We eat at Cracker Barrel at least every month. The one near me has a great cook. They make the best top sirloin steaks. Beautifully charred and pink from edge to edge. Better then any of the local steakhouses except maybe Longhorn. My wife enjoys their rainbow trout. An actual rainbow trout meal with several sides for $10.99 Half the price of Bonefish Grill.
We stopped there today and I was confused about the menu. One page is missing. I don’t know everything they dropped because I don’t order them but there was no fish at all. No trout, no catfish, no haddock. No ham. No. Ham. They are proud of their two types of ham and now there are none. The waitress did point out that the breakfast sampler still had a small slice of ham.
According to her their supply chain cannot provide the ingredients in sufficient quantities. She said they were supposed to be back on track after the first week of January.
As long as Waffle House doesn’t drop their hash browns, me and the chains are cool. But yeah it sucks when a place you’re accustomed to getting nice stuff from stops offering it. (Did I correctly hear that Wendy’s dropped the stuffed baked potatoes?) I’m not close to a Cracker Barrel OR a Waffle House but I hope they all weather the COVID storm and come back with their menu items intact.
Seems like everyone is dropping items, my local Denny’s basically dropped half of its menu. The national menu still lists the missing items but if I try to order online the menu gets severely paired down.
The last time I went to Taco Bell for chicken soft tacos, they told me they were discontinued but they could sell me beef soft tacos and then upcharge for “extra” chicken. Chicken soft tacos at a place called TACO Bell, not some esoteric item! That ain’t no supply chain disruption, that’s sheer greed and bureaucratic* stupidity. “We sell tacos, we sell chicken items, but we can’t sell a chicken taco without a Rube Goldberg work-around that happens to garner us extra $$.”
It felt like the “chicken sandwich, hold the chicken” thing of movie fame, but I did it because it was late in the day, I was hungry, and I was in the drive-through. Not going back to Taco Bell again until some sanity reigns again, though.
*Yes, bureaucratic! “But business can’t be bureaucratic, only government can!” I hear the Randist glibertarians retort. Nope, whenever overly-literal blind adherence to self-devised rules can be used to save the business $ or make it more $$, there private-sector bureaucracy will reign.
I’ve noticed that several places we used to patronize in the good ol’ pre-COVID days have reduced their menu options. I assumed it’s to minimize waste due to reduced sales. I guess we’ll find out when/if the chains survive the plague. I did love the haddock at Cracker Barrel…
Many places seemed to be streamlining their menu. Due to supply chain issues, yes, but also it makes everything easier and faster at a time when staffing issues are also a problem. It also helps move the food supply through faster, so at a time of less guests food stays fresher.
A chicken taco used to be an esoteric item. Taco’s were crispy, burritos were soft, there were no soft tacos, and loaded with beef and/or bean (unless one when to an authentic Mexican restaurant). That was what a taco was at Taco Bell and the general definition of Taco in at least the eastern US. The other forms came out later, which I believe the chicken taco was a early deviant.
I hope they get it sorted out by next summer-- I’d usually stop at Cracker Barrel on the way home after camping with the kids. I’d typically get the grilled catfish with turnip greens and pinto beans. The kids would enjoy the fancy root beer. As phony and cheesy as the place is, I think the food is actually pretty good.
I was all fired up for Outback takeout the other day, only to find they’ve dropped both Prime Rib and blue cheese wedge salad from their menu. It was a disappointing experience. I guess it’s just the times we live in.
I’m wondering how much of this is because of COVID or is simply being blamed on COVID.
In general, a smaller menu is more efficient for the restaurant. Now that management has a handy excuse to blame any- and every-thing on, and one which most customers will readily believe, they may be cutting the less popular items like mad. While knowing their competitors are pulling the same trick.
Cracker Barrel is a good road trip stop. You can get a quickish non-fast-food meal close to the highway and stretch your legs with a walk around the silly gift shop. I like the catfish, too. I used to take advantage of their books on CD rental program on road trips. You could purchase one at a Cracker Barrel, listen to it on the trip or at your leisure, then return it to any Cracker Barrel for the purchase price minus a three or four dollar fee. I don’t know if that program is still in place.
That one definitely seems weird. Tea is incredibly cheap. Even if there is a supply shortage, it would seem odd that it would wind up too expensive. Plus it doesn’t seem any more expensive online.
Could there possibly be sanitary reasons they had to drop it?
I think so, yes. I exaggerated a bit for comedic effect - some (not all) restaurants are still serving tea. But places with open drink service - burrito restaurants, pizza joints, and such - have removed their tea carafes, even if they’ve left their soda fountains. So it’s got to be a question of hygiene.
This thread has blown my mind… I cannot conceive of walking into a place that does good breakfasts, and not ordering breakfast.
So when it’s safe to go back to my Cracker Barrel (y’all hear me, crackers? Mask up and get vaccinated!), I’ll be ordering sunny-side-up eggs and ham and bacon and biscuits with apple butter and sausage gravy and cheesy hashbrowns and fried apples and a biiiiiig bowl of grits!
Chicken soft tacos at a place called TACO Bell, not some esoteric item! That ain’t no supply chain disruption, that’s sheer greed and bureaucratic* stupidity. “We sell tacos, we sell chicken items, but we can’t sell a chicken taco without a Rube Goldberg work-around that happens to garner us extra $$.” 