We like it as well. The nearest one to me just closed it’s doors recently, le sigh…
We go on our trips to New England. There’s one really conveniently located in Sturbridge, MA. It’s pretty busy whenever we’re there.
I as well. We have one about 20 miles from our house and we eat there about 2-3 times a year. The food is certainly not spectacular, but it’s good. And they now serve alcohol. The demographic at this restaurant seems to be old retired farts like me and families with young kids. And they are always busy.
They shoulda just kept the damn barrel.
The new logo looks like a failed attempt to look “modern”. Which would be futile even if done well because the name itself conveys an old-timey image. Ironically, back in March their stock jumped 7.6% in one day after they announced some process changes and new menu items, and they didn’t have to move to an ugly new logo to do it.
One of the best logo modernizations I’ve seen is the change IBM made to its venerable logo many years ago. Historically the logo had been the letters “IBM” rendered in thick block letters, usually in black. The ingenious change was to retain the same look, but render the letters as a series of horizontal lines. It made the appearance much lighter and more modern, and the lines were suggestive of the scan lines of a CRT monitor. Unfortunately with the demise of CRTs that aspect is no longer meaningful, but to my eye the logo still looks great. I bet IBM paid a fortune for that design because that sort of re-design is very hard to do well, as Cracker Barrel is finding out.
I’m wondering if it was calculated: they knew people would hate it, but would get lots of free publicity from the uproar. And then revert back to the original. Genius.
The new logo is only part of the changes that lots of people aren’t happy about. They also are redesigning the interiors and changing menu items. It has been an ongoing concern.
I’ve been to Cracker Barrel maybe a dozen times? They were common when I lived in Kansas, and they have them in Nevada where my wife’s parents live. My wife loves it so we end up going at least once whenever we visit.
I like the restaurant. It’s not exciting, I’ve never been thrilled to go, but I’ve never disliked the food. It’s mostly your standard generic franchise diner like Denny’s or IHOP, except with a few more interesting items on the menu at any given time.
Once they had a “Pimento Cheese Benedict” breakfast item that sounds awful but it was so weird I ordered it anyway and it was freaking delicious. I’d order it every time but it was only on the menu that one time I went and never again.
The little general store attached is also kind of neat. I often find something interesting to buy whenever I go. I have nothing against Cracker Barrel. It’s a decent chain restaurant. But I can see why younger folks might have no interest. It’s all a bit kitschy and deliberately outdated. I’m not surprised that they’re finding themselves needing to adapt. But I’m definitely not going to trash the chain.
I can’t say that I consider Cracker Barrel a destination restaurant when I’m on the road and need a quick sit down breakfast or lunch, but I’ve only eaten at a Cracker Barrel once.
Shouldn’t someone tell these women that the big frame Rachel Maddow glasses is a really bad look? It is bad, stop it!
Yeah, that’s a bad logo. Simplify it if you must, but at least keep the, you know, barrel.
If you need something for an app icon, make that just the barrel, without the words.
Ooh, with a crack in it!
There’s a lonely, out of work mascot that could be revitalized. Take this guy and give him a barrel:
Their menu isn’t exactly helping stop that last bit.
And today I just learned the dude in the old logo is named Uncle Herschel.
This seems to me to be the dumbest rebranding since Dunkin’ Donuts became Dunkin’.
It’s not surprising that CB’s core customers don’t dig the new sterile interiors that resemble those of a bunch of other restaurant chains, and find the revamped logo to be bland and soulless (what the changes have to do with MAGA and DEI is a mystery).
Every other year or so we used to stop at a Cracker Barrel just over the state line in Mass., conveniently located for lunch on our long drive to Maine. Nothing special about the food; the store was worth a quick browse. They had Chunky brand chocolate bars which I haven’t found anywhere else.
Meh, we’ll find something different, avoiding the food deserts along the Interstate through Connecticut.
But it’s OK, he converted.
redacted (just personal anecdote)
Some logos don’t need updating. I don’t think that the Daily Racing Form has updated its logo since 1894, the year it was first published. Yet while old-looking, it is immediately recognizable. So is (was, I guess, now) Cracker Barrel’s.
Cracker Barrel’s new one could be better. IMHO, it would benefit from at least a brown border, like the old one, and if the “k” could connect to the border, as in the old one, that would help also.
I ate at that location just a few months ago!
There are also a couple on I-91, one just north of Hartford, CT and one near Springfield, MA.
I generally like the restaurant, but I hate the new logo. I think they should have left it alone.
Wait. Isn’t that what the Mountain Dew logo is now?
Personally, I think they should license Walt Kelly’s Pogo characters and make the logo an image of Howland “Who” Owl and Albert the Alligator playing checkers on top of a cracker barrel, using crackers as checkers (with Albert handicapping himself by absent-mindedly munching on his own pieces).