Cracker Barrel CEO breaks silence as company upsets more customers

Certain restaurants evoke a feeling in their customers. Cracker Barrel used to be one of them.

From the cheesy old-time gift shop to the rockers on the front porch, going to a Cracker Barrel felt like stepping back in time. You could go to a simple place where you could savor a big stack of pancakes. More importantly, you could take a break from the chaos of modern life.

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At least you could do that until Cracker Barrel decided to join a troubling trend in 2025 of forgetting its brand identity and giving up all the things that make people love it.

Cracker Barrel has lost its barrel

Cracker Barrel opened its doors in 1969, and in 1977, the restaurant adopted its iconic logo: an older man resting by a barrel.

Sadly, now that barrel is gone for good, and the man went along with it.

In an August 18, 2025, press release, the company revealed “the fifth evolution of the brand’s logo, which is now rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all.”

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Oddly, however, the logo seems to be entirely lacking in a barrel – a surprising fact, given both the company’s statement and its name.

Cracker Barrel’s new logo is all wrong

The new logo does retain the classic colors of the Cracker Barrel, but contains only text. Worse still, while the entire logo itself is supposed to look like a barrel viewed from the side, as one Reddit poster put it, “the ‘barrel’ is hardly a barrel at all.”

Instead, the logo has become far too generic, and its supposed “barrel” shape more closely resembles a bean or the icon of an app.

“Modern logos are so overdone and honestly outdated,” another Redditor commenced. “When you go to a restaurant, you want a cool vibe, not a simplistic modern logo. This screams “we just want to cheapen the food and become like every other corporate restaurant.”

Cracker Barrel’s logo is the latest in a string of problematic moves

A barrel disappearing from a logo might be something customers could get over, but the fact is that its disappearance is symbolic of a larger shift occurring. The restaurants are also being redecorated and are losing their old country flair.

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In fact, they’re going “Modern Farmhouse,” with brighter open seating, bookcases replacing antiques, and a generic look that some Redditors have described as making them “feel like I’m dining in McDonald’s.”

The new look was met with widespread criticism, including from Erik Russell, who said in an X post, “As a brand designer that worked at @CrackerBarrel for almost 9 years, watching them commit brand suicide is…something.”

Is Cracker Barrel following the Southwest Airlines playbook?

Cracker Barrel is one of several companies that seems to be forgetting why it exists this year. 

Just as Southwest Airlines threw away decades of goodwill when it abandoned its Bags Fly Free perk, Cracker Barrel seems to be committed to destroying its own brand proposition by abandoning what made it beloved in the first place.

And in the process, the company may be driving away loyal customers who visited not just for the food, but also for the experience of dining someplace that broke the mold.

Now, as the list of unpopular Cracker Barrel changes gets longer, the company’s CEO has spoken out, breaking her silence on moves that the once-beloved restaurant is making.

Cracker Barrel CEO breaks her silence about the changes

While customers don’t seem too excited about the loss of the Cracker Barrel charm, the CEO, Julie Felss Masino, is singing a different tune. 

During an interview with “Good Morning America,” Masino said, “Cracker Barrel needs to feel like the Cracker Barrel for today and for tomorrow — the things that you love are still there. We need people to choose us, and we want people to choose us.”

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Of course, the things that many love are literally not still there, as the very barrel that was in the name is no longer, and the interiors all look as though they’ve been HGTV-ified.

Who is right about Cracker Barrel’s rebrand?

They say the customer is always right, and customers here find Cracker Barrel’s moves to be wrong.

Still, early evidence suggests the CEO may know what’s best for the company, moreso than a group of vocal Internet users. 

In fact, the rebrand may be helping the company shore up its finances, as Cracker Barrel reported a total revenue increase of 0.5% in its third-quarter earnings in 2025. GAAP net income for the third quarter was also $12.6 million, compared to the prior year quarter GAAP net loss of $9.2 million.

However, it remains to be seen if this trend will continue as the company keeps moving further from its traditional roots. 

Some are skeptical because of how unpopular the remodel and new logo seem to be, and another Reddit user made a smart observation that may yet pan out: “The oldies will hate it and the young still won’t go.”

Related: Famed ice cream chain’s first franchised location closes

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