Cracker Barrel has been facing a lot of negative response on social media for the changes they have made to their brand.
As we reported, they changed their iconic logo, removing the iconic man and the barrel that had helped define them. Then, too, they were also changing the style in some of the restaurants from “down-home, country nostalgia, to college cafeteria” style, as my colleague Jennifer Oliver O’Connell termed it, removing some of the iconic indoor kitsch for pedestrian decor.
But their CEO insisted that people liked the changes, claiming the response was “overwhelmingly positive.”
Cracker Barrel’s stock even took a nosedive, dropping 12 percent on Thursday, as the criticism hit overdrive. On top of that, this “transformation” cost them $700 million. It didn’t sound like a wise use of that money.
Steak ‘n Shake has been around even longer than Cracker Barrel. It was founded in 1934. Cracker Barrel started in 1969.
But Steak ‘n Shake had a few words for Cracker Barrel about abandoning their history.
This is what happens when you have a board that does not respect their historical customers or their brand.
At Steak n Shake, we have gone back to basics. Our tallow fries are waiting for you. Oh yeah, you can also now pay with Bitcoin! https://t.co/F5cBwUBVns
— Steak ‘n Shake (@SteaknShake) August 21, 2025
This is what happens when you have a board that does not respect their historical customers or their brand.
At Steak n Shake, we have gone back to basics. Our tallow fries are waiting for you. Oh yeah, you can also now pay with Bitcoin!
Tallow fries, yum. They weren’t done yet schooling Cracker Barrel. They said they weren’t going to throw their history under the bus to gain “trend seekers.”
Sometimes, people want to change things just to put their own personality on things. At CB, their goal is to just delete the personality altogether. Hence, the elimination of the “old-timer” from the signage. Heritage is what got Cracker Barrel this far, and now the CEO wants to… pic.twitter.com/Aoml8ZOfuT
— Steak ‘n Shake (@SteaknShake) August 21, 2025
Sometimes, people want to change things just to put their own personality on things. At CB, their goal is to just delete the personality altogether. Hence, the elimination of the “old-timer” from the signage. Heritage is what got Cracker Barrel this far, and now the CEO wants to just scrape it all away. At Steak n Shake, we take pride in our history, our families, and American values. All are welcome. We will never market ourselves away from our past in a cheap effort to gain the approval of trend seekers.
Then they delivered the coup de grâce. “Fire the CEO!” they wrote. And then, in the fashion of President Donald Trump, they said, “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
But they’re right. It doesn’t sound like Cracker Barrel gauged their customers correctly, if they believe the new moves are favorable.
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