Saturday, April 15, 2006

Cracker Barrel Hide and Seek

Why do they hide Cracker Barrel restaurants? They always have huge signs on the side of the interstate telling you that there's a Cracker Barrel some ten miles down the road at exit number whatever. And once you get to that exit, you may even be able to see it from the interstate. But once you get off at that exit, actually getting to the Cracker Barrel inevitably involves five left turns, driving through a hotel parking lot, and following a narrow, winding road to some nook or cranny that may have been visible from the interstate, just not from anywhere else. Is the purpose of this to encourage you to stay a spell, since it was so much trouble to get there. "You've been on the road a while, and it was such a pain to get here. You might as well kick back and rest for a couple of hours, seeing as how you probably still have a long drive ahead of you." Or is the point to make you feel like you're really out in the country by isolating it from the surroundings? They must run high on reputation, because I'm not sure I'd have the patience to squint at road signs and drive further and further away from the comfort of brightly-lit fast-food and gas-station clusters to eat at some place I'd never heard of when it's dark and I'm tired and hungry. Cracker Barrel? What do they serve, cheese and crackers?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, barrels - for crackers.
Everybody knows that.
Cheese-o-whiz!

4/16/2006 8:20 PM  

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