These Cracker Barrel Spin-Off Locations Barely Lasted 4 Years Before Being Closed For Good

It's hard to argue that Cracker Barrel isn't among the most iconic restaurant chains in the world over the last 50 years. While Cracker Barrel's atmosphere is set to change due to recent financial struggles today, the mid-1990s saw the Tennessee-based restaurant attempt to open up new spin-off ventures to capitalize on its strong recipes and name value — including a fast casual chain of restaurants called Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Corner Markets, which opened in Tennessee in 1994.

While these smaller restaurants weren't expected to outright replace or even be on par with the popular sit-down restaurants they spun off from, the corner markets were much less successful than the company was hoping for. By the end of 1996, the experiment was deemed a bust, with even Cracker Barrel Old Country Store President Ron Magruder eventually admitting to the concept's overwhelming failure during a 1998 interview with The Orlando Sentinel. "It was like a Boston Market but with Cracker Barrel food," he explained. "The Cracker Barrel name brought people in, but when they realized it was a self-service-style restaurant with a counter (and limited menu), they didn't like that. They expected a regular Cracker Barrel."

The quick failure of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Corner Market left some wondering why it was introduced in the first place. Well, according to Magruder, the reason for such a venture was the result of the chain's dominance — and reliance on locations accessible via interstate highways — leaving minimal room for growth in terms of mainline locations at the time. "At some point, you run out of places to put Cracker Barrel," Magruder admitted in the Orlando Sentinel interview, "Of our 327 stores, 320 are on the interstate." Despite this perceived glass ceiling in the 1990s, the restaurant chain has since grown its numbers to over 600 Cracker Barrel locations currently operating across 43 states as of 2025.

Furthermore, the failure of the corner market didn't stop Cracker Barrel from trying to get a fast-casual spin-off on the ground two decades later; the company launched Holler & Dash in 2017 in an attempt to capture the attention of Millennial diners across the South. However, this new chain also failed to capture fans' attention; each Holler & Dash location shut down in 2020 to make room for Maple Street Biscuit Company restaurants, a brand that was purchased by Cracker Barrel in 2019. Luckily, it seems Cracker Barrel has finally found a winning formula with the Maple Street Biscuit Company, as it ranked quite high on our list of the best brunch spots of 2024 and has continued to expand in the years since its purchase.