Cracker Barrel’s co-founder has given a damning verdict on the company’s CEO following the chain’s rebranding fiasco.
Tommy Lowe, 93, accused Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino of failing to understand what the company stands for, citing her previous stint at Taco Bell.
‘They’re trying to modernize to be like the competition… Cracker Barrel doesn’t have any competition,’ Low, who co-founded the first Cracker Barrel with the late Dan Evins in Lebanon Tennessee in 1969, told WTVF of Masino’s leadership.
‘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.’
Cracker Barrel was forced to axe its rebrand Tuesday following a flood of outrage over its new logo, where the iconic image of an old man leaning against a barrel was replaced with a graphic featuring just the name in a new font.
Lowe weighed into the saga as Masino, who makes around $6.68 million a year from her salary and bonuses, broke cover Thursday as she was spotted leaving her home in an affluent Nashville neighborhood.
When approached by Fox News Digital, Masino declined to answer any questions.
She quickly got inside her Mercedes-Benz and was flanked by security in another vehicle as she made a trip to a nearby Starbucks to pick up coffees.
Cracker Barrel’s co-founder Tommy Lowe, 93, slammed the chain’s now-axed logo rebrand
Masino broke cover and was spotted leaving her home in an affluent Nashville neighborhood on Thursday
It marks the first time the CEO has been seen publicly since the logo rebrand, which also eliminated the pinto bean shape behind the name – a nod to one of the original side dishes offered when Cracker Barrel first opened.
Lowe called the rebrand ‘land and pitiful’ and said ‘spending $700 million dollars doing that is throwing money out the window’.
‘If they don’t get back to keeping it country, then it ain’t gonna work,’ he added.
Critics said the changes stripped away the brand’s character and charm, and the backlash cost the company nearly $100 million in market value last week.
Even President Donald Trump weighed in on the change, telling Cracker Barrel bosses to scrap the new logo.
Shortly after Trump’s comments, the company scrapped the re-brand effort.
‘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,’ the company said.
CNN reported that after the rebrand U-turn, Cracker Barrel deleted its ‘Pride page’ from its website and scrubbed references to Diversity and Inclusion efforts.
Cracker Barrel was forced to axe the rebrand on Tuesday after the negative reaction to the new logo, which removed the iconic image of an old man leaning against a barrel
The now-axed new logo also eliminated the pinto bean shape behind the name, a nod to one of the original side dishes offered when Cracker Barrel opened. The traditional logo is pictured
Trump later congratulated the brand for listening to consumers.
Writing on Truth Social, he said: ‘Congratulations “Cracker Barrel” on changing your logo back to what it was.
‘All of your fans very much appreciate it. Good luck into the future. Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again!’
The controversy over the new logo came as the company overhauled its 650 restaurants nationwide, swapping rustic southern-style interiors for a modern look.
That shift, too, has sparked backlash, with customers complaining the chain is ‘just turning into any other restaurant.’
The chain’s name itself comes from barrels once used to deliver crackers to country stores, which later doubled as makeshift tables for community gatherings.
