Yep. My Dad lives 25 miles from the closest Starbucks, but there are at least 5 Dollar Generals within 10 miles of his place.
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I thought all the Cracker Barrels were basically just off the highway on major travelling routes. In case you want a shitty $10 burger instead of a shitty $5 burger on your way to see the inlaws. But basically rural (or at least mostly low density) areas.
A friend of mine invests in lower tier hotels (one or two steps above a motel) and he has always told me that when scouting out locations one of the things they looked for is proximity to a Cracker Barrel. Apparently that was like the nut location. Not sure if that still applies.
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Waffle House
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Cracker Barrell has great food actually.
I’ve had it a couple of times (on the way to see my inlaws) and it was ok. I would never describe it as great.
Cracker Barrel – “Great”
Ross Douthat – “Decent”
With some of these recent unstuck takes I feel like I have been transported to the Bizarro world.
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Agreed - it’s serviceable, but the only times I’ve gone to one have been on trips when only other options were fast food or random local diners. If there were a location in any of the cities I’ve lived, I can’t image that I’d ever choose to eat there.
Cracker Barrel and Waffle House are both good.
One of the things I like about the south is that the white people with money don’t go to Waffle House as some kind of ironic pilgrimage, it’s one of many examples of race and class mixing organically.
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In fairness to Keeeed, when all you normally eat is potatoes, Cracker Barrel is probably exquisite.
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Cracker Barrel is probably a lot closer in quality to a local restaurant trying to do the same type of food than McDonald’s is to a local burger joint or Olive Garden is to a local Italian restaurant.
I don’t live near a Cracker Barrel, but I do occasionally have a craving for a country-fried steak.
Waffle House is good and I definitely miss those no longer living in the South. It’s an experience that you can’t really replicate anywhere else.
Cracker Barrel on the other hand is just a mediocre restaurant and offers nothing unique that you can’t get better version of.
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Well that settles it: Cracker Barrel > Whole Foods. Can’t argue with science.
Sure. It’s not substantially different from Bob Evans or any of the other chain Americana restaurants you find alongside highways, except it vaguely has a Disneyfied old-timey country theme. It’s like if someone thought Outback Steakhouse was authentic Australian cuisine.
idk if this is a thing in Europe, but in the US there’s a whole cottage industry of motels and chain restaurants where you can buy meatloaf located alongside highways that cater specifically to people driving long distances. I typically find myself in a Bob Evans like 3-4 times a year en route to visiting my parents.
Yeah, there is a definite nostalgia factor for me that makes Waffle House a place I’d go if I were visiting the South.
If my first ever trip into a Waffle House was tomorrow, I’d be wondering what all the fuss was about.
Olive Garden is one of the few chain restaurants that I think is decent. Are they generally considered bad?
I love Waffle House’s omelets. Never overcooked, always come out light and fluffy. Don’t know how they train their cooks so uniformly but they do a hell of a job.
Never got a burger at Cracker Barrel, always get the meatloaf or the pork chops. Usually the meatloaf.
I grew up in a shitty city where Applebee’s was legitimately a top three restaurant when it opened. I don’t have any warm, fuzzy memories of local dining institutions.
I don’t have sentimentality about old places. To me, wanting to keep an old restaurant around because it used to be good is like wanting to keep an old politician around because they used to be good. It sucks for a good place to close down, but if it’s gone downhill and is no longer good, then some things just need to die.
If Cracker Barrel is your idea of a good chicken fried steak you’re really missing out.
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Not by me! My coworker bought the never ending pasta pass a couple of years ago for 300 dollars. He went to the Olive Garden 1-2 times a day, every day. I probably went with him for lunch 20 times. Their soups are legitimately great, and that’s what I usually got, the soup and salad. Their pasta is fine.