After suffering a week of online backlash to its new streamlined logo design — and a 9% drop in its stock price — the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain finally responded to critics Monday in a statement admitting it “could’ve done a better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be.”
“If the last few days have shown us anything, it’s how deeply people care about Cracker Barrel,” the company said. “We’re truly grateful for your heartfelt voices.”
It was an optimistic take on what has been by any measure a fraught period for the Southern-flavored chain.
The trouble started last week when CEO Julie Felss Masino and her team unveiled the new logo — a simple gold shield with the restaurant’s name in a brown, modernized font — as part of a rebranding campaign that also saw them flying social-media influencers to Manhattan to visit a slick pop-up location and attend a country music concert.
Feiss, a veteran of Starbucks and Taco Bell, was recruited to shake up the retro roadside stop, which had been receiving middling marks on food, value, experience and convenience — and attracting 16% less traffic last year than in 2019.
But her latest move backfired spectacularly, sparking a culture war firestorm that saw some fans accusing Cracker Barrel of abandoning its Americana roots in favor of a sanitized — even “woke” — new look.
Much of the meltdown focused on the features Feiss ditched when she decided to update the Tennessee chain’s longstanding logo: its rustic illustration of an actual barrel and — even more galling, according to detractors — the seated man in overalls who had been casually draping his arm over said barrel ever since the design was first sketched by a Nashville artist in 1977.
The sweeping, $700 million makeover also included a revamped menu and “decluttered” dining rooms, with fewer knickknacks on the walls.
Feiss “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding,” snapped the Woke War Room on X. “She should resign and be replaced with leadership that will restore Cracker Barrel’s tradition.”
The criticism quickly became political after Donald Trump Jr. shared the Woke War Room’s message. Soon conservative activists were accusing Cracker Barrel board members of being DEI activists and telling followers they must “break the Barrel” through boycotts.
Even rival chain Steak ‘n Shake said on X that it “would never market ourselves away from our past in a cheap effort to gain the approval of trend seekers.”
To reassure its customers, Cracker Barrel insisted Monday that its iconic “old-timer” — officially known as Uncle Herschel — is “not going anywhere.”
“We love seeing how much you care about our ‘old timer.’ We love him too,” the company said in its statement. “Uncle Herschel will still be on our menu (welcome back, Uncle Herschel’s Favorite Breakfast Platter), on our road signs, and featured in our country store.”
Cracker Barrel’s nostalgic vibe would stay the same too, the statement said.
“The things people love most about our stores aren’t going anywhere [either]: rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table, unique treasures in our gift shop, and vintage Americana with antiques pulled straight from our warehouse in Lebanon, Tennessee,” it read.
But what about Uncle Herschel (and his barrel) returning to the logo itself?
Cracker Barrel was conspicuously mum on that point, implying instead that the old timer’s banishment was required to refresh the brand for future customers.
“We also want to be sure Cracker Barrel is here for the next generation of families, just as it has been for yours,” the statement read. “That means showing up on new platforms and in new ways.”
Cover thumbnail photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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