An Early Dinner – The Best Kind of Dining Experience!

Anyone who follows my restaurant commentaries is well aware that we generally dine at local establishments or at small regional chains.  Waffle House is certainly an exception as we usually grab a bite to eat at one of these iconic restaurants when we’re on a lengthy road trip.

On this occasion we had a great reason to dine at another restaurant chain, one that has 659 locations in 45 states.  Its almost omnipresent along the Interstate Highway System across the USA.

Yes, I’m talking about Cracker Barrel…Laurie’s older sister Glenda’s favorite roadside restaurant and rest stop!  Every Cracker Barrel features a big front porch lined with wooden rocking chairs…

The country or general store theme hits you as you enter any Cracker Barrel location.  This retail element sells snack items, basic toys representative of earlier days, toy vehicles, puzzles, woodcraft, cookbooks, novelty kitchen décor, CDs and DVDs, clothing and much, much more. 

In the 6 months ending on 2/1/19, retail sales were over $316,000,000 or 21% of total revenue.  I suspect that given relatively tight restaurant profit margins, retail sales must be a major contributor to the company’s bottom line.

The dining rooms at Cracker Barrel are large and roomy.  The theme is based on a traditional Southern general store.  Items use to decorate the space are authentic everyday objects and typically include items related to the local area.   Old tools, wall calendars, advertising posters, old photos and a plethora of other decorative items are centrally stored in a Tennessee warehouse where they are cataloged and retained for future use.  Cracker Barrel is headquartered in Lebanon Tennessee…

Service at Cracker Barrel is almost always pleasant with employees and management striving to please their customers.  In this case our waitress repeatedly served up their quality coffee and gave us this basket of biscuits and corn bread…readily providing jelly when requested even though we didn’t order breakfast.  She brought my Tabasco too!

We both had the same meals…the 10 oz. Rib Eye Steak dinner. ($15.69) As per the menu, their thick-cut USDA Choice rib eye is aged 28 days for exceptional tenderness and flavor, then lightly seasoned and grilled to order.  We could either order 3 country sides or a house salad and baked potato as accompaniments… We went for the 3 country sides.

I just took a photo of my meal as we basically ordered the same thing.  Sorry about the ketchup on the hash browns.  I added it before I remembered to take the photo…

The sides…seasoned green beans, hash browns, steamed seasoned broccoli and fresh seasonal fruit were all quite tasty.  The steaks had decent flavor but they weren’t very tender nor were they very thick.  They were cooked medium rare as requested.  Based on the price, I’d rate them as average.   

So what made this dinner the best type of restaurant meal?   We didn’t have to pay for it!  My nephew Nathan and his wife Janice sent us this Cracker Barrel gift card for our fortieth wedding anniversary.  Thanks to ya’ll!  ...and we have $10.37 left for our next visit!

Note: In 2017 Cracker Barrel Restaurants employed 73,000 people and had revenues totaling $2,926,000,000!  I think that the company has found its niche in America’s dining pantheon…

This particular Cracker Barrel Restaurant is located near the intersection of US 321 and I-75 at 325 Ft. Loudoun Medical Center Drive in Lenoir City Tennessee.  Phone: 865-988-5677.  The company’s website is at https://crackerbarrel.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave