Cracker Barrel vs Waffle House

never heard of them.

 

I wish they had Cracker Barrel out here in CA ( the closest one is in Oregon).

Every year for the wife's birthday She requests the biscuits. Thankfully this year we were on the east coast in PA at my parents house which made procurement easy.

Wouldn't it be better to compare Waffle House to IHOP from a menu perspective?

 

Well in that case, I'd take Oh thank heaven....

 

If you are thinking is [state name here] part of the South, there is no truer test than knowing how many Waffle Houses they have.

I tend to 'binge' on Waffle House, I will have 4 plays a year where for 3 nights in a row I do not get away from the theater until after 10 PM. (I do Ticketing before the show, and help with Hospitality during intermission) So I eat where it's still open, which is Waffle House. Good solid food, usually well made. They have a new, simplified Menu, but if you ask, they will give you the older, more complete Menu, with omelets on it. (somewhere, Corporate is misguided) I do go to Waffle House other nights I am out late, but mostly it is 12 night a year, Thursday to Saturday in a row.*

Greenwood Little Theatre | A Community Theatre in Greenwood, Mississippi | Greenwood Little Theatre

I visit IHOP when I visit Bellingham WA, as my daughter eats there after her graves shift at the hospital. I have breakfast as she is having dinner. IHOP has upscale decor but not better food. Service is slower.

Cracker Barrel seems to be nostalgia food, and as I am not FROM the South, I only live here, it has very little for me. I eat there when I am dining with folks from the South.

*Amusing to me, my local Waffle House offers to cater; I have no idea what on their menu would be suitable to have catered. (most likely, misguided Corporate)

 

Soon much closer to you (looks like will open in 2018):

Cracker Barrel
1000 Howe Ave, Sacramento, CA 95825

 

Cracker Barrel
Waffle House
IHOP

I am from the south and I don't eat at these. Give me a little mom and pop cafe any day.

Not saying the three above are bad, just there are others that are better.

You can have our Crapper Barrel if you send us your Legal Seafood.

 

Another interesting chain (that has faded) is Dutch Pantry if you are in PA.

Here is one

dutch-pantry

 

Thanks for the info !

I just hope they will open up before July 27th, so I can avoid a long road trip .

 

I probably go to a Cracker Barrel a half dozen times a year, and since I fix phones for a living I have numerous opportunities to visit Waffle Houses.......mostly opportunities that I pass up.

My Observations as a Damned Yankee**
(**) Northerner who doesn't leave....

-In a world before Overdrive lending libraries and phones with effectively unlimited memory, CB used to be a source of on-the-road audio books for me. They still offer this service, but it's of limited value.
Everything else about this restaurant is geared mainly towards octogenarians wandering aimlessly on interstates in the South-Southeast.
Locals have much better eating choices, and younger travelers are usually waaaaaay too impatient to get back on the road.
Their food is somewhat as stated in the hit piece, but they offer one thing that you cannot get at ANY waffle house......
Blueberry Pancakes!!
Whoever wrote the article is probably a transplanted Northerner who didn't get the memo on southern food being a little saltier and a little more carb and fat laden than food that one finds in other locales.

They usually have large and very clean restrooms, and their restaurants are very kid friendly.

-Waffle Houses are mostly "Awful houses" according to the ladies in my life, with bone chilling interiors and a menu featuring mainly breakfast and lunch items. Since you have to actively work at messing up most breakfast food, these items are usually adequately prepared (right in front of you) but their restrooms are quite small (important if you have small children/grand-kids) and their cleanliness while above par for the South, vary....a LOT.
They usually have some garish plush toy plucker or fake jukebox adding to the diner-din instead of the crayons, checkers, etc....at other road-side stops. There ARE no quiet (or semi-private) conversations in these places, and even though they can be a shining beacon on a dark road at night, they're NO PLACE to enjoy a quiet breakfast.
Their food is fast and usually a half a letter grade better than 'fast food' BUT (!!!) if I'm on the road I'll usually combine gas/food at a proper truck stop, and if I'm local there are better choices.....even at 0300 since (by the grace of a kind and benevolent God) I live where there are still more that one (or even two!!) nearby 24-hour doughnut shops AND.....sometimes, if I'm REALLY lucky, I can get a still-warm blueberry cake doughnut from a local owner who just wants to see if they taste right.

-No person who hails from the South or even a transplant would EVER order a biscuit or cornbread from either establishment with the hopes of getting anything much better than whop-bisquits (biscuits in a tube that you whop on the counter top to open,) although to my semi-southern tastes, they're much better in looks and appearance than those pictured in the hit piece in the OP.

Happy Dining!

 

I eat most at a bakery that does lunches, Veronica's is three generations of El Salvadorian women, siblings, spouses and nieces. lots of Cuban foods, Caribbean food, and Hispanic food, among the American dishes and desserts out of this world.

Veronica's Custom Bakery - Home | Facebook

However, after 10 at night my mom and pop choices are very limited, so Waffle House becomes my choice.

 

Understood. The only time I hit these types of places are usually around 5-6am. We're more often up early instead of out late.

When traveling, I'll stop at a small local cafe where the locals solve the problems of the world every morning and are quick to add you to the group if you like.

 

I blame peer pressure; while we were able to find a local lunch eatery, By the Bridge Bistro, our sit down dinner choices were limited to Capt D's, Subway, and Waffle House this Labor Day. (My wife works most holidays as her clients do not call and interrupt her)

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Bythebridgebistro/photos/?ref=page_internal

We had omelets off the secret menu.

 

my 96 year old father is a big fan of perkins.

 

Is Stuckey's still a thing?

 

There was a Stuckeys in Vaiden MS, about 50 miles from here, but it died about 10 years ago.

stuckey’s | stuff southern people like

Currently there is one 120 miles away in Hazelhurst, MS They are getting rare.

The nearest Stuckeys to you may be Mappsville VA, 240 miles.

 

when we were driving acrost country in 1964, there were stickers billboards everywhere. we used to count them to pass the time.

 

My 95 year old dad also likes Perkins. Hmmm