It would be nice if every single small thing did not now have to become a pawn in a ginned-up culture war. However, the Tennessee-based restaurant chain Cracker Barrel attempted a rebrand, and according to some people with biscuits for brains, its new logo was “woke.” There is so much to be outraged about. This wasn’t it.
For decades, Cracker Barrel’s gold-and-brown signs pictured a white guy in overalls sitting on an old-timey ladder-back chair and leaning on a barrel. The words “Cracker Barrel” appeared in an almost groovy, slightly rococo font on a background shape somewhere between kidney bean and artist’s palette. It was certainly unusual. It stood out.
The bland new logo featured the restaurant’s name against a barrel-inspired golden shape a little more sloped than Golden Corral’s sign, a little rounder than Denny’s, but not that different from either. As many people quipped, the company went and removed both the cracker and the barrel. The chain is also updating some of its interiors, ditching antique country kitsch and dark wood walls for updated country kitsch and painted white walls. This was a refresh for a restaurant founded in 1969. People reacted as if a historic landmark were being defaced.
“Heritage is what got Cracker Barrel this far, and now the CEO wants to just scrape it all away,” read a post on the X account for Steak n Shake, whose chairman, Sardar Biglari, is a Cracker Barrel investor who has tried multiple times to take control of the company.
“WTF is wrong with @CrackerBarrel??!,” posted known Chicken Fried Chicken fan Donald Trump Jr. more succinctly.
Well, the company’s growth had slowed. Customer traffic was down. Some of its 600-plus stores had closed in recent years. “We’re just not as relevant as we once were,” said CEO Julie Felss Masino last year. Cracker Barrel’s core audience loves its nostalgic vibe, but the restaurant needs to bring in new customers, too. So it implemented a strategic plan that seemed to be paying off (at least until stocks tanked after the brouhaha). Updating the brand and its stores was part of that.
Cracker Barrel had faced similar blowback before. There was that time it added meatless sausage to its menus. There were those rainbow rocking chairs on its porches during Pride month. These things look to me like a national restaurant making itself more welcoming, not less. Here the company had certainly changed over the years — perhaps in part because it promised to do so after a 2004 Department of Justice investigation found its restaurants discriminated against Black people, segregating seating and allowing white servers to refuse to serve Black customers, among other allegations.
If this is the heritage the CEO wanted to scrape away, good riddance.
But President Donald Trump had something to say about the matter. “Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before,” he posted. “Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again. Remember, in just a short period of time I made the United States of America the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World.”
The White House posted its own version of Cracker Barrel’s logo, with Trump sitting in the old-timey chair. Instead of “Cracker Barrel,” the bean/palette in the background read “America First.” The words “Old Country Store” beneath were replaced by the words “America Is Back.” I wonder if the country store sells dog whistles.
Cracker Barrel reversed course and brought the old logo back.
Have you been to a Cracker Barrel recently? As it happens, I have. A few weeks ago, a friend was in Northampton for a conference. We decided to meet halfway, planning to find a place for a swim on a hot afternoon. Instead, we found the Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge. She lives in Oregon, where last year Cracker Barrel closed the last of its five in-state stores. Her eyes widened when she saw the sign.
Soon enough, we were inside, where the AC was blasting gloriously. She ordered chicken and dumplings with mashed potatoes and turnip greens. I had Momma’s Breakfast, available all day: pancakes, eggs, and bacon. The food was not the best, starchy and salty. But there was plenty of it, and we got out of there for $43.08 after drinks and tip. People mostly come to Cracker Barrel for value and convenience, because it’s nearby or on the way to where they’re headed.
Some would have their followers believe otherwise. “The Cracker Barrel story is not about a logo,” said social media personality Robby Starbuck in a video that criticizes the company for its DEI policies and LGBTQ+-positive stance. “It is about a country, it is about our heritage, and it is about our culture. It’s about a power structure built to tell us that we are somehow backwards, embarrassing, or bigoted. That whiteness or American pride is something to be ashamed of or hidden at all costs.”
It was very much about a logo, until the involvement of those who would define American pride so narrowly.
Lunch at Cracker Barrel showed me why they care.
The clientele ran the gamut: People of all races. Senior citizens and families with toddlers. People speaking Spanish. Old hippies. Queer couples. Country music fans. Our server looked exhausted at the end of her shift, but she was sassy and sweet as pie, and told us to stay as long as we wanted after we paid. Everyone was chatting it up, eating side by side, coexisting without a second thought. We were all equally welcome.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what’s on the sign. There’s a seat for everyone at the table, and that’s not going to change.
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devra_first.