Cracker Barrel

Those rocking chairs are so funny. Everyone looks like a Snuffy Smith cartoon sitting in them. My grandma used to love the chicken fried steak, but it’s too greasy for me.

Thank you for finding it necessary to tell us that the many black people I've seen at Cracker Barrel do not exist.

No, I don't eat there. The food is terrible, including the biscuits. But you don't know what a good biscuit tastes like, do you? And you certainly don't know how to bake one, right, Miss Consumer Trash?

The only reason to go there is to buy kitsch and retro items at their stores.

Yes, but the food is so good! I became somewhat addicted when I was doing my Masters in Indiana.

Cracker Barrel is great for a chain. We have one of the rocking chairs on our deck. It's comfortable.

What is this place? And where can I find one?

The company has a poor history on treatment of gay employees.

And the food sucks. Rather go to Luby's.

I don't think Luby's serves breakfast though. We were just driving by and were hungry so we stopped.

I'm aware of their poor history with their gay employees, but there were lots of protests (kiss-ins), until they supposedly changed their personnel procedures. Boycotts are pointless if the offending companies don't experience some benefit from changing their policies. So, if Chik=Fil-A were to ever change their policies, I guess I would try giving them some business, but not a dime before then. Anyway, when my parents were still alive, I used to take them to Cracker Barrel, since it was the only place that served vegetables cooked to the right level of doneness (nearly mushy) that my Mom preferred. She always hated those "crisp-tender" vegetables that are now standard. It's an okay place for comfort food, I guess.

I never understood if it was a store or a restaurant. There’s one nextdoor to a Starbucks that I frequent, but I’ve never been in it. The customers walking in all appear to have BMI’s greater than 40.

Their food is actually really good - bland, but good. There's a Cracker Barrel near my mom's, and it's her favorite place to go when I visit. I can't lie, I look forward to eating there.

They sell the rocking chairs. How much are they?

Do they serve alcohol?

they’re a FAMILY restaurant, r12.

^ so, yes!🥃🍷🥂🍺🍹🥂

I got raped in the restroom there in 2018

[quote]when I was doing my Masters in Indiana

Surely your master's degree isn't in English.

I can't get passed their overall approval (and documented cases) of firing gay and lesbian employees - despite that it was 25 years ago. That culture doesn't change that quickly.

There are other places to spend my money.

R17

“Can’t get passed”

Oh dear oh dear tsk tsk tsk!!!!!

They've recently started expanding into California ... the only ones in southern Calif. are in Rialto (near San Bernardino) and Victorville (on I-15 heading to Vegas.)

My mother loves Cracker Barrell so I've been a lot when I go down to see her.

It's okay for a chain, bland as someone else noted, but serviceable.

Hate their food. Hate it.

Why would anyone subject themselves to bland food if they didn't have to?

I don't think so R12.

It's hard to fuck up breakfast food R22.

Racist Op. Imagine saying bunch of black people.

Just went there. Plenty of Black people go there. Delicious and cheap

it's a horror

Order of biscuits, white gravy and some sausage. Best breakfast ever.

R2 overreact much?

The one I sent to had nothing but a bunch of fat black people. Strange.

We stop in when we are on road trips.

It is Peak Flyoverstan

I like Cracker Barrel Cause they put out Halloween candy in July. I Stock up on the candy corn pumpkins 🎃

R19 Camarillo, too.

[quote]The one I sent to had nothing but a bunch of fat black people. Strange

Are you sure you weren’t at the Golden Corral?

Hometown Buffet

So OP, how was the T room action?

The breakfast potato casserole is outstanding.

Delicious trout

What’s wrong with white people or fat people? How do you feel OP about fat black people? Fat asian people? Not ok that you are Judging people

The Machine Shed is more Cracker Barrel than Cracker Barrel.

What were you expecting, OP? If it wasn't a bunch of pasty-faced tubbies, I'd wonder if they had finally started attracting a new base.

The only surprise I recall was on my only visit to one---deputies were bringing a prisoner out of the men's room in shackles. You don't see that every day anywhere.

r36, see r15.

I find it strange they have a history of firing gay workers, since it seems that every time I've gone to one, starting in the 1990s, I almost always get a very camp obviously gay waiter.

OP, are you a great big fat obese white person, or a great big fat obese person of color?

Either way, I betting you're getting more than your share of big, buttery biscuits.

I go to the one by me once or twice a year just to check out the general store/gift shop. They have some neat things. Then I go to the front porch and just rock away in one of the rocking chairs for about an hour and watch the traffic go by and people watch as I drink my Starbucks. I usually don't eat there.

The veggies are almost always overcooked -- green beans, peas, carrots, spinach, corn... disgusting. Even blackeye peas are mush. Chicken friend steak might as well be a salt lick. We only go there cuz my husband's mom likes it.

You are not a southerner r46

You are not a southerner r46

R46, I'm Midwestern, and my Mom liked their overcooked vegetables. In the summer, we almost always had a big pot of green beans cooked with onions and ham until everything was soft. I know how to cook green beans the French way, but the green beans I grew up eating are very reassuring to me.

I'm a Southerner and their veggies are SHIT. I stick to mashed potatoes and gravy and/or Mac and Cheese at CB. If you want similar style food that is much better I recommend the local chains Lizard's Thicket, if you are travelling through Columbia, SC, or Folk's if you are traveling through Atlanta.

I grew-up in the Midwest and we didn't overcook our vegetables and we don't go for booze and dope.

Cracker Barrel is white trash shit food. Luby's is far better.

I remember loving it as a kid. I’ve gone back a few times recently as an adult and while I still like the decor and atmosphere, the food was disappointing - bland and greasy. Not gross - just very plain.

I bet y’all are arugula-eating northern elites

Good video.

I can't imagine how trashy r54 is that they think someone eating argula is an insult.

It’s a huge insult In American culture. So much so that Obama tried to be seen eating hamburgers and fried foods after it was reported he ate arugula during the 2008 campaign. Since then, arugula-eating has been hurled as a slur against cultural elitism.

Supposedly they no longer hunt down and fire their gay employees.

“ Arugula-gate, as it inevitably came to be called, was immediately deemed a gaffe—a sign that Obama was an out-of-touch elitist. (The New York Times noted that there wasn’t a Whole Foods in all of Iowa.) And throughout the rest of the campaign, the candidate’s taste in food would often be used as a class-signifying cudgel against him. After watching him not finish a breakfast of waffles and sausages during a stop in Pennsylvania, Maureen Dowd did what Maureen Dowd does and wrote, “[T]his is clearly a man who can’t wait to get back to his organic scrambled egg whites.”

But one person’s gaffe is another person’s dog whistle and, for a certain type of voter, Obama’s arugula reference revealed a kindred spirit. It outed him as a foodie, perhaps even a member of “the food movement.” To these people, food is more than a lifestyle issue or even a cultural one; it’s political. They care about how their food tastes, but also where it comes from and what it is doing to their bodies, their communities, and their planet. They like their veggies sustainably grown and their meat humanely raised.”

Their French toast is really good. When you eat out, you take your chances.

I'm fairly sure there was arugula in the last house salad I got from Cracker Barrel.

Hot button issue

[Quote]It’s a huge insult In American culture

In Deploraville, not in anywhere cultured.

R62 That was in 2009, arugula has become much more common around the country in the last ten years.

[quote]It's hard to fuck up breakfast food

I disagree, having eaten at Bob Evans.

[quote]The veggies are almost always overcooked

[quote]I'm a Southerner and their veggies are SHIT.

Anyone who calls vegetables "veggies" deserves to eat overcooked shit.

i like their hashbrown casserole

The food is not that good, any more.

[quote]The one I sent to had nothing but a bunch of fat black people

Probably depends on demographics,

[quote]What’s wrong with white people or fat people? How do you feel OP about fat black people? Fat asian people? Not ok that you are Judging people

I can only assume you are joking. This is DL.

crack whores

Isn't their deal that they're kind of a better alternative to the fast food at rest stops?

They always seem to be located right off a major highway and that's the only time I've ever been to one--on a road trip and your only choices are Cracker Barrel or Roy Rogers/Burger King at the rest stop.

The food is what it is and last time I was there they seemed to be trying to add some "healthy" options. But as noted above, eggs are eggs and theirs are pretty tasty.

R17 You seriously don’t believe a corporate culture can change in 25 years time?

If someone doesn’t like Cracker Barrel then fine. But, it’s stupid to hold that they were anti gay against them 25 years later.

R17 You seriously don’t believe a corporate culture can change in 25 years time?

If someone doesn’t like Cracker Barrel then fine. But, it’s stupid to hold that they were anti gay against them 25 years later.

R17 You seriously don’t believe a corporate culture can change in 25 years time?

If someone doesn’t like Cracker Barrel then fine. But, it’s stupid to hold that they were anti gay against them 25 years later.

The name of the place says everything...

Not only did they stop firing gay workers, at one point they sponsored Nashville gay pride. Also their hash brown au gratin was like crack. The front room shit was supposed to be a little like a feed store, but they have de-emphasized it.

I always assumed their demographic was pretty much deplorables only - the name speaks for itself, doesn't it? I've never even thought about eating there.

I always assumed their demographic was pretty much deplorables only - the name speaks for itself, doesn't it? I've never even thought about eating there.

CrackWhore Barrel may've done it first, but we're LOTS more homophobic than they ever were or ever will be.

They have some cute retro things in the gift shop. Vintage candies, toys etc. Its good for a last minute host gift en route.

I hear the thing to do is get a muffin GRILLED at Cracker Barrel. I've only been once and didn't know at the time. I was thoroughly unimpressed.

How is their trout and farmed catfish? Those dishes sound appealing.

Thanks for the warning about the overcooked vegetables. I'd choose another side.

hashbrown casserole if you go r82

R1 I will never understand 'chicken fried steak' but I know it's popular. Why would a person bread and fry a perfectly good steak? Unless it's NOT perfectly good?

R84, Think Wienerschnitzel. German immigrants in the Texas Hill County made it popular.

Bump

Folks love fried food. Period

Cracker Barrel is decent road trip food, when your options are limited. Much better than the usual fast food garbage like McDonalds.

They have the best old time candy in the store part. You Vermont Country Store queens would lap it up!

Thank you R88

I'm kind of shocked that people go there when they're NOT on a road trip

I wasn’t raped there.

r91 Well how was the floor, was it clean?

r91 Try Howard Johnson's next time.

R99, Hasbrown casserole sounds like funeral potatoes which is way too high fat to me. Recipes are online.

Chicken fried stead is typically made from a very tough cut of beef that's been pounded to make it much thinner. Swiss steak is not made from your typical steak cut either.

Thanks for the tip, so to speak.

More!

Me so hungry

Who in the hell thinks their biscuits and gravy are good? YUCK! The biscuits are like hockey pucks and the gravy tastes like flour paste. When they ask if you want biscuits or corn muffins you should tell them you'd like seared sour dough. That's pretty good. The grilled chicken tenderloins are palatable. I only go there once in a great while. The place is always packed with a 20+ minute wait. Don't go near a Cracker Barrel on a Sunday near the time churches let out.

R98 their beef gravy is ok, but their sawmill gravy is crap. The only way to eat their biscuits is to ask for apple butter and fill them full of it, because otherwise they have no taste.

Mind still blown that Flyoverstanis go there when they're not on road trips

The better place to go on road trips is the Waffle House!

I've tried to make their hashbrown casserole, but I can't quite get it as good as theirs. I have a cousin that works as a waitress at a Cracker Barrel and she won't tell me anything about their exact way of making it.

Delicious fried okra

R102 there are about 2 lbs of butter in each batch. No kidding. Same with those apples they serve.

R102, Check out this recipe with the 2 cups of sour cream and a lot of butter along with frozen hash brown potatoes. Oh and don't forger to add the cream of chicken soup. Recipe got 5.0 out of 5 stars online.

Healthier recipes at the same linked, "Dinner Then Dessert."

Can you use something other than condensed cream of chicken soup? It’s loaded with sodium and chemicals.

Roadhouse rounders

Mary at R106, perhaps the Cracker Barrel hash brown casserole isn’t for you.

Couldn’t you use heavy cream? And chicken stock?

R106, I'm opposed to Campbell's cream of whatever soup as well. Always substitute a thick cream sauce made with garlic, onions, tumeric, a bit of Louisiana hot sauce.

Skip all else and settle for a plate of blackberry cobbler.

Peach cobbler bruh

As noted, I think, Cracker Barrel HAS greatly improved its standing with gay people and has apologized (!) for its past stance.

I get retro candy and other things from their website, so I don't go in. I posted earlier (it sounded terrible rather than snooty, and I apologize for that, since I'm crediting CB for the power of the "sorry").

From the past, the best Cracker Barrel I ate at was in Lincoln, Illinois. Except all their kitchen smoke blew into the ventilation at the motel I was staying in so it was like being in a house fire where Granny ran out of the house with chicken and dumplings on the stove.

The worst (and last time I ate at one) is in Joplin "Gateway to Oklahoma/Home of the Killer Tornado!), Missouri. Those biscuits the OP likes were half dripping in something that smelled like sweat. The chicken was loaded with what seemed like fishbones (someone had a cleaver attack, I guess, and splintered it to sharp shards) and the "greens" were both canned and swimming in pond water.

If I want suspect country cooking I'll head for Aunt Bets's trailer. She's still fighting to get off the meth and there always is cigarette ashes in her red-eye gravy.

R110, understood. No one of any sense touches Campbell's (or any) canned soup for sauces.

Except with retro/vintage mid-to-late 20th century comfort and "fancy" recipes where commercial ingredients are part of the "fun." I don't substitute hand-cut, diced and formed spudlet balls, a fine Mornay, good cheese for topping and Westphalia ham when I'm making a "Tater Tot Arkansas Funeral Casserole" for a Suburban Frau Pot Luck benefit for the Ingrown Toenail Foundation.

Look up "concrete thinking, though, hon. And smile! And DON'T ever order the grits at Cracker Barrel.

Now let it be known I have NEVER in my life eaten anything at Cracker Barrel. Completely and utterly vile food. And to be honest I'm down in the Atlanta metro area and The Atlanta Brekfast Club is more my speed.

R114, What's wrong with the grits at Cracker Barrel? Or am I missing a joke?

I've known too many people who think fancy cooking is adding a topping to Campbell's Cream of Whatever soup. The only Campbell's soup I ever liked was their vegetarian alphabet soup BEFORE they changed their recipe and started way overcooking it and adding "modern" additives and fake flavorings.

Believe in cooking from scratch, and expect the same when I eat in restaurants.

R116 To me their grits are too gritty, proper grits should be creamy.

I do use a can of Campbell's French Onion Soup when cooking a beef roast in the crock pot. Just brown the meat, place it in the crock pot, pour the can of soup over it, and cook. . It is very tasty, especially for pot roast sandwiches.

R117, Thanks for the heads up re the grits. I'd like to try eating at Cracker Barrel just once but would go for lunch.

Pot roast is one of my specialties but I use sauteed onions, carrots, garlic and lots of seasonings. We have a rosemary bush at my condo complex and I help trim it a little when I cook.

R118 I cook mine like that, when I'm making an actual pot roast. But, I use the soup can version when I want a quick pot roast to make tailgating sandwiches or the like.

r118 No one needs to hear about your trimmed bush on a thread about food.

some people had us go there because it was convenient to other places we were going one day.

they noticeably seated the black people in the second room, and noticeably were less attentive to them. we were a mixed group, so they had utter confusion over where to put us.

even the servers seemed segregated.

after all of that awkwardness, the food was bland. could have gotten a comparable meal at Waffle House.

If you want horrible then I suggest Huddle House outside of Ardmore OK. Nothing was made from scratch except the fried egg and the place was so poorly designed that the waitresses had to walk vast stretches from kitchen to table. I tipped generously for that.

I agree with not going near one on Sunday after church. People lined up outside and in the ubiquitous rockers.

94% of diners at Cracker Barrels vote Republican.

Isn’t Paula Deen’s restaurant basically a Cracker Barrel type eatery?

I miss it

I'm diabetic and I would eat there!

Even if they were very pro LGBTQ I still wouldn’t eat there.

I ate there once and the food was shit.

I've only eaten there once with my folks several years ago. The food was awful. I ordered the "Brisket". It was obviously not cooked at the restaurant, but rather came in pre-cooked, with fake smoke rings, and horribly strong fake smoke flavoring added to it. The slices were like 1/8" thick. The side dish was some gloppy mac and cheese. Honestly, the whole meal tasted like a reheated TV dinner.

I don't do chains, I don't live on a highway

Truth is 130 you simply don’t do much.

I loved their sourdough bread that you can buy by the loaf but haven't had any in years. My mother loved the place when she was alive so I would take her there but I haven't been there since she died.

[quote]Truth is 130 you simply don’t do much.

And you simply don't know how to reference a prior post.

Walked into one 5 years ago, was ignored by staff for 10 full minutes, walked out and never went back.

The food does not suck, it's filling and taste fine. Damn, some of you go out of your way to be annoying.

Do they serve squirrel with white gravy? If not then I'm not going!

I have never been to Cracker Barrel but it looks like a place you’d see lots of “speak to the manager” haircuts

I've eaten there a couple of times on road trips to DC

It's one of the few chain restaurants I've actually enjoyed.

Stuck to breakfast food though--eggs and pancakes. The biscuits were pretty good too.

Checking out the store out front was fun in a theme park kind of way,.

And yes, we weighed about half of what all the other patrons weighed.

R80's dinner invitations have just come to a screeching halt.

There was one near my house in southern West Virginia. It was almost always busy. I don't know it for a fact but I am convinced that a lot of their food is frozen and re-heated in the microwave when ordered. What diners in the UK call "ding ding food." The cornbread muffins were often as hard as rocks, or burned, or both. You'd think that a chain that promoted their cornbread muffins could get it right more than 50 percent of the time, but no. Then again, you're asking people making minimum wage to care about the food they serve. So I would just leave them on the plate or order the biscuits.

[quote]I don't know it for a fact but I am convinced that a lot of their food is frozen and re-heated in the microwave when ordered.

This is literally every chain restaurant, hon.

I love the blueberry pancakes!

I could take it or leave it.

Do they still sell a bunch of Burt's Bees products in the gift shop? I remember going there with friends earlier in the '00s and finding that Garden Tomato complexion soap that I loved so much at Cracker B. Too bad it's out of production now.

(Also, their cooked cinnamon apples are great!)

If you RV they let you park overnight free....I once read their literature at the table..they said when the freeway system was new in the 60s the restaurants along it were so unreliable they even robbed people..I swear it was a few years ago I ate there.,chicken pot pie was ok.

My family and I went to the US for the first time on a package holiday to Orlando and ate in the various chains everyday on I-drive. The funny thing was that 80% of the other patrons were also Brits so I never got any sense of who the various chains tended to attract. The one thing that stood out was how big the menus were. I still don’t understand how they do that actually and I’d like to visit a Cheesecake Factory kitchen sometime. They get the food out so fast and there’s hundreds of items on the menu. How do they even remember what’s in dish number 246 when they get the docket. It’s crazy.

My memory of Cracker Barrel is that it is a lot like a British Sunday roast. Meat, carb, boiled veggies and ice-cream and tart (pie) to top it off. I can see the appeal of it as a roadside stop especially when the alternatives are all fast food places. I’m one of those people who doesn’t feel full after fast food and needs the old meat and two veg (stop sniggering down the back) to feel satiated.

worst restrooms (nasty) in the usa.

Get the pinto beans as a side. Ask for the chow chow relish to dollop on top. That stuff is delicious! They usually sell it in the gift shop too (the chow chow). I slip that relish into a grilled cheese or just put it on a cracker for a snack. Good stuff.

R146 Obviously 🙄, not a world traveler!

The restrooms also have Peeping Toms!

That's odd R146

One of the reasons we stop at the Cracker Barrels in south NJ and MD are because they are pretty spotless and the bathrooms are much cleaner and nice than at the official rest stops or any fast food places.

[quote]he funny thing was that 80% of the other patrons were also Brits

I'm curious -- since there are obviously a lot of British tourists in Florida, do any of the restaurants cater to their preferences? Probably not the chain places like Cracker Barrel, since their menus are set by their corporate offices, but how about local places? Can you get a full English breakfast in Orlando? How about other specialties (or specialities, if you prefer)? Or do Brits on vacation want to get away from the stuff they get at home and try American food instead?

They have delicious burgers and fries. Breakfast is always good. Two fried eggs over medium with bacon, hash brown casserole and toasted sour dough, coffee and orange juice? Yes please. Also they are the one place where you are guaranteed to find Goldenberg's Peanut Chews in the gift shop. And they just added mimosas, beer and wine to the menu. Just get a table in the corner and try not to look at the other patrons.

R151 No and somewhat surprisingly I suppose because in Spain and Portugal the resort towns cater to Brits and Irish people. It's why I won't go to those places because the seafront is just lined with Irish bars and British pubs and restaurants displaying photographs of egg and chip, sausage and chip, full English/Irish breakfast, mash and pie....You are bound to run into some arsehole you know from back home looked red raw lol I think America is not 'foreign' to Brits, the chains are well known to everyone from watching TV and the food in the chains is very similar to British food anyway. So it's a big novelty to go to Dennys and iHop and Cheesecake Factory and people would probably chose them over a place doing full English and Sunday roasts. On the continent people want familiarity because the continental European food seems 'foreign' - cold, sliced meats and cheese for breakfast, fresh fish and spices and paella....all too strange for the average Brit on their 2 week summer holiday.

Maybe they could at least add a bottle of HP sauce to their tables, R153.

McDonald’s are way cleaner than the nasty Cracker Barrel restrooms

[quote] I can't get passed their overall approval

I can't get passed your inability to understand the difference between 'passed' and "past'.

Given that you claimed to have been raped in the restroom there (at R15) I can see why you'd feel that way R155

Cracker Barrel restrooms are an abomination!

Cracker Barrel was one of my grandfather’s favorite restaurants. He would take us and I would always get the pancakes topped with fried apples and whipped cream. Even the smell of the restaurant brings back memories. I haven’t eaten there in years but our family used to get some Thanksgiving pies from our local one

Cracker Barrel is a one-stop shop for pot roast, rocking chairs, and caftans. Get rid of their little R-word problem and it’s practically DL’s spiritual homeland.

Apparently in Augusta GA that place has a long wait and folks rock away the long wait out front on rocking chairs which are for sale too.

In Canada it's essentially full of Asian people. It's like an ESL parade that went on lunch break.

I used the restroom once and had to leave.

It was as if a fat person's ass exploded in there.

I gag just thinking about it.

[quoteApparently in Augusta GA that place has a long wait and folks rock away the long wait out front on rocking chairs which are for sale too.

They all have that.

^ they don’t have a long wait everywhere..u must mean the rockers

There is usually a wait.

Not in MT ^

They like to have you wait, so you'll spend time browsing in the store.

Cracker Barrel store is kitschy

I find it hard to believe that Black people go in there. It seems like the type of place that would attract a lot of Confederate-flag lovers.

A lot of menu items are considered Soul Food.

I ❤️ all of the harder to find nostalgia candy

The food is not high end quality but like a Denny’s

r173 It's much better than Denny's. Much.

^im road tripping soon,,,what’s good?

[quote]Cracker Barrel is great for a chain.

it's super shitty for even a chain

Racist Op.