The roaring fire, rustic decor, and — importantly — all-day breakfast and generous portions at Cracker Barrel beckon many a musician. (Photo via Cracker Barrel)
There is something really wonderful about the reliability of a chain restaurant while touring. Don’t get me wrong, I love hitting the local spots and checking out the independent coffee shops, but when you’re on a long stretch of highway with no towns in sight, the best you can hope for is the consistency and normalcy of a well-done chain.
The author’s husband, George, plays the famous Cracker Barrel peg game while waiting for his food.
Not all chains are created equal, and there has been much debate in all the tour vans I’ve occupied about the best and worst road stops for lunch, coffee, dinner, pizza, ice cream, etc. Most musicians agree that Subway is an evil last option for lunch, McDonald’s is only acceptable between the hours of 2 a.m. and 11 a.m., you are lucky if you find a Chipotle, and Whole Foods is the ultimate score. Then there are the fun regional chains, like Cook Out, In-N-Out, Buc-ees, and Whataburger. If you’re traveling through these regions, a stop is allowed for burgers and fries as a “special occasion,” even though this type of meal would otherwise be avoided.
Today I would like to bring everyone’s attention to my latest road stop obsession: Cracker Barrel. When I was a kid, we would often take long road trips from Chicago to the East Coast to visit extended family and friends. My dad would make us stop at Cracker Barrel without fail, and I would always moan and groan about it because it seemed to take hours, although I loved those watermelon candy sticks they sold for 10 cents in the lobby.
Recently, however, I have come to appreciate the beauty of a Cracker Barrel — more specifically the Cracker Barrel breakfast, which is (importantly) served all day. Usually while on tour you only eat two meals a day. Some kind of morning-ish thing and some kind of dinner-ish thing, after soundcheck and before the show. Between those “meals” there are RX bars, chips and hummus, fruit and car snacks and many cups of coffee.
The trick to a perfect Cracker Barrel experience is to share a breakfast order between two people and ask for the complimentary (and bottomless) biscuits and cornbread (also known as “All the Fixins”). And to avoid the coffee, which is expensive and mediocre. If you explore the menu, you will see that most of the breakfast options contain multitudes, both calorically and categorically. Unless you’ve just run a marathon, you’re probably going to be very satisfied sharing.
Uncle Herschel’s Favorite (image via Cracker Barrel)
Take, for example, “Uncle Herschel’s Favorite”: Two farm fresh eggs with grits plus your choice of fried apples or hashbrown casserole and your choice of meat: sugar-cured ham, 8 oz. hamburger steak, fried chicken tenderloins, catfish fillet grilled or fried, or hickory-smoked country ham. Includes homemade buttermilk biscuits, sawmill gravy plus real butter and “the best preserves n’ jam we could find.”
This order costs $8.95. Yes, that’s right, nine dollars for eggs, grits, hash brown casserole, an 8 oz. hamburger steak, biscuits, gravy, butter, and jam. Add on tax and tip, split between two people, that’s about $6 each, and it’s delicious.
Recently, my husband George and I had the pleasure of sharing a Cracker Barrel breakfast somewhere in Virginia, and we got to discussing the decor. I told him that the signs, farm equipment, and broken instruments adorning the wall were manufactured to look old, and were the same in all of the locations. This sent us down a Google rabbit hole about the topic, and it turns out I was completely wrong! There is a whole family business employed to source and place the antiques for each store, and the warehouse is located just down the road from me in Tennessee.
According to Cracker Barrel’s website:
“Each store is a reflection of not only an earlier era, but of its community. When designing the décor for a new location, the décor team research the town’s history to identify artifacts that will complement the town and region. Often called “The Sock Capital of the World,” Fort Payne, Alabama’s store has an entire wall of sock-themed pieces paying homage to anything from sock stretchers to knitting machines. A fireworks sign hangs in the Rialto, California, store because Rialto is home to one of the world’s largest fireworks distributors. … Maybe your local Cracker Barrel is located in a town known for mining, dairy cows or agriculture. Rest assured that a small piece of that community’s history made it into the museum that is a Cracker Barrel store.”
Now I know not only my dream road breakfast, but also my dream job: interior design for Cracker Barrel!
