Exclusive | Cracker Barrel kitchens in turmoil as chain fights to win back customers after food scandals

Cracker Barrel is scrambling to fix its image and win back customers following scandals over frozen biscuits and microwaved meatloaf — but constant flip-flopping from management has thrown its kitchens into chaos, The Post has learned.

As reported by The Post, the Tennessee-based chain – ripped last month by critics including President Trump for scrapping its longtime logo that featured mascot “Uncle Herschel’ – meanwhile had ditched the cost-cutting practice of reheating its meatloaf in microwaves after baking it the night before.

The microwaving maneuver earlier this year had marked a switch from its longtime practice of baking meatloaf fresh each day. But in recent weeks, bosses once again told employees to keep using microwaves outside of the weekends, sources said.

“We were told meatloaf will be fresh every day,” one veteran cook said. “Then they said cold portions will be on Monday through Thursday.”

On Wednesday’s earnings call, Chief executive Julie Felss Masino admitted there is work to do. “We must continue improving our food,” she said, adding Cracker Barrel is “placing an even bigger emphasis on the kitchen.”

As reported by The Post, customers had likewise complained Cracker Barrel’s Southern-style biscuits were being served “hard as a rock” after a cost-cutting measure shifted production to a day in advance, with biscuits frozen and reheated. 

After admitting the move was a mistake earlier this month, management has now swung the other way, ordering that biscuits be flawless or thrown out – despite the original concern that too many biscuits were going to waste.

Biscuits “need to rise about two inches, be fluffy and not baked ‘too brown’ or ‘too white,’” one Cracker Barrel cook told The Post, recounting orders from a manager last week.

“I honestly feel like [management] is floundering to see what they can get away with, what they need to change and what they can keep and not be noticed,” one veteran cook said of the conflicting orders.

“We are focused on the kitchen and our guests’ plates and serving up generous portions of craveable food with Cracker Barrel’s warm country hospitality,” the company said in a statement to The Post, without specifically addressing questions about the meatloaf and biscuits.

The turmoil is lingering after Cracker Barrel revealed this week that customer traffic at its restaurants – already down 1% in early August – dropped by 8% after the logo uproar on Aug. 19. The company now expects visits to fall by as much as 7% in fiscal 2026.

As reported by The Post, Cracker Barrel’s meatloaf attracted social media attention last month when a TikTokker posted a video that purported to have been taken inside one of the chain’s kitchens.

“We throw it in a microwave and then we serve it to you,” according to the video, which panned to stacked trays allegedly filled with pre-packaged meatloaf. “And sometimes it’s still cold.”

Meanwhile, employees have been whispering about the future of Felss Masino herself. Ahead of this week’s earnings call, some staff were speculating she had been ousted, pointing to the disappearance of her regular internal video updates for staffers companywide.

Cracker Barrel denied the rumor, saying its leadership “communicates with team members across the Company through a variety of channels, including in person meetings, videos and emails.”