Posted on 08/12/2025 6:13:30 PM PDT by DoodleBob
It has been a year since Cracker Barrel started renovating its formerly knick-knack-ridden restaurants, and fans are still angry.
The Southern-inspired part-restaurant, part-store chain announced a 3-year plan to “evolve” in May 2024. Yet, more than a year later, fans are still commenting their complaints on an Aug. 5, 2024, Instagram post about the restaurant’s “new look.”
The video has a Cracker Barrel district manager walking followers through the space’s changes, like new lighting, seating and paint color. As of this story’s publication, there are more than 2,000 comments on the video. Many of the comments are complaints about the new “bland” appearance, while others are compliments on the “modern” look. The mundane video continues to get (positive or negative) comments more than one year after posting.
The 56-year-old chain is inspired by old country stores and used to be decorated with brown-colored walls covered in antique farm tools and historical family portraits. According to a 2022 Cracker Barrel blog post, each store averaged between 950 and 1,000 authentic antiques per location.
The new appearance, which 40 locations have received as of May, according to The Wall Street Journal, has a fresh coat of white paint on the walls, modern light fixtures and antiques organized into shadow boxes.
A spokesperson at Cracker Barrel told PEOPLE on Monday, Aug. 11, “We are very pleased with the trajectory of our remodeled stores. Feedback from both guests and team members has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic about the refreshed dining and shopping experience. All of the elements of our remodels were informed by direct input from our guests and team members alike – these changes are for them.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I used to stop at one in Richmond, IN because it was halfway on a 1200 mile drive. The only thing not oversalted was the haddock filet which was pretty good.
You have got to admit....FAR less dusting labor hours required in the remodeled restaurants.
Good job, Cracker Barrel. You’ve lost your charm and your unique look. Now you look like every other generic restaurant in America.
👎
“Photo B looks like one of those puzzles you have to solve to prove you are a human.”
.
Those things are created by AI.
So, who (or what) is actually in charge?
.
Terrible changes. Serving alcohol (mimosas) now, too.
People still will go, no matter how sterile and drab the stores are, because they’re in convenient locations off freeways.
Is this Starbucks?
“Now they feel dull and soulless.”
As sterile as an operating room. Not feeling warm fuzzies.
I haven’t been to a CB for a while, but I always enjoyed the antiques, which made every restaurant different, and which gave me something to pass the time (besides the peg game) while I waited for my meal. One place had a fifties-vintage stroller just like the one I got rolled around in. The updated CB looks boring. A wall full of carefully-mounted cutting boards and sifters. Yawn.
Yeah. Old Cracker Barrel looked more like a home kitchen. The new, in that photo, looks like a museum cafeteria.
> The ceo is an idiot if that passes for better. <
This looks like yet another case of “I’m a new CEO, and I better do something dramatic to justify my high salary.”
Agree with you.
Our favorite hot dog place down the shore remodeled when the original owner died. The kids ruined the whole ambiance, gutting the entire place and going “upscale” with it. And jacked up the prices to the absurd.
Sad.
Not as many.
People arent going yo wait in line for the same food available quicker elsewhere.
There is always some super-smart idior who improves a good thing into oblivion.
CB started in TN, and several months ago there were big warehouse sales - auctions - on the decor. Guess this explains it.
You surrendered your position.
Go Birds!
Female
Yuch.
I like the new but have to admit I have never eaten at cracker barrel.
I feel the same way about Panera. Used to enjoy going in and having coffee and a pastry and looking at the old-fashioned
pictures on the walls. They got rid of charming and put in modernistic, boring . . . pictures.
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