Cracker Barrel co-founder Tommy Lowe, 93, says the company’s new leadership doesn’t understand the brand’s roots or the customers who built it.
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino told an investing conference on Tuesday that the company updated its logo so that it was more visible on highway billboards.
She noted that the move wasn’t meant to be ideological, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Part of this transformation is setting up success for the long term,” Masino said during the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York City on Tuesday.
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Those plans quickly came to a halt after public outcry forced the company to reverse the move.
FOX Business reached out to Cracker Barrel for comment.
The new Cracker Barrel logo on a menu inside a restaurant Aug. 21, 2025, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In mid-August, Cracker Barrel introduced a new logo, replacing the familiar illustration of “Uncle Herschel” with a modern design featuring only the company’s name. It faced an onslaught of backlash, including from President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social that the company should admit it made a mistake and “manage the company better.”
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Its stock also took a hit, and eventually it prompted the restaurant chain to reverse course just a week later.
A Cracker Barrel restaurant in Dumfries, Va., May 21, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
The company initially defended its decision to change its logo, saying the Uncle Herschel character “will still be on our menu (welcome back Uncle Herschel’s Favorite Breakfast Platter), on our road signs and featured in our country store. He’s not going anywhere — he’s family.”
The company also admitted it could have done a “better job sharing who we are and who we’ll always be” after customers expressed outrage over the restaurant chain’s new logo. However, it wasn’t enough to change the public sentiment.
During the conference, Felss Masino also discussed what it’s been like being targeted by an activist investor for over a decade, according to the Journal.
Sardar Biglari has taken aim at the restaurant chain since 2011. Biglari, founder of Biglari Capital Corp., which owns 2.9% of Cracker Barrel’s common stock, has run seven proxy contests at the chain.
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A Cracker Barrel Country Store in Fishkill, N.Y., Aug. 25, 2025. (Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
Biglari is also the CEO of Biglari Holdings Inc., which is the parent company that owns restaurant chains such as Steak ’n Shake and Western Sizzlin.
Just last month, Biglari tried to convince the board to overhaul its leadership for allegedly destroying shareholder value.
“We are seeking shareholder support to vote against these directors not only due to the severe destruction of shareholder value but also a deeper failure to understand the brand, its customers, and its heritage, and a failure to fulfill the Board’s most important job, selecting the right CEO,” Biglari Capital wrote in the proxy filing.
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Biglari Capital said the board and management both “betrayed the company’s heritage, alienated loyal customers and undermined investor confidence” through their strategies.
