Noooooo!

The first Cracker Barrel restaurant opened on September 19, 1969, near Lebanon, Tennessee, on the Gallatin Highway 109 exit just off Interstate 40. (This was close to my folks home at the time.) It was founded by Dan Evins, who created the concept to attract highway travelers by combining a restaurant with a gift store, modeled after the traditional country stores of the American South. The original location served Southern cuisine, including biscuits, grits, country ham, and turnip greens, and was initially built as a restaurant-gas station combo to boost fuel sales.

The gas pumps didn’t last, but the original idea for Cracker Barrel lasted for 56 years as a place where you could get away from sterile franchise restaurants to enjoy a family style meal in a comfortable atmosphere with a wood fire during the Winter months. Even though all the restaurants had odd artifacts and pictures on their walls, they were all different.

When people saw the original logo with the old gentleman sitting next to a cracker barrel, they knew what they would get that was special and comfortably different from other restaurants.

For some reason, the management of Cracker Barrel wants to change that. The new logo has the same sterile feel of McDonalds.

What’s worst is the new sterile feel of the restaurant itself. This could be a Chilis or Applebees. It’s definitely not Cracker Barrel.

If they continue with this it could be another Bud Light experience. The stock price is down over 7%.

Dan Evins has to be rolling over in his grave.