expanding next door with the addition of Conflict Kitchen, an Iranian takeout storefront that will sell food from whatever country the United States “is at odds with” at the time. The food will be wrapped in paper printed with cultural and political information on the country provided by foreign journalists and Pittsburgh citizens and compiled by a work-study research writer.

“The idea is to spread to word to the local community and get them up to speed,” Calabretta said. “Like someone who wouldn’t normally pick up a newspaper.”

But before we left, Weleski pointed out the shop’s most recent addition, a public storytelling billboard.

Above the building rested a large sign with black-and-white block letters that read: “People think I’m a ghost. I don’t know. It’s really hard to tell. I’m kind of like a ghost, and I might be invisible.”

It’s a quote from one of the talk shows at the shop, and the space will continue to feature stories from the local and global community through the year.