I remember a restaurant called the Cracker Barrel that had a store in Southern California (lakewood/Long Beach area) sometime in late 70s to early 80s.
When I called the Corporate office, they claimed they have never had a Cracker Barrel in California at all.
I do not think I am wrong. I did inhale, but the stuff couldn’t have been that strong.
Can one of the TM, or even the GCH (Great Cecil Himself) restore my sanity?
There might have been a Cracker Barrel unrelated to the national chain.
There used to be a nearly identical restaurant called Dinner Bell. I don’t know if they merged, if DB went out of business or if they were owned by the same people and just had different names, or what. But maybe that has something to do with it.
Newspapers from 1977-78 show a “Cracker Barrell” restaurant hiring servers, cooks, etc in the Long Beach want ads. Whether it was the current National Chain, I don’t know.
I’m sitting next to my father-in-law, who has lived in Long Beach nearly all his life, and just asked him. He said, “Yeah, we ate there all the time. There were two of them.”
He says that one was on South Street near the 605, and the other was at/near Lakewood & Del Amo. (He now thinks there might have been one at Cherry & Market, too.)
He’s not sure if it was part of the national chain, but doesn’t think he’s ever eaten in one back east to compare. I asked if it had the gift shop in front, and he thinks there was a small one.
There is a restaurant called Cracker Barrel in Pleasanton, CA - apparently unrelated to the national chain- and another called Rosie’s Cracker Barrel in Esquiline. Neither is anywhere near Long Beach, of course.
There was one on Orangethorpe in Fullerton, to my certain knowledge. I passed it almost every day on the way to work.
But, was it related to the Cracker Barrell chain from back East?
A search of the U.S. Patent & Trademark database shows that there was another (besides the Kraft cheese and the current restaurant we’re all familiar with) “Cracker Barrel” trademarked in 1974. There’s no indication of what the trademark was used for – or that it was ever actually used at all. The logo featured and old-fashioned cast iron, pot-bellied stove.
However, the owner of the trademark was Genesco, Corp. of Nashville, a footwear manufacturer since 1924. I can’t find any record that they ever branched into restaurants in California.
The one on South must have morphed into “Honey’s”. Totally unrelated tidbit: It used to be called “Hunny’s” but my wife told the Asian owners that it was spelled wrong. I kid you not, they changed the name of the restaurant to Honey’s, including the signs out front.
Brad, tell your father-in-law that he rocks! I knew I hadn’t lost my mind.
The Lakewood / Del Amo is now a Chevron/McDonald’s…boo hoo…
Now that I looked a bit more, there was definitely NO connection to the Tennessee-based restaurant chain.
The Cracker Barrel at Lakewood/Del Amo was started in July of 1976, had previously been L’s, Papa Bear’s, and Tiny Naylor’s. It was owned by a Mr. Stanley Wong. It was more of a steak house/chop house/fish house, open 24 hrs/day, and tried to be all things to all people.