At a Waffle House in Atlanta, cooks were busy pouring waffle batter and flipping hash browns around noon on Tuesday when a message flashed on the two cash registers at the counter: “Due to the nationwide rise in the cost of eggs,

While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” the Atlanta-based restaurant said.

Waffle House has announced a new surcharge of 50 cents per egg in response to rising egg prices caused by a nationwide shortage.