Free Republic

Cracker Barrel's embattled CEO has complained that she was 'fired by America' in a recent interview. Julie Felss Masino, the restaurant's president and chief executive officer, was saved by investors last week after 75 percent of shares were cast in her favor. The vote came after Masino's controversial efforts to give the brand a 'woke' revamp. In an interview with The Blaze's Glenn Beck, Masino discussed her leadership role.'This is probably very unfair to ask you. Were you surprised you weren't fired?' Beck asked. 'Um, I feel like I've been fired by America,' Masino said with a laugh. 'That's probably...

Several restaurant chains are sounding the alarm about their customers’ attitudes as the country’s economy worsens due to inflation and slow hiring numbers. Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava — all purveyors of “slop bowls” — have seen their stocks drop dramatically in 2025. Chipotle’s stock is down about 50% for the year, while Cava has seen a 60% decline. Sweetgreen last week revealed in its earnings that same-store sales slid 9.5% and visits fell nearly 12%. “The 25-to-35 (year old) consumer is the most under pressure, and they make up about 30% of our consumer base,” Sweetgreen’s CFO Jamie McConnell said....

Instagram deleted my video about restaurants in Gaza and even restricted my account. The video had 600,000 views, no hate, no violence—just food. I even added proof with links to the restaurants’ own Instagram pages.Meanwhile, mainstream media spreads fake photos of “starvation” in Gaza. Like, share, and subscribe to help spread the truth. Active restaurants in Gaza: / mekato.cafee / aman_caffe / soul_coffee1 / arabesco_2025 / athar.cafe.gaza / aaedali0 / aaedali0 / fadi_sultan8 / athar.cafe.gaza / mekato.cafee / yehia_saqalah / new_gazaa / orca.resto.cafe / modern.cafe / beehubandcafe / ahmed_ali_kitchen / sobhe_sayyed / lava.cafe.official / dr.mo5tar_ / usern7293cx5u / ghosncafe.gaza /...

Has restaurant chain Cracker Barrel gone woke? The signs point to that conclusion after the company announced its latest rebranding effort.On Tuesday, USA Today reported, Cracker Barrel plans to shed its recognizable logo — which it’s had since 1977 — featuring a man sitting in a chair leaning on a barrel next to the restaurant’s name.

Everyone has an opinion on tipping. Whether you add a standard 20% across the board or hate a tipping screen “on principle,” you might’ve noticed those opportunities popping up more frequently these days. Nearly nine in 10 Americans think tipping culture has gone too far — a sharp increase from the around 75% who thought the same last year. That’s according to a new report from personal finance company WalletHub, which examined Americans’ current attitudes toward gratuity. Survey respondents shared their views on this tricky subject, and it shows just how annoyed (and ultimately confused) Americans might feel about adding...

The three dirtiest food chains in America.

Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post is commiserating with wealthy restaurant owners who are trying to shield their lower-wage, illegal migrant workers from President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal migration. “Owners or operators of four restaurants confirmed to the Washington Post that they had lost employees, whether permanently or temporarily, since DHS agents visited last week,” the newspaper reported. “If they want to go by the [law] book, there is not many restaurants left in D.C.,” said Luis Reyes, a former illegal migrant from El Salvador who is now the co-owner of a restaurant visited by ICE. He added: Who will wash...

A famously meat-free New York City politician secretly devoured a succulent steak inside the ultra-private upper-level room of Midtown’s beloved Benjamin Steakhouse Prime. “That means our steak is so good that even vegetarians cannot refuse,” restaurant owner Benjamin Prelvukaj said while taking Page Six on an exclusive tour of his storied Manhattan establishments. “I saw with my own eyes,” Prelvujak added of the elected official cheating on his supposed herbivorous habits. While the identity of the politico was not confirmed, some New York-area politicians who maintain a vegetarian or vegan diet include New York Sen. Brian Kavanagh, New Jersey Sen....

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wants to add a 20% service charge to local restaurant tabs — and then tax it — to help restaurants cope with the city’s minimum wage and promote what he called pay equity among tipped and non-tipped employees. On Monday, Johnston told City Cast Denver, a popular podcast, that he has already been discussing the idea with restaurant owners. He didn’t say whether they are on board. He also did not discuss if increasing people's dinner costs would decrease restaurant visits. Johnston has incurred the ire of some local restauranteurs, who this month penned a letter...

On Jan. 20, Donald Trump was sworn in, for a second time, as the president of the United States. As the country begins to see the early effects of a second Trump term (including the signing of dozens of executive orders), SFGATE set out to decipher what his new administration and its proposed policies could mean for the food, agriculture and restaurant industries in California. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the Golden State, consistently referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom as “Newscum” in Los Angeles wildfire-related posts on Truth Social. The president has also touted plans for...

Couple allegedly downloaded and dashedA Palo Alto culinary couple stands accused by a popular Bay Area restaurant group of paella piracy and a tapas two-step. Restaurant group Teleféric Barcelona claims in a trade-secrets lawsuit that a husband and wife it hired to help run its operations stole recipes and customer and client data so they could start a rival Spanish eatery called Macarena in Palo Alto. David Linares and Elisabet Reviriego are also accused in the lawsuit of using some of the purportedly purloined information to secure a deal to sell food at San Jose Sharks hockey games. Linares told...

A Washington, D.C.-area restaurant server has been fired after she spoke out about possibly refusing service to incoming Trump administration officials. "I personally would refuse to serve any person in office who I know of as being a sex trafficker or trying to deport millions of people," Suzannah Van Rooy, a server at Beuchert's Saloon on Capitol Hill, told the Washingtonian this week. "It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans.’ It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them." Her remarks were part of a report about whether there would...

The other day my son Jasper asked me what sounded like a simple question: “Dad,” he said, “what is American food?” Jasper is six years old, and we live in Southern California, which meant that in the course of the preceding week he and his twin brother had encountered Sonoran-style tacos, Lebanese kebabs, Vietnamese spring rolls, and several iterations of pizza. It is customary for first-time visitors in Los Angeles to remark on the multicultural multitude of the city’s restaurant landscape, but only when you live here do you realize (as did the late California food critic Jonathan Gold) that...

One of the pitfalls of eating out at a restaurant is that it feels nearly impossible to know exactly what you're getting when you order a dish. You may order a meal thinking it sounds healthy, but what you don't know is that it may be loaded with thousands of milligrams of sodium in order to pump up the flavor. Another common ingredient sneaking around in your favorite meals is sugar—and you may be shocked to learn just how much is in some of the highest-sugar restaurant meals at popular restaurant chains.

When it comes to ordering a steak, it's not nearly as simple as selecting your cut of choice, and level of doneness. For some, it's a matter of ordering the right steak for two, or pre-gaming with steak tartare. For others, it's about finding a good steak at an affordable price, or seeking out the highest-quality Prime beef. For some discerning diners, however, the end-all-be all boils down to the aging process—and the eternal debate between wet-aged steak, and dry-aged steak.

Now, while a distillery owner may feel that opening a restaurant is akin to moving two risky Jenga pieces in a row, plenty of renowned distilleries throughout the U.S. have defied the odds. From businesses located in the middle of Manhattan to smaller operations running in towns with less than 10,000 total residents, the best distilleries with restaurants provide visitors a quality spot to refuel on-site after imbibing — no matter the location.

It's official! - Robots are replacing humans. Chipotle restaurants in California have introduced two robots to replace human workers in an effort to slash labor costs in response to the state-mandated $20 minimum wage. The first robot called the "autocato" can peel, stone, and cut an avocado, and then turn it into guacamole in 26 seconds. The other robot dubbed the "digital makeline" has the ability to portion salads and bowls based on orders from the mobile app. The robots are part of an automation push that Chipotle's executives think could reduce the number of employees and help lower rising...

The end of the summer in 2024 brought some excitement to the restaurant scene in Dallas-Fort Worth. The biggest talker is probably the $20 million spent on Nuri Steakhouse in Uptown Dallas. But there’s lots of loyalty for lower-priced restaurants, like the new La Rue Doughnuts in Trinity Groves and La Casita Coffee in East Dallas. My next meal will be at a barbecue joint, and I’ve got a lot of smoked-meat spots to choose from. I hope you find something delicious in our September 2024 Hot List. If you like Jimmy’s Food Store in East Dallas, Ari’s Pantry is...

No matter where you are in America, the second you pull off the freeway and step into a Black Bear Diner, you’re transported to bear country. Carved wooden bears beckon you inside the forest green-carpeted, log cabin-themed restaurant. As you feast on bear-sized portions of eggs and chicken fried steak, you might gaze upon ruffled window valances adorned with bears, a bear in a kayak hanging from the ceiling, or an enormous bear mural encircling a green vinyl booth in the corner. Pieces of artwork featuring bear puns are endless: “Welcome to the beary best food,” “Cave sweet cave,” “Who...

Fast-food restaurants survive by providing affordable, quick, and convenient meals, but cost inflation is now pushing their business models to the brink.It has become more expensive to eat out over the past five years, with food away from home increasing by 30 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In just the past year, the cost of eating at a fast-food restaurant has increased by more than that of a full-service restaurant.Within the consumer price index, the limited-service meals category (food that is ordered at a counter and taken to go) rose by 4.3 percent year over year in...