Is it actually old stuff, bought at a thousand garage sales or antique stores, or is it new stuff mass-produced to look old? Does every Cracker Barrel restaurant have the exact same antique Coca Cola signs, faded black-and-white portraits of farmers in their Sunday best, and framed Bing Crosby album covers?
A mixture. A lot of the signs are new. A few years ago I had occasion to visit a factory in Chicago that was mass producing “old” porcelain enamel signs.
Almost all of the antique and nostalgic decorations seen in restaurants, especially in chain restaurants, is available through restaurant supply stores. Almost all of it is recently manufactured.
You mean somewhere in China they’re making Wurlitzer C melody saxophones with no necks and pre-drilled mounting holes to hang 'em on the wall? Or color litho calendars from Schmeckenheimer’s Implement Co., Phone 14, with the date pads pre-yellowed for March, 1937?
I can’t speak for other stores but Cracker Barrel seems to have authentic junk on their walls/
Ah, thanks for the link! I hadn’t found that when I did a search. Ignorance fought.
I have seen the “new-vintage” signs and the ads for such signs and etc. That does not mean Cracker Barrel buys from those companies, just that the material is available.
According to the Cracker Barrel, anyway.
I have to admit I took the question to be about restaurants in general. My fault, it is explicitly about Cracker Barrel. Based on Cecil’s report, I am now more inclined to eat at a Cracker Barrel should I encounter one, simply because of the effort they put into using genuine ‘old stuff’.
They are making some things that look like the genuine products. Some of the musical instruments were originally manufactured as stage props. This does not refer to Cracker Barrel. Until I hear from a more authoritative voice than Cecil’s (the existence of such a thing has not been proven), I will accept that Cracker Barrel’s decorations are genuine junk.
Some of the farm impliments I’ve seen at our 2 local CB’s are real. I mentioned knowing what a good portion of those things were for and the managers telling me where they’d been purchased [flea markets, estate sales], and which ones were reproductions.
I would also guess that one hell of a lot of Nehi signs and farm implements were produced over the course of the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. I mean, it’s not like we’re talking about the Spear of Destiny here; much of the stuff I’ve seen at Cracker Barrels clearly dates to times when mass production manufacturing was already well established–though some of the stuff they have is from as early as the 19th Century, a lot of it dates to at least as late as the 1940’s.
(I have this vision of some 22nd century restaurant–maybe on a space station or at a Moonbase or something–with the walls adorned with iPods and microwave ovens and 1990’s style car phones and Brita water purifiers and early generation Macintosh computers.)
Do you remember the Cafe Eighties in Back To The Future II? I went to visit the Smithsonian Museum and they had an Apple II that is identical to the one in my closet.
I’ve seen Atari 2600 and NES systems attached to the walls of some TGI Friday locations, next to the old prop plane propellers and leather football helmets. Makes me feel old.
As for Cracker Barrel, some local sites have had old signing on the walls from historical local businesses. Unless repro folks have decided there’s a killing to be made in Vonnegut Hardware, Hook’s, and Haag Drugs, I’m inclined to think that they buy and use real memorabilia for their stores. (And I do think the nod to local history is a nice gesture.)
The only place I’ve seen do it right, is Mike’s Place in Kent, Ohio.
A bus, an antique soap-box derby racing car, much, much more. All real and all local. Plus an X-Wing outside!
Ah, yes, Mike’s. The longest menu in the world, and the most “abusive” staff. 
Whenever we go to one of those “Ruby Fridaybee’s” places, my husband always takes note of the squashed brass instruments on the wall and tells me the manufacturer, model, and usually the year, city of origin and key. “That’s a pre-1920 Cleveland King C baritone.” “Does it play?” “No, look, the valve casings are gone.” 
Then we take a moment of silence.
Cracker Barrel headquarters are only a few miles from here (Lebanon, TN, just east of Nashville). They have a big warehouse of vintage signs/items which they send out to newly opened stores. A previous co-worker of mine used to work for CB and she said that indeed, they had people on staff who would travel around to flea markets, antique stores and garage sales to collect the stuff.
Ok, how great of a job would THAT be? I would LOVE to do that!
About ten years ago, I met a woman who did that for a living. She was dating a friend of mine. She said it was great - she said that otherwise she figured she would probably be a hoarder, since she felt compelled to buy junk like that anyway. At least this way she got paid to do it. She would travel all over the southeast looking for that junk.
I wish I remembered more. I bet someone on this board’s done it. Seems we have one of everything.
An antique dealer told me that Restoration Hardware sends photographers to swap meets and flea markets to take pictures of “antique-y Americana” stuff. They use the pictures to design brand new fake antiques, which they sell to yuppies and hipsters.