Cracker Barrel

This national chain has been serving home-style Southern food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since 1969.

You know the drill – grits, greens, biscuits, and pretty much all of the other foods associated with rural Southern cuisine.

And if the place looks a bit like an old country store, that’s because it’s just that – a full on shop full of trinkets, games, toys, puzzles, and more.

Cracker Barrel Food

For breakfast, guests can choose from Traditional Favorites like The Cracker Barrel Country Boy Breakfast, which is a mammoth meal with your choice of country ham, pork chops, or steak, with three eggs, fried apples, hash brown casserole, grits, sawmill gravy, and homemade buttermilk biscuits; or any number of other meat-egg-side-bread combos that include things like smoked sausage, thick-sliced bacon, chicken fried chicken, country-fried steak, and turkey sausage patties.

For those in the mood for something sweet to start the day, the Pancakes n’ Such section includes Buttermilk, Pecan, or Wild Maine Blueberry Pancakes that can be topped with Marion Blackberry, Sweet Peach, or Golden Delicious Apples. Momma’s French Toast Breakfast and Eggs-in-the-Basket (two slices of sourdough grilled with an egg, served with choice of meat and side).

For something lighter and easier on the body, Cracker Barrel offers a wide selection of cereal, as well as light yogurt and fresh fruit.

The hearty lunch and dinner menu includes Sandwich Platters, Country Dinner Plates, Cracker Barrel Specialties, Salads n’ Such, and Wholesome and Fancy Fixin’s.

The range includes everything from Burgers and BLT’s, to Pick Your Own meat (Fried Chicken, Catfish, Rainbow Trout, Chicken Livers, Chicken and Dumplings, to name a few) and sides (Corn, Mac & Cheese, Cheese Grits, Fried Okra, Mashed Potatoes), to calorie-friendly dishes like Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken Breast and Pecan Crusted Catfish, to Meatloaf, Roast Beef, or Haddock Dinners.

And since no Southern dinner is complete without something sweet, save some room for a Baked Apple Dumpling, Double-Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake, Fruit Cobbler with Ice Cream, or a Frozen Mug Sundae with Roasted Almonds.

Cracker Barrel Atmosphere

This is a no-frills dining experience, where guests enter and exit through the crowded country store and are seated at wooden tables with wooden chairs. Old-timey memorabilia hangs from the walls, and wooden lattice dividers separate the different areas of the dining room. But no one goes to Crack Barrel for the ambiance – they go for the hearty country cooking.