‘So arrogant’: Jake and Spike blast Cracker Barrel’s $700M rebrand attempts

Earlier this week, Cracker Barrel abandoned its plans to rebrand and scrapped its new logo in favor of keeping the “Old Timer” logo in place.

The initial decision sparked a firestorm of angry responses, resulting in a loss of nearly $100 million in market value after its stock plunged. Even President Donald Trump urged Cracker Barrel to go back to its old logo, posting about it on Truth Social.

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… pic.twitter.com/C32QMLOeq0

— Cracker Barrel (@CrackerBarrel) August 26, 2025

“On May 16, 2024, Cracker Barrel’s new CEO, Julie Felss Masino, got on the phone with investors and unveiled the details of a strategic transformation plan her board of directors had approved the first of five pillars in the plan would be refining and a value evolving the brand across all touch points over the next months,” KIRO host Jake Skorheim said, referencing an article from Fox Business. “Masino and her board of directors dismissed at least four warnings by some top investor whose name is Sardar Biglari.”

Biglari is an entrepreneur and investor. When he was just in his 20s, he founded Biglari Holdings, a holding company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. In an attempt to diversify his portfolio and investments, Biglari entered the restaurant industry. One of his significant investments was in Cracker Barrel.

“So he goes to the board and he says, this is folly,” Jake said. “This is a really bad idea, so much so that he even comes up with his own PowerPoint, which was a 120-page slideshow to show them why this is a bad idea and how bad this is going to fail and why this won’t work. Their response to him was, this guy’s an outlier. He’s crazy, and we shouldn’t listen to him, and they push through and do it anyway.

“He said the company’s $700 million remodel plan will not work. Exclamation point, that’s in quotes,” Jake continued. “He actually said that to them, and they told him to pound sand.”

The original 1969 logo for Cracker Barrel was also text-only, but, in 1977, the restaurant chain added the now-iconic imagery of “Uncle Herschel,” which became a staple of its branding for decades. Masino was named president and CEO for Cracker Barrel in July 2023.

“Why listen to the billionaire who invests in companies and winning propositions?” KIRO host Spike O’Neill scoffed. “So arrogant. $700 million rebrand.”

“So arrogant of these people just to think you can come in and change the way it goes just because you want to,” Jake said. “I don’t even know what they were aiming at, honestly.”

How other restaurants have successfully rebranded

“You look at other chains that have been successful in recent times because they’ve rebranded, like Applebee’s or Chili’s, they’re in the medium fast food, sit-down business.”

“I would say that’s slightly different, because Applebee’s didn’t change everything about their restaurant,” Jake responded. “They updated decor, right?”

“And they should have stopped,” Spiek said. “If they left Herschel on the sign, just leave the guy and cleaned up the insides and brightened things up a little bit, sure, I think they’d be happy chappies today. They didn’t change the food.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

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