Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday evening that it's giving up its rebranding plan—or, at least, doing away with its new generic logo and bringing back its "Old Timer."

In a statement posted on X, the restaurant chain said: 

We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our 'Old Timer' will remain.  

At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been — and always will be — about serving up delicious food, warm welcomes, and the kind of country hospitality that feels like family.  As a proud American institution, our 70,000 hardworking employees look forward to welcoming you to our table soon.

It also looks like the company scrubbed its X account and removed the LGBTetc. page from its website. 

By now, we all know the story, so I won't rehash every detail, but the company announced on August 18 that it was making some changes to position the "iconic American brand for the future." What followed was eight days of outrage from customers and $100 million in market value losses. Even Donald Trump got involved today with a post about the restaurant on Truth Social. 

Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before. They got a Billion Dollars worth of free publicity if they play their cards right. Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity. Have a major News Conference today. Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again. Remember, in just a short period of time I made the United States of America the 'HOTTEST' Country anywhere in the World. One year ago, it was 'DEAD.' Good luck!

While the media has tried to paint this as a left vs. right thing, I've personally witnessed outrage from people on both sides of the aisle. Our own Robert Spencer pointed out today that it's a symbol of something bigger that's happening in our country right now.  

The Cracker Barrel rebranding is tantamount to joining the chorus of voices that have been telling America-loving patriots for decades now that their country is bad, and that they are bad for loving their country, and that the least they could do is be muted about their patriotism and national pride. Trump, who has brought unabashed national pride back into the mainstream, knows this all too well, and so is exhorting Cracker Barrel to reverse itself. Self-styled 'progressives' who are certain in their Marxist assumption that 'history' is inevitably moving in the direction of statism and total government control will insist that there is no going back, what becomes woke stays woke, just as Leonid Brezhnev proclaimed about Soviet power: 'What we have, we hold.'

I couldn't agree more. I also think there's something else to it. 

When this controversy first started, I wanted to write about it, but so did all of my colleagues here, and we ended up with approximately 8,354 articles about it, so I figured that was about one too many. And when I set out to write this tonight, I was going to keep it as straight news, but I do want to add one little thought that I'm not sure anyone else has touched on. 

It's easy to say, "Who cares what a chain restaurant does — this shouldn't be the hill on which we die." But when I think of Cracker Barrel, I think of my childhood. I think of the meals I had there with my grandmother and mother. who are no longer with me. I think of them giving me a few dollars to spend in the general store. I think of the times I went there on Sundays after church. Even now, my cousin and I meet there for a meal occasionally because we're craving that country cooking we got from our grandmother growing up, and it's close by and we know what to expect. Sure, there are better restaurants out there. There's much better food out there. But those places don't serve us the side dish of comfort and nostalgia that we crave. 

Changing the logo, changing the interior decor, and doing all the things that bring Cracker Barrel into the "future" was exactly the wrong move for this particular restaurant to take. If anything, it should be clinging to and celebrating its past and giving other people like me who grew up going there with our grandparents something to remind us of those days gone by.