Real talk: I enjoy Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel has good Southern food at affordable prices. Does Cracker Barrel’s vibe and interior also give off a vibe of “the South shall rise again?” Yes. It absolutely does. But damn, they make good corn and chicken-fried steak. Well, there’s been a lot of talk about Cracker Barrel this week because of a logo change. The old logo used to actually feature an old white guy and a barrel, which is pretty self-explanatory iconography for a restaurant chain called Cracker Barrel. Well, over the past year, the chain has been undergoing a redesign of their logo and their interiors. They’re Millennial-greying everything and removing all of the “character.” They’re clearly trying to make Cracker Barrel look less like a place which might feature a “whites only” sign. Well, everything has come to a head this week because MAGA is trying to make this into their new culture war.
Restaurant chain Cracker Barrel lost $94 million in market value just days after releasing a new logo that has become rage-bait for MAGA. Their stock plummeted on Thursday, according to CBS News, with shares falling over 7 percent to $54.80. The stock fell to a low of $50.27 earlier in the day. In May, the company’s third quarter revenue was $821.1 million.
Last year, Cracker Barrel announced a $700 million transformation plan, which included updating the decor at their chain of restaurants, enhancing the menu and keeping core customers while also finding new ones. The plan included refining the brand, although tweaking their trademark logo by removing the elderly man and his barrel has been a divisive move for conservatives, with Donald Trump Jr. posting on X, “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel??!”
The rebranded logo with text only launched on Tuesday. The company stated it was a return to the original text-only logo when the chain launched in 1969. As well as the 658 Cracker Barrel stores in 44 states, the company owns 68 Maple Street Biscuit Company stores in 10 states. In June, CEO Julie Massino said tariffs on goods imported for its retail shops would cost the company $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Daily Beast has contacted Cracker Barrel for comment.
I honestly get why the right-wing believes that this is some kind of politics-tinged culture war, because Cracker Barrel, as it exists in the American zeitgeist, is absolutely white-Southern-Republican-coded. That’s probably WHY CB corporate decided to rebrand, to make everything more inclusive and to make the restaurants look like they fully accept non-hillbilly customers. It’s also a generational shift in general – we no longer have colorful McDonald’s franchises with play areas, we no longer have have rocking Pizza Huts with faux-Tiffany pendant lamps, and it’s why all of this suburban chain restaurants are trying to bland-down their vibes to appeal to more customers. But again, Democrats didn’t have anything to do with this! I swear! I’m a huge Democrat and I f–k with Cracker Barrel and I don’t mind the Southern vibe either.
We think the Cracker Barrel rebrand sucks too pic.twitter.com/XSzZcVQVd0
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) August 21, 2025
For everyone whining about Cracker Barrel—remember this: when Joe Biden left office, the old logo was still there. It was Trump’s weakness that let the change happen.
Never would’ve happened under 46. pic.twitter.com/L19KzdCZW8
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) August 21, 2025
Side-by-side logos, made by Celebitchy. Background image credit Brandon Ricketts on Pexels. Additional photo courtesy of Backgrid.
