@goat nonsense. I think we have a pretty good idea now. NYC Calif drive the bus
I don't see how anyone can disagree with you on this.
https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_candidates,_2028
A look at ballotpedia above and it's a big field, but ultimately only a handful have a shot at the ticket, and even fewer still have a legitimate shot at the top of the ticket. I don't think the DNC gives a shit about anything other than winning and this isn't about coming back to a sense of normalcy. And while not mutually exclusive it's a helluva lot harder to run a race in this current political climate trying to do both. Add to the the left's need for inclusivity and that field narrows a shit ton.
So with that in mind the best I can reckon is that the only ticket that gives them the gravitas of name recognition while simultaneously kissing coastal elite ass and stroking the ego of the proggy nutters is a Newsom/AOC ticket.
A good friend will bail you out of jail, but your best friend will be sitting next to you in the cell saying "that was f***ing awesome"
Aero Squadron had good food. Sunday brunch had smoked salmon, an omelet bar, fresh fruit, champagne, etc.
Still losing business and closing down.
I generally agree, having good food and good service is the cornerstones of restaurant success, but they're not the only factors.
@arthur-dent negative. As a southern state we had a confederate government. A recognized confederate gov. Now did some of our boys wear the blue. Yes. Bc we became a fractured state occupying the most northern territories of the south
Correct. Over 40k Missourians fought for Dixie.
@mattndallas Waffle House is old school? Do you say that merely because they have not significantly changed the style of their restaurants in quite some time? One of the issues with the other examples you gave (e.g., Pizza Hut and IHOP) is that those unique buildings become very difficult to sell/lease to another commercial enterprise, even another restaurant. Waffle House restaurants, on the other hand, have a rather plain exterior shell that is easy to redeploy as something else. If you didn't know a Waffle House used to be at the location of the bakery now there, you probably wouldn't be able to tell. But put a bakery in an old Pizza Hut and most people will immediately recognize it as an old Pizza Hut building. (Oddly, in our neck of the woods, we have an Original Pancake House located in an old Pizza Hut building. Stands out like a sore thumb, and for me was an unconscious turn-off.)
I believe that many chains have moved away from iconic building shapes to save money (standard building designs tend to be cheaper) and so that the building can be readily repurposed later with little or no reminders of its original use.
Funny story about IHOP. The old IHOP location near our house had the traditional A-frame design. When we first moved in many years ago it had become a bar/restaurant (mostly a bar), but it was clearly an old IHOP. Had a big illuminated sign out front (the kind with changeable letters, on a trailer). Our first day in the neighborhood the sign outside said: TONIGHT: DWARF TOSSING! Thankfully, that place is long gone. Food sucked, and all their dwarfs were too fat to get an air when thrown. 
*OK, the food did suck, but we never went their when they were tossing little people.
While Im in the “I don’t care about the logo” camp, it’s hard for me to understand why CB decided to f with the logo. They aren’t going to attract the arugula broccoli crowd no matter what they do with their logo or decor. They must have known all that would happen is that people would complain and nobody would stand up and cheer the change.
The restaurants have changed a lot:why doesn’t McDonalds get rid of their yellow arches?@stollcpa Why does changing the logo and decor mean they have decided to "rebrand with all new customers"? Is their existing customer base actually that shallow and braindead that they won't go there simply out of spite?
This whole saga is just absurd. It's a f$%king restaurant, serving the same food as before. Yet dumbass MAGA's are acting like they've been personally insulted because a company decided to refresh their logo and their decor. Hell, most of the MAGAs complaining somehow think it was done because of wokeness and DEI! All because they got rid of a drawing supposedly resembling some long-dead country geezer sitting next to a wooden barrel. For the love of God, this is yet more clear and unequivocal evidence that half of this country has lost its mind (though the rest of us already knew that.)
@stollcpaco-hoosier They actually started getting rid of Herschel in 2024. This was their primary logo in early August (the one with Herschel was their secondary logo):
This was what they changed to for 7 days:
Same font (slightly thinner), same arrangement of text, same colors, and retaining the feel of an old country brand. Yes, the shape of the shield (a barrel) is different, but I think it aligns well with the latter aspect (old country feel). To me, even the phasing out of Herschel should not have caused an uproar. The logo with Herschel, while unique and memorable, violated the universally accepted maxims that logos should be simple and scalable (e.g., can print on a business card and have it still be legible). In hindsight, maybe CB should have just quietly rolled out the change. I doubt people would have noticed or cared all that much.
What really happened, in my opinion, is that a few MAGAs started the nonsense that the new logo was somehow a "woke" redesign. The faux outrage then took off from there.
Maybe Apple should return to its original logo:
This.I'll admit Cracker Barrell food is basically "mid" when compared to places like Lincoln Square and even the Cozy Table. About on par with Bob Evans...who I also dig for its "old home" presentation.
I like perusing the old school retail stuff with my daughter. Like playing a checkers game against her if there's a bit of a wait. Love watching her get pissed at the tee game while ignoring her phone for awhile.
But when your whole presentation is basically an old school, country/Southern/Appalachian roadside country store...why try and turn it into some whitewashed, sterilized version of what a New Yorker thinks "the cool South" is like, based on his/her trips to Hilton Head, Savannah, or Charleston? If anything, go MORE retro.
Taco Bell should go back to the old stucco/tile building we all see turned into Indian food places or pawn shops.
Pizza Hut...buy back the red roof buildings you see all over America and go retro.
Whataburger....go back to the old school A frames (Texas thing, some will understand).
IHOP...same, go back to the A frame.
Waffle House seems to be one of the few that largely remain old school, and they're always packed. Wish we had one closer to Bloomington.
I don't think much of that CEO because I think she wanted to make Cracker Barrel into a sterile, conformist blah restaurant. (I don't think it had anything to do with woke).
To me, the Cracker Barrel appeal is the nostalgia for a different time. I took my kids to Cracker Barrels off the highways a lot when we travelled with them when they were young. I'd tell them to lean into that and advertise it that way.
I don't think this is right at all. My kid is fascinated by WW 2.Nobody under the age of 20 particularly cares about WW2 because they don’t even have a connection to it through their grandparents like we did.
@bradstevens that's exactly how i think of cracker barrel. a place you go on a road trip because it's off the highway it's time for breakfast and you don't know where you are.
fing coh and marv going out to dinner there getting meatloaf. my god
Even you millenials will get old. You'll see.fing coh and marv going out to dinner there getting meatloaf. my god
@mcm666 I got meatloaf because of CO's recommendation. And it is down home country cooking, with things like fried chicken and chicken fried steak and veggies covered in bacon (fatback or jowls also allowed as I often was sent to White Star Meat market 4 blocks up the street to get whatever she needed. In the 60s a 5 year old doing that must have been better accepted). And veggies had to be soaked in butter. Lastly all dinners HAD to have desert.
I wanted to make sure I remembered right so I also bought a cup of sawmill gravy. God what wretched stuff. All it says is cooked with pork drippings, must be ham because it tastes nothing like sausage or bacon gravy.
Catfish would also be southern. I ate a ton of fried bologna sandwiches growing up because they were cheap, or tomato sandwiches for the same reason. Or the real winner was a sandwich with softened butter in the middle (or margarine if cutting costs even more).
But meatloaf is as southern as anything.
@arthur-dent love it! reminds of angela's ashes. they had a name for the sandwiches they'd eat. was basically just tea and fried bread