Cracker Barrel suspends restaurant remodels after backlash
Cracker Barrel is suspending remodels of its restaurants across the country, the company announced Tuesday.
"You've shared your voices in recent weeks not just on our logo, but also on our restaurants. We're continuing to listen. Today, we're suspending our remodels," the company said in a statement on its website. "If your restaurant hasn't been remodeled, you don't need to worry, it won't be."
The statement continued, "With our recent announcement that our 'Old Timer' logo will remain, along with our bigger focus in the kitchen and on your plate, we hope that today's step reinforces that we hear you."
The decision comes on the heels of weeks of intensifying back-and-forth between the restaurant chain and some customers who said they were upset by the redesign.
Cracker Barrel first debuted several newly remodeled restaurant locations last year, swapping its old country store aesthetic for a brighter, more modern Southern country theme with new seating, lighting and bookcases, while maintaining beloved signature items like oversized stone fireplaces and mounted taxidermy deer heads.
In recent months, as videos of remodeled locations began making the rounds, the modernized interior aesthetic -- the initial response to which Cracker Barrel's CEO Julie Felss Masino told "Good Morning America" last month was "overwhelmingly positive" -- became a point of contention across the internet, despite the restaurant's explanation that the "the things that you love are still there."
The backlash picked up steam on social media after the company announced its newly redesigned logo, with thousands of users flocking to the company's posts in recent weeks to weigh in on the changes.
Even President Donald Trump weighed in on the controversy at one point, suggesting Cracker Barrel "go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before."
In late August, Cracker Barrel announced it would return to its old logo -- which features a man in overalls, known as Uncle Hershel, sitting next to a soda cracker barrel, after which the restaurant chain is named -- ditching the newer, simplified brown and gold text-only logo.
Cracker Barrel has not disclosed how many restaurant locations have already been renovated nor did it say how much the company spent on the redesign.
