Cracker Barrel co-founder speaks out about logo change

The surviving co-founder of Cracker Barrel has shared his thoughts about the short-lived logo change that caused a nationwide uproar.

Tommy Lowe created Cracker Barrel with his friend Dan Evins. The pair wanted to open an old country store and restaurant next to a gas station near I-40 in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Lowe sat down with WTVF this week and shared some harsh words for those running the business he started decades ago.

“It was just a country store for country people and that’s what it is today, they just don’t understand,” he said of the company’s current executives.

Lowe called the changes that have been rolled out by current CEO Julie Masino bland and pitiful.

“They’re trying to modernize to be like the competition - Cracker Barrel doesn’t have any competition. I heard she was at Taco Bell. What’s Taco Bell know about Cracker Barrel and country food? They need to work on the food and service and leave the barrel - the logo alone,” Lowe told WTVF in the exclusive interview.

He said the key is simple: stick with the roots.

“If they don’t get back to keeping it country, then it ain’t gonna work,” he told WTVF.

Cracker Barrel had removed the “Old Timer” and the barrel from the logo that had been around since the 1970s. The company also changed the font, saying the new logo was “rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape,” CNN reported.

But less than a week after the new logo was unveiled, it was rolled back with the company saying in a statement, “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,” CNN reported.

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