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The story
Founded by Dan Evins on Sep 19, 1969, in Lebanon.1
Founding: 1969–1980
Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 by Dan Evins, a representative for Shell Oil, who developed the restaurant and gift store concept initially as a plan to improve gasoline sales. Designed to resemble the traditional country store that he remembered from his childhood, with a name chosen to give it a Southern country theme, Cracker Barrel was intended to attract the interest of highway travelers. Multiple origin stories of the name exists. From the 1760s onward, Scots-Irish settlers of the southern backcountry were called crackers. Barrels of soda crackers could be found for sale in small-town stores across the American South in the early 1900s; people would stand around the barrels chatting and catching up, similar in purpose to contemporary office water coolers.
The first restaurant was built close to Interstate 40, just outside Lebanon on the Gallatin Highway 109 exit in Tennessee. It opened on September 19, 1969, serving Southern cuisine including biscuits, grits, country ham, and turnip greens.
Evins incorporated Cracker Barrel in February 1970 and soon opened more locations. In the early 1970s, the firm leased land on gasoline station sites near interstate highways to build restaurants. The early locations all featured gas pumps on-site; during gasoline shortages in the mid to late 1970s, the firm began to build restaurants without pumps.
Since 1977, Cracker Barrel has incorporated a logo featuring "Uncle Herschel" (colloquially known as "Old Timer"), an illustration of a man resembling company founder Dan Evins' real-life uncle, Herschel McCartney.
1981–1996
Cracker Barrel became a publicly traded company in 1981 to raise funds for further expansion. It floated more than half a million shares, raising $10.6 million. Following the initial public offering, Cracker Barrel grew at a rate of around 20 percent per year; by 1987, the company had become a chain of more than 50 units in eight states, with annual net sales of almost $81 million. The company grew consistently through the 1980s and 1990s, attaining a $1 billion market value by 1992. In 1993, the chain's revenue was nearly twice that of any other family restaurant.
In 1994, the chain tested a carry-out-only store, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Corner Market, in suburban residential neighborhoods. In addition, it expanded into new markets through the establishment of more traditional Cracker Barrel locations, the majority of them outside the South, and tested alterations to its menus to adapt to new regions. The chain added regional dishes to its menus, including eggs and salsa in Texas and Reuben sandwiches in New York, but continued to offer its original menu items in all restaurants. Cracker Barrel did not close any locations until 1995, when a location on American Way in Memphis, Tennessee was closed due to it no longer meeting the company's standards.
1997–2010
By September 1997, Cracker Barrel had 314 restaurants, and aimed to increase the number of stores by approximately 50 per year over the following five years. The firm closed its Corner Market operations in 1997 and refocused on its restaurant and gift store locations. The company's president, Ron Magruder, stated that the chain was concentrating on strengthening its core theme, offering traditional foods and retail in a country store setting, with good service and country music. The number of combined restaurants and stores owned by Cracker Barrel increased between 1997 and 2000, to more than 420 locations. In 2000 and 2001, the company addressed staffing and infrastructure issues related to this rapid growth by implementing a more rigorous recruitment strategy and introducing new technology, including an order-placement system. Also in 1997, the company purchased the Mitchell House in Lebanon, Tennessee. The house had been the elementary dormitory and school for Castle Heights Military Academy which both Dan Evins and his son attended. The school had closed in 1986 and the building had sat empty since then. Cracker Barrel spent two million dollars to restore the home and used it as its corporate headquarters from 1999 to 2013.
The company was criticized for anti-LGBT policies in the 1990s, which it reversed in response to backlash from the public and shareholders. In the early 2000s, Cracker Barrel was the subject of several civil rights lawsuits and a U.S. Justice Department investigation, all of which were settled. Cracker Barrel licensed products are sold in grocery stores under the name "CB Old Country Store" after a 2013 trademark-infringement lawsuit was brought by Kraft Foods, which sells cheese under the brand name Cracker Barrel.
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From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, the company focused on opening new locations in residential areas to attract local residents and workers as customers. The chain opened its first restaurant and gift store not located near a highway in 1998, in Dothan, Alabama. In the 2000s, in the wake of incidents including charges of racial discrimination and controversy over its policy of firing gay employees, the firm launched a series of promotional activities including a nationwide book drive and a sweepstakes with trips to the Country Music Association Awards and rocking chairs among the prizes. It updated its marketing in 2006 to encourage new customers, changing the design of its highway billboard advertisements to include images of menu items. Previously the signs had featured only the company's logo.
2011–present
By 2011, Cracker Barrel had opened more than 600 restaurants in 42 states. The company has since begun expansion to the West Coast: in 2017, their first store in the region opened in Tualatin, Oregon, and their first store in California was opened the next year in Victorville. In 2019 Cracker Barrel purchased Maple Street Biscuit Company for $36 million cash.
Cracker Barrel partnered with DoorDash in 2020, in response to restaurant closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the restaurant's first partnership with a delivery service. Cracker Barrel permanently added alcohol to its menu for the first time in September 2020. The company began testing a limited selection of beer, wine and mimosas at 100 stores in early 2020 before announcing that it would expand the offerings to over 600 of its locations after receiving a positive response from its customers. In Q2 2023, the company reported $933.9 million in revenues; takeout, delivery, and catering made up 23% of sales. In May 2024, Cracker Barrel revealed that 16% of their customer base had not returned since 2020.
In August 2025, Cracker Barrel unveiled an updated dining room decor and a simplified logo. However, after only a week, Cracker Barrel scrapped the new logo and reverted to its previous logo following mass backlash and customer outrage due to the rebrand. Shortly thereafter, Cracker Barrel removed sections of its website dedicated to diversity and LGBT pride, calling them "out of date". In September 2025, the company also cancelled plans to remodel and modernize its restaurants after consumer feedback on just four of its 660 locations.
In January 2026, in response to shrinking budgets following the rebranding issues from the year prior, Cracker Barrel released a memo demanding its employees, when traveling for work related reasons, eat only at Cracker Barrel restaurants "for all or the majority of meals while traveling, whenever practical, based on location and schedule". This follows earlier reports in 2026 of menu items being cut without notice, including its traditional January 1 Black Eyed Pea special.
From Wikipedia’s article on Cracker Barrel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8