Recall going to a small town in Iowa with my future husband. Excited to have “home cooked” food. We went to the local mom and pop. Everything Sysco. Bread and jams from Walmart. Nothing tasted good. “They cater to the truckers on I-80, Steph,” he told me. He was right.
Their “culture and heritage” has been subsidized out from under them and they just keep blaming others for it because they refuse to face the truth. Also Sysco is a fucking blight on our tastebuds.
Anyway, I did like Cracker Barrel once. Mainly for fried apples and biscuits. It was the luxury breakfast spot when I worked a night shift. Don’t hate me for living in Missouri for 13 years.
I haven’t been in years, but they were the one chain that _always_ got their bacon right - very crispy without being burnt.
I had a friend in Minnesota, 25+ years ago, who was a transplant from the south. He had an intermittent but sincere appreciation for CB because it was the only place he could find okra and grits when he wanted them. So we ate there sometimes. Didn't seem so awful, back in the day.
My native-Kansan spouse was just pondering a couple weeks ago if that would be a place he could get chicken fried steak, which is somewhat thin on the ground in New Jersey. (I still haven't checked but I assume so.)
Okra’s a tough one, yeah. I think they also do simmered greens. Honestly when I think of grits I think of DER WÄFFLE HOOSEN. Sorry that’s an extreme in-joke between an old friend and me but you probably still know what I’m talking about.
I literally got through 1/2 of this comment and was like 'this sounds like some MO ass Cracker Barrel' and. Well. We're the same group that'll justify Waffle House with our life so.
Oof. "Subsidized out from under them" is a great turn of phrase.