# Cracker Barrel adds Impossible Sausage to their menu, conservatives lose their minds **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 4, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101 "2022-08-04T17:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/181 "2022-08-07T15:48:49Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Now, if **Waffle House** starts offering Impossible Sausage, then we’ll be seeing riots in the streets. 😃 - At least _something_ won’t have flies on it. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/182 "2022-08-07T15:53:29Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > At least _something_ won’t have flies on it. I distinctly remember a court case where Waffle House was sued for racial discrimination because they served some black patrons grits with flies in them. The patrons claimed the flies were from one of these UV insect traps and deliberately placed in their food. The Waffle House defense pretty much boiled down to “We’re Waffle House, a lot of our grits have flies in them.” I don’t remember the outcome of the case, but it was quite an admission. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/183 "2022-08-07T16:07:42Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > You know, I’d have expected an Italian like Vinnie to recognize polenta. Well, different color and texture, but definitely close cousins. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/184 "2022-08-07T16:10:09Z")
All I could find was a motion to dismiss. > **[Gilyard v. Northlake Foods, Inc., 367 F. Supp. 2d 1008 | Casetext Search +...](https://casetext.com/case/gilyard-v-northlake-foods)** > > Read Gilyard v. Northlake Foods, Inc., 367 F. Supp. 2d 1008, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext’s comprehensive legal database And a thread. > [@Were these magic grits?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-these-magic-grits/307632): > > [Waffle House is being sued](http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bf/fra/20050607/20050607gilyard.html) by five patrons who claim they were the victims of racial discrimination. The suit has just survived a motion to dismiss. While I think the denial of the motion to dismiss was the correct call, I think the arguments made for dismissal are going to turn out to be compelling. Waffle House would have to have kept a separate pot of fly-infested grits in order to have done what they are accused of: serve flies pre-cooked into the grits to only these customers. (Or, of cour… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/185 "2022-08-07T16:10:46Z")
Wow. Which is a better look: “We’re racist” or “We serve food with flies in it to _everyone_”? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/186 "2022-08-07T16:12:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “We serve food with flies in it to _everyone_” For Waffle House, that’s a feature, not a bug. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/187 "2022-08-07T16:13:10Z")
I see your compassion meter may not be perfectly calibrated either. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/188 "2022-08-07T16:20:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Answered upthread, but yes, they really did exist as a thing – soda crackers were shipped to stores in barrels, and the term came to be used for sitting around said barrel and talking. So what did they do - eat crackers out of the open barrel, or what? Sounds a bit dry. Especially with no beer. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/189 "2022-08-07T16:27:53Z")
The empty barrels were turned open side down and used as tables. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/190 "2022-08-07T16:29:51Z")
Around the barrel it was just talk. Until someone wanted to but some crackers. Then the manager/sales drone/guy who owned the place would open the barrel, remove enough crackers to fill the order, reseal the barrel and the bullshitting would recommence. The crackers bought would be stale, of course, so you had to rebake them at home to make them crisp again. My grandmother told me stories about such things. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/191 "2022-08-07T16:34:50Z")
(Bolding mine) > [@bump](#): > > Why? Because they thought people would want to eat that sort of food in that sort of atmosphere. They weren’t carrying some sort of rural torch. Which is why this whole outcry about Impossible Sausage is so silly- they’re doing the exact same thing- they believe that people will want to eat that for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. Which is the one common thread about all restaurants- their goal is to sell food- the “set dressing” is just there to make you comfortable/amused/intrigued while you order and eat your food. **It’s not a cultural statement or declaration of principles** or anything stupid like that, especially not in a nationwide, highway-centered chain. Absolutely! However, what I see from the Culture Warriors is a sense that in fact _everything_ is a statement of values and/or a cultural endorsement, and especially among the conservative side of the Culture War that it is a zero-sum situation thus _any_ inclusion of something even just _associated_ with a different sociocultural worldview is a direct denigration of _theirs_ and a step in the slippery slope that must be fought. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/192 "2022-08-07T16:40:15Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I’m not sure how many Americans want a [truly authentic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWC0sKCS5oA) small Southern diner experience. Love that movie. And it’s not a throwaway scene. It’s grist for Vinny’s defense mill. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/193 "2022-08-07T16:40:29Z")
‘Interuptin’ our checker match so you can sell things? What kinda general store are you runnin’ here Billy-Bob? Are you gettin woke?’ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/194 "2022-08-07T17:09:39Z")
There’s probably a doctoral thesis or three that could be done on the discussions that took place in general stores as opposed to hardware stores as opposed to quilting bees as opposed to tamale-making as opposed to etc., etc. Both across time and across cultures. Could be fascinating. But I’ll bet all of them were complaining about “things these days…” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/195 "2022-08-07T17:36:52Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > I see your compassion meter may not be perfectly calibrated either. When I first read this, I was baffled. I couldn’t understand what point you were trying to make, or what you found objectionable about my post. After thinking about it, I maybe? see where you were coming from—you thought perhaps I was making light of the treatment received by those Black Waffle House patrons, or of the justifiable outrage over it, or of racial discrimination in general? If so, I apologize: that wasn’t what I intended. I was just amazed and amused that a company would respond to an accusation of being horrible and awful by saying, in effect, “No, we’re horrible and awful in a _completely different way_.” ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/196 "2022-08-07T17:49:14Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I was just amazed and amused that a company would respond to an accusation of being horrible and awful by saying, in effect, “No, we’re horrible and awful in a _completely different way_.” I was just amazed and amused that you, apparently, think that, “_We intentionally put flies in Black people’s food because we are racist!_” and “_We serve food with flies in it to everyone!_” (Which I can’t not read as "We can’t keep every fucking fly out of the food. THEY’RE FUCKING FLIES. Maybe you noticed we don’t have decontamination door-locks to kill all the non-human life y’all are allowing into the store?) aren’t so totally different that the comparison isn’t possible. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/197 "2022-08-07T18:11:16Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Which is the one common thread about all restaurants- their goal is to sell food- the “set dressing” is just there to make you comfortable/amused/intrigued while you order and eat your food. It’s not a cultural statement or declaration of principles or anything stupid like that, especially not in a nationwide, highway-centered chain. Believing it to be so is just stupid. Companies put a lot of effort into making their brand seem “made _just for you_”. People like to feel special, so I wouldn’t say the customers are idiots for believing what every company wants every customer to feel about their brand. The marketing worked. Cracker Barrel simply failed to read the shift in their customer base, that for rural white people, “just for you” now means “just for you, and nothing for anyone else.” To be candid, the reaction is shocking but not surprising. I can’t imagine how Cracker Barrel didn’t see this coming. If you’d asked me a month ago “what would Cracker Barrel customers do if you added a menu item that was overtly vegetarian/vegan”, I’d have predicted that they’d lose their shit. Anyone would have guessed that! I guess it’s possible that Cracker Barrel judged that a few people would resent the change, throw a hissy fit, and then go back to normal consumption patterns after a few weeks, while most customers wouldn’t give it a second thought. We don’t know what percent of customers are represented by the aggrieved squeaky-wheels we’re hearing from. Or maybe they’re just a dumb bad company with dumb bad customers, and all involved parties are getting what they deserve. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/198 "2022-08-07T18:53:20Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > you’d asked me a month ago “what would Cracker Barrel customers do if you added a menu item that was overtly vegetarian/vegan”, I’d have predicted that they’d lose their shit. Anyone would have guessed that! You mean like the salads they selll, the “Country Vegetable Plate” (an entree composed of four side dishes), or the separate bowls of beans or greens that someone can get as a meal? Those are all distinctly vegetarian or vegetarian-esque. That’s my entire point- they’re doing what sells, and people apparently want those things, or they wouldn’t waste the menu space on them. I think the mental failure is on the part of the people bitching about it- it’s like they have decided that a restaurant chain that serves ‘country’ food and has a ‘country store’, is a de-facto proponent of their specific values and also _against_ the stuff they’re against. Which is absurd- like I’ve been saying, they’re a huge nationwide company, and their primary loyalty is to shareholders, not some nebulous idea of being “country” that never actually was, and is only in their stores as a sort of “set dressing” to get people in the door. They’re going to sell what people want to eat, which apparently includes such old-timey breakfast favorites as “spicy chicken sausage”(?) , grilled chicken tenders, egg whites, and down home coffee like vanilla and caramel lattes. These dipshits on the right have decided that Impossible Sausage is somehow more “woke” than all that other stuff that’s clearly aimed at the health-conscious, and are griping about it for all the wrong reasons, despite Cracker Barrel having a fair chunk of their menu aimed at the health-conscious and/or vegetarian crowd. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/199 "2022-08-07T18:57:51Z")
Did not want that reply to go unappreciated. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101/200 "2022-08-07T18:58:43Z")
Thanks! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cracker-barrel-adds-impossible-sausage-to-their-menu-conservatives-lose-their-minds/969101.md?page=11)