August 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show dives deep into the intersection of politics, culture, and corporate branding, delivering a fast-paced and engaging hour packed with commentary, humor, and listener interaction.
The hour opens with breaking news on Donald Trump’s legal victory, as a New York Appeals Court overturns a $500 million civil penalty in a mortgage fraud case brought by Attorney General Letitia James. The hosts highlight Trump’s celebratory response and pivot to crime statistics in Washington, D.C., where carjackings are down 83% and robberies have dropped by half following the deployment of the National Guard—an effort credited to President Trump.
The conversation then shifts to a lighter but no less controversial topic: Cracker Barrel’s rebranding backlash. The hosts criticize the removal of the iconic grandfather logo and the chain’s attempt to modernize its image, arguing that the move alienates its core Southern customer base. The rebrand is compared to Bud Light’s marketing missteps, with Clay and Buck warning that corporate identity crises often stem from executives disconnected from their consumers. The stock market agrees—Cracker Barrel’s shares dropped $8, wiping out $100 million in market cap.
Listeners weigh in, including Congressman Byron Donalds, who shares his personal experience as a Cracker Barrel waiter and slams the rebrand as unnecessary and culturally tone-deaf. He emphasizes the restaurant’s nostalgic value and calls for companies to embrace their roots rather than chase trends. The segment also features listener feedback from Virginia and North Carolina, echoing dissatisfaction with menu changes and declining food quality.
The hosts explore chain restaurant branding, comparing Cracker Barrel to Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, and Applebee’s, and discuss the cultural symbolism of Southern food. They also touch on beer branding myths, revealing that Foster’s is brewed in Texas and Budweiser is marketed as premium in Australia.
In a humorous interlude, Producer Greg apologizes for ending a previous show with a somber suicide hotline story, coining the phrase “Meow Culpa” in reference to cat owners finding purpose in caring for their pets.
The hour wraps with a preview of college football’s return, including a discussion of the upcoming Alabama vs. Florida State game, and Congressman Donalds’ tips for visiting Tallahassee. The segment closes with a call for common-sense leadership in corporate America, urging brands to stay true to their identity and customer base.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexted show. All right,
we got a lot, let's have some fun our number
two Thursday edition of the program. Some news out there,
as we discussed in the first hour, Trump with a
big legal win New York Appeals Court tosses his five
hundred million dollar mortgage fraud civil penalty verdict from Attorney
(00:24):
General Letitia James. Trump has reacted as you would imagine
that Trump has reacted. We've got news that Trump now says,
we'll have some fun with this, probably in the third hour.
First of all, DC crime has basically collapsed. Carjackings down
eighty three percent, robberies down by half in the nine
some odd days since Trump deployed the National Guard and
(00:49):
additional resources to help drive down crime. As we are speaking,
I believe it is now venue jinks this thing because
inevitably it's going to end. But it has been over
a week since there was a murder in Washington, d C.
They have searched the record books and they cannot find
a summer, which is when murder typically peaks. Kids are
(01:11):
out of school, there's way more people out and about
in the streets. It's usually that time when murders are
peaking all over the country. They have not found a
summer stretch like this in decades, going back to try
to find a period of time where there has been
no murders occurring. So we're gonna get into this maybe
(01:32):
in the third hour, but let's first, We're gonna get
to cracker Barrel momentarily here.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
But I tease this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
As we went to break yesterday, as many of you know,
producer Greg dropped the ball. He said, we like to
end hours and we certainly like to end the show
if you haven't noticed on an uplifting idea, and producer
Greg said, hit this talk back, and immediately it was
a guy talking about working on the suicide hotline and
trying to get people to not kill themselves. And everybody
(02:01):
was just like, well, thanks, producer Greg. We're just going
off into the rest of the day in an awful spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, to be fair, that the gentleman was saying that
people who have cats, when they are in a very
bad way mentally, sometimes what is able to get them
through that when they call the suicide helpline is well,
I need to take care of my cat.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
All that's very fine, but suicide helpline stories should not
be the one that we in the show.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We did not get fair warning. We thought people, we
thought catl were going to be coming at you and
making fun of you, and instead it was like a
very earnest and serious talk back.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's because I suggested that MSNBC, instead of rebranding as
ms now, should should rebrand as Minopause, the Menopause Network,
and that they should spell the pause paws with a
cat paw to reach out to all of their childless
cat ladies that are the base of the MSNBC viewing audience.
(03:04):
But producer Greg, after throwing the show off the rails,
recorded his own talkback we have not heard this.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
To apologize to everyone here, it is. Hey guys, it's
producer Greg.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Sorry, I kind of led you down the path there
on that last talk back yesterday. It was a little grim,
but I thought it was an interesting point, especially as
someone who owns three cats myself, that women won't kill
themselves because they have to feed their cats. Anyway, Sorry
(03:38):
about that.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Mio Couppa.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Is pretty good. I'll give a to Greg on that one.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
He also though even there he's trying to be like,
have it both ways like, Hey cat people, I've got
three cats too. I think there may be a revolution
brewing among the cat fanatics out there. And but thanks
to producer Greg So, that leads into so hopefully all
of you are still alive. That leads into cracker Barrel,
(04:09):
which is dead because they have decided that they need
to rebrand themselves. So I have eaten at cracker barrel
a lot. During the commercial break, my mom texted me
and said, your dad and I used to eat at
the very first cracker barrel in Lennon. Lennon, Tennessee spelled
(04:30):
like Lebanon used to stop there going to Tennessee football games.
The Southerners are not going to be happy about this,
So I don't know what percentage of our audience has
ever eaten at a cracker barrel. I have eaten at
many different cracker barrels over the years. The way that
I would describe cracker barrel is it's basically what your
grandma cooked if you grew up in the South.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
That is this where I would say, as a Yankee,
my first introduction to country fried ste ache, perhaps.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
That would be that would be on the That would
be a very bit they fry a lot of things
at Cracker Barrel as your grandma in the South would
have fried everything. They have great biscuits and gravy. They
have I mean again the way that highway. How are
they for the gluten free community Clay, Probably not great.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Probably not great, That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I don't think gluten free New Yorkers are not the
base of the Cracker Barrel food pyramid.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think it's fair to say they have I feel judged.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They have a country store which has all sorts of
things that your grandma would like to buy. I think
that's probably a fair way to I'm looking at the
menu now. A lot of the food is beige. What
does that mean the color? It's just like looking at
the menu.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They have all the pictures of the food, and it's
it's just like variations of beige. I mean it is
like wings, bread, things that are deep fried in bread,
things put between pieces of bread, and French fries.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yes, like they have corn bread with everything, they have
rolls with everything. The bread is very much of a
Southern staple, so it basically is whatever was super popular
to eat in the South in the forties, the fifties,
the sixties, the seventies. I think it's probably fair to
say this is that writ large Now. I think the
(06:24):
Cracker Barrel is basically in all fifty states. They're based
here in Nashville. They decided Buck that they needed to
rebrand to get hipper, to get fresher. Now, of all
the restaurant chains out there, I can't think of a
less hip and a less forward thinking. And I actually
think that's the strength of the brand. In other words,
(06:46):
the nostalgia is what makes Cracker Barrel exist as a brand.
If you want to go to a hip restaurant, you
are not going to go to Cracker Barrel. That's not
their brand. So they rebranded. They took the old grandfather
off of their logo sitting by the Cracker barrel, and
(07:07):
they now just have the words Cracker Barrel written there
the stock. This is crazy. The stock today has dropped
eight dollars a share. They have taken one hundred million
dollars off of the market cap. Do we have the
audio of the cackling Rachel Maddow looking new CEO of
Cracker Barrel. It's as if she is a terrorist trying
(07:29):
to destroy the existing track, Like if you created a biscuit.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
She's a biscuit terrorist clan.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
If you created a movie villain to destroy a Southern
restaurant chain, it would look exactly like this woman looks.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Do we have the audio of this woman?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I think she was on Good Morning America talking about
how everyone loved the red don't have any We will.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Have it in the next second, so I'll introduce it.
So this is, uh, this is just to me.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Maybe this would have a decade ago, but Cracker Barrel
seems to me to have completely bud lighted themselves, and
I think they're going to have to fire the CEO.
I think they're going to have to acknowledge what I
just told you, which is Cracker Barrel is a nostalgic
place designed to evoke fond memories of people who used
to eat Southern meals like this in the past, and
(08:21):
is not ever going to be something different than it is,
and in fact should lean even more into the brand
that it is created, as opposed to trying to be
I don't know, like an orange and brown version of Applebee's.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
No shame this Applebee's out there. It is impressively calorically
dense in some cases here the hash brown casserole, shepherd's
pie comes in and a lean fourteen hundred calories.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So it is not a place for you go to
lose weight. You do not go to cracker Barrel to
lose weight.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And can I honest question cracker Barrel versus Olive Garden?
Which one is? Which one do you think has better food?
Because I have not been to the cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I am an I'm an expert on chain restaurants because
I have eaten at them all often frequently. I think
it just depends on what kind of food you want.
I mean, olive Garden I think is pretty good Italian
food in a chain setting, just like I think, and
people are gonna get all fired up at me. They're
even gonna agree. Is like I think chain restaurants in
(09:26):
general do a pretty good job. Like is is outback steakhouse?
What an actual Australian steakhouse looks like?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You know, but you know that you know that Foster's
Australian beer I believe is well. First of all, it's
not I don't know if it's sold in Australia. Probably is,
but I think it's like bottled in New Jersey or something.
It's like, oh yeah, I'll do it well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
But by the way, this goes both ways because they
sell Budweiser as a premium brand in Australia, right, So
like Budweiser is I don't know that it's what is
the most premium brand?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I'm sorry. Fort Worth, Texas is the primary brewing location
for Foster's. You can't you can't find it off a Foster's.
But guess what.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The Bloomin Onion maybe the greatest chain restaurant dish ever created.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'll throw it out there. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
If you don't like a Bloomin Onion, I would submit
to you your taste buds probably don't work.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I think that was the most calorically dense single menu
item across all American restaurants at one point in time,
the Bloomin Onion. I think it was something like almost
three thousand calories if you ate one of those, So
I would hope you taste good.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It is amazing, And so I think, what's happening here
is I just said this on Fox News right before
we came on the air. Aisha Hasny, who used to
live in your building in New York City. To tie
everything together, she was hosting for Harris Faulkner. I really
think that all of these companies need a director of
(10:58):
common sense, and that is someone that actually consumes the
product and says, hey, is this something that the base
that actually made this company exist is going to support?
If you had that bud light never happens with Sidney
with Dylan mulvaney. They should go with Sidney Sweeney. The
(11:19):
cracker barrel new logo and the remake does not happen
like this. You would not have Nike lighting its brand
on fire with Colin Kaepernick back in the day. The
NBA wouldn't decide to put political slogans on the back
of jerseys and Black Lives Matter on the court. Again,
just basic common sense. These companies and this is me
(11:41):
getting on a soapbox because it fires me up so much.
These companies employ people who have never ever been fans
of the company that they're leading, and they decide that
they should make a choice without understanding the base of
the company at all.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You can't you can't run a kitchen if you don't
know what your food tastes like. You can't be a
good chef if you're not putting that wooden spoon up
to your mouth and knowing what's going on. You got
to eat your own cooking. Whether it's radio or it's
running a restaurant or whatever. You got to know the
product you're putting out there.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Look, if you didn't have a Southern grandma, you probably
shouldn't be the CEO of Cracker Barrel, because if you
had a Southern grandma, you would recognize the menu and
you would know exactly what the business is. They're trying
to evoke the idea of walking into your grandma's kitchen, right,
can I say grandma home cooked meals?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Caller Steve in San Antonio, Texas wants to weigh in
on this one, and I think we should let him
because he has a different perspective on the Cracker Barrel.
What's going on? Steve?
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Good morning, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I'm in San Antonio.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Cracker Burrel's been here a long time, long long time.
So I've beaten there, you know, now and again for
a long long time. And in recent years product took
a turn for the worst. You know, I don't know
why or exactly what it, what the particulars of that were,
(13:09):
but I had pretty much stopped going there and then
I saw something that that they've changed their menu forget
exactly how they said it, so I wasn't checked it out,
and yeah, it really did look different, and I saw
food coming out that looked different. So I tried it
and they improved it like five hundred percent from where
(13:30):
it had dropped to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And thank you for calling in as a Cracker Barrel
employee to tell us, shuch thing the.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The stock dismissive, dismissive of our esteemed callers taste buds.
Sure I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I don't buy that this guy happens to call in
and give the exact corporate line that the CEO good morning.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
We have a plant in this the audience.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I'm just saying, when you call in with the exact
talking points of the corporation, I just question whether you
are giving your true opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe maybe
he just happens to have the exact talking points. We'll
play it for you that the CEO gave this morning
on Good Morning America. I just think it's awful. I'm skeptical.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You come for the Cracker Barrel, you best not miss
when you're when you're talking about mister Clay Travis's cracker barrel.
You better know what you're doing with the odds.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
What are the odds that somebody calls in and sounds
exactly like what the CEO would want them to sound like,
and maybe exactly the.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
New Country Fried steak is just Look, I have no
dog in this fight. I've never even been to this place.
I don't even think I've seen one before. This is
not a thing we have in the in Yankee town
in the Northeast. Okay, I don't think there are any
cracker guys. Are there cracker barrels up in the Northeast,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I would bet they have a cracker barrel somewhere in
rural New York.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I would bet.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's a good question how many different states are these in.
I would bet the majority of this audience has been
to a cracker barrel before.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Wow, there are cracker barrels in New York near major highways. Yeah,
not in New York.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
City, but yeah, most most people out there, I would
think I would think that they actually that they actually
have probably been there. Well, if you think san Antonio
Caller was actually organic and he just happens to have
the exact same opinion, as the CEO when we come back,
we will play the CEO this morning saying everybody loves
(15:26):
everything that she's doing. It's ironic how that always happens
when the CEO goes on television. Everybody agrees with every
decision they've made. But I want to tell you about
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(15:49):
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Speaker 2 (16:01):
Look, everybody needs to do this.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
If you think your family's gonna feud after you're gone, grandmother, grandfather, dad, mom,
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Speaker 8 (16:32):
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Speaker 2 (16:38):
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Speaker 8 (16:39):
Spend time with Clay and find them on the free
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Speaker 2 (16:46):
All right back? Oh sorry, my bad, yeah, whatever, Close enough,
we're both going to do the same thing, which is
the CEO Cracker Barrel. Let's just hear from her on
the changes, because she thinks she's a genius.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
What if all the customers are coming at you hard
enough about the look at a restaurant and they want
to go back to the old way.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Would you do it?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Honestly, the feedback's been overwhelmingly positive that people like what
we're doing. I'll give you another SoundBite. I actually happened
to be in Orlando last week with all of our managers.
We bring them together and once every other year, and
the number one question that I got asked Michael was
how can I get a remodel? When can I get
a remodel? How do I get on the list. So,
because the feedback and the buzz is so good, not
(17:27):
only from our customers, but from our team members. They
want to work in a wonderful restaurant. So we're doing
everything for our guests and our team members.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Doing everyone great.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Clay, everybody loves my leadership up the greatest CEOs ever existed.
Why is Good Morning America interviewing the CEO of Cracker
Barrel Because there have been five hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
X posts about this Clay. Think about that, five hundred
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Speaker 1 (18:56):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show didn't make
suspect this, but just saw his tweet. Probably the man
who is going to be the next governor at the
Great State of Florida. Byron Donald's used to work at
Cracker Barrel, and I'm gonna let you tell the story
to everybody. I appreciate you calling in. So you come
(19:17):
down to the South from New York and you got
a job at Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Absolutely, it's going to be with you. I worked at
Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee when I was going to college.
I was a waiter. I actually was able to become
a three star waiter, and so that's how high I
rose in the ranks. Man, it was a three star.
I basically did everything in that store at the one
in Tallahassee, and then when I moved to Naples, I
transferred to the one down in Naples. It's on I
(19:43):
seventy five things at one on one. I worked there
for about four or five months in Naples before I
got my first.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Job at the Naples Cracker Barrel. Congressman, did they just
did they have the butler slip you like one hundred
dollars bills? You know that's a very high high rent area.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Listen, even at the Naples Cracker Barrel, it's about biscuits
and hash brown casse role. That's what it's about. They
nobody's slipping hundreds in there. I honestly that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So, what do you think about the rebrand? So this
is actually a brand? I was, it's funny your world
and Cracker Barrel collides. I used to work at an American
Eagle back when I was a teenager. So the whole
Sydney Sweet thing, I felt like that whole controversy was
designed for me. When you saw that they're rebranding and
changing the logo and everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
What's your reaction?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I hate it. I don't even understand why it needed
a rebrand. Cracker Barrel is a staple of you know,
of the country. Everybody comes in there to eat. It
doesn't matter who you are. You've come in there, You've
had your your pancakes and your scrambled eggs and bacon.
You made sure you got your biscuits. You might have
tried the chicken, the country Fried steak, or the chicken
fried chicken. Look, I'm going through the menu and it's
(20:52):
been more than twenty five years since I worked there,
But I will tell you it's a staple. So I
don't even know why we needed this rebrand. Something just
are what they are. That's Cracker Barrel, old country store.
I don't even know why they've removed that out of
the name. And then and even in the inside it
looks it looks like what they did is they try
to have it become like a photo a photo shoot
(21:13):
for like better homes and gardens. I don't even know
what that place looks like. It doesn't look like anything.
That is what Cracker Barrel. What made Cracker Barrel a
real staple in the United States Congressman.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
If I know I am, I'm sorry to say I
have never never been to a cracker barrel establishment, which
is clearly.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Bug is from You're from New York too, I could.
It doesn't surprise me, like I grew up going to
these things all over the country. But I mean described
cracker barrel food to Buck as someone who's I was gonna.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Say, I mean, this is a gentleman. This is a
gentleman who both appreciates the menu and had to help
people navigate it for many years a long time ago, Congressman,
what as a as a first time or if I
walked in there, what is like the best of cracker barrel?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Like?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
What would I forget about my dietary restrictions? Will leave
that aside.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Let me help you. If you're coming in for breakfast,
you have to get the old timer's breakfast, very simple, straightforward.
A couple of scrambled eggs, some bacon, some sausage. They
don't really do link sausage too much. Most if it's
Patty sausage. You could get biscuits. You might get toast
if you ask for it, but you really just want
the biscuits. If you really want to get into it.
(22:22):
Get the French toast. The French toast is some of
the best I've ever had, whether I was serving it
or I'm eating French toasts somewhere else. That's really good stuff.
If you're coming in for dinner, you can't go wrong
with the catfish filets. They're awesome. Fried oak grilled, it's
gonna be great. If you love fried oakrall you can
get that. Green beans are always there. Macaroni and cheese
(22:43):
is always on point and real quick. For the people
who love biscuits, you gotta have their sausage gravy. I
was never a sausage gravy guy, but a lot of
people like it. It's iconic. Man, it is great food. No
matter what you eat, go there. I'm telling you, when
you travel the country, go to Cracker Barrel. Maybe not
this new version. I'm one of the old ones that
we're still designed the old way because the food is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Why do you think this happens? Like you are running
for governor of Florida, You're in Congress now. You have
to talk to people from all different backgrounds all over
the state of Florida, all over the country. And as
you just said, most people understand cracker barrel. It's like
old Southern cooking. You know what you're gonna get. Everybody's
grandma cooked like that if you're in the South at all,
(23:28):
and it has kind of that down home nostalgic feel.
Why is there such an and look, you can connect
this with bud light. I think you can connect it
with lots of things. Why do we let people who
never consume the product go out and try to change
a brand like this?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It seems to happen everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I mean, look, I think you sometimes will get a
new CEO who thinks they have to rethink everything to
prove their worth. What you really need to do as
a chief executive is just make sure that the brand
is earning money, make sure that the operations sound, make
sure the employees are getting the support that they need,
and then you know, no pun intended, but just let
the place cook because if it's cooking good food, people
(24:09):
will continue to come. So these rebrands, I think sometimes
you'll have an executive who thinks they have to leave
their mark, and that's really not what you need to
be doing. You need to make it be making sure
that everybody's making money the earning for shares continue to
look good. I don't know how much they're spending on
this rebrand, just looking at how some of the responses
have been, like mine and a lot of other responses,
it's not going well, you know, so that's probably going
(24:31):
to cost shareholders money. It's pretty unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Okay, shifting gears here.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We got college football kicking off in Ireland this weekend
and other places, and then next weekend. I was actually
going to text you about this. Now I got you
on the show, I'll just tell you I am going
to Alabama Florida State. I have never been to FSU
for a game. For those of you who don't know,
Big Saturday in Tallahassee. When will you be at the game?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Two?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What should I know? And or ghos at Florida State.
I think I'm gonna take a couple of my kids
for that game on opening weekend to college football.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Number one, I won't be in Tallahassee. I wish I was.
I was already scheduled to be in another part of
Florida doing an event. So I'm sad I'm miss the Knowles,
but you know, I'm looking forward to seeing how we
start this season. Two, make sure you take your kids
to the Unconquered Statue at the stadium. It's an iconic
statue right in front of Doe Campbell it trust me,
(25:29):
it's it's nothing like it. Three And I'm and I'm
pulling from my knowles. I think we're going to rebound
from last season. So when that tomahawk chop comes out,
let your kids do the tomahawk chop. Let them be
a part of it. It's iconic in college football outstate.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I want to throw this. I just want to throw
this out there. I was looking at looking this up
and hatsip our friend Sean Davis, Congressman. This may go
a little bit too. What happened with Cracker Barrel? Bring
us back around here for a second. The Cracker Barrel Chick.
This is the New York Times Cracker Barrel chain, evoking
Southern style home cooking and hospitality long scene as a
white coated establishment that aligned with conservative social norms. Oh
(26:11):
oh okay, you see.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
This is what I mean. You get some news, some
new ceo who thinks it's time to do something different.
Now they're concerned that too many conservatives eat at cracker Barrel.
I got a news flash for this lady. I'm assuming
it's a lady. Now that's that's the news.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's definitely it's a lady who looks like it looks
like she's feeding her five cats while she's watching MS.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Now, yes, oh boy, all right, newsflash for her. This
is how you lose customers because go look at your
customer base. They're just regular people. They go and they
eat good breakfast. A lot of repeats from people who
live in the community who swear by Cracker Barrel and
now they're going to go somewhere else. I mean, this
is how you end up losing your company. This is
(26:51):
these are the dumb decisions for people who think they're
smarter than everybody else. What she should do is go
be undercover, boss and go travel the country before you
do these remodels, and to see how people are in
these restaurants. Like I worked in a Cracker Barrel for
almost four years. Everybody was great. I never felt, you know,
I'm a black man. I never felt like, oh, somebody
was trying to hold me down because I was serving
(27:13):
biscuits in the morning.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It sounds to me, Congressman, like you disagree with the
new York. The New York Times describes it as a
quote cracker barrel as quote a lightning rod for identity politics.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's the New York Times. Of course I disagree with them.
They're stupid. They don't know what you're talking about. That's
why they're all sure.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
But I mean, I do think this is important. You
worked as a waiter there, and you said this earlier.
People from all different backgrounds come in, and it sounds
like you had a really good experience with the patrons
and the overall environment of the place when you worked there.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, well, what percentage of patrons would you say if
you had to just put a percentage on it. We're
just we're friendly and polite folks who were there to
have a nice meal, either alone or with their friends
or family. Like, what would you what would you put
that number at? Roughly and your four years of working now,
I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Oh, it's like ninety eight percent. Ninety eight Yeah, a
good number. You know, every now and again, somebody might
get a little rowdy if they didn't get their biscuits.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Well that's true of any that's true of any restaurant, right,
But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Ninety percent everybody was good. They just they just want
to come in to eat good food.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
That's what it's about, all right, Congressman, anything else you
want to announce while we're here, while we got you,
and you're already running for governor. Right, I'm a Floridian,
So can you keep this place? Can you just promise
you'll keep this place awesome when you're governor?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
What I what I'll tell you is in Florida, we're
going to continue to be the free state of Florida.
That will not change. Everything is going great. Proud and
honored to have President Trump's endorsement, Rick Scott's endorsement, most
of the congressional delegation. We're just gonna take our state
to a whole nother level, but it will continue to
be the free state of Florida.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Appreciate you, sir. We'll talk to you again soon, especially
as that gets closer. Right, thanks for making the time
for us today, Congress and Donald's all.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Right, takeing these of guys.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
You never know. You don't have to look that long.
You figure figure it out. The CEO came in, it's
because there's this there's a perception among people. This is
what I think we've unearthed here, and I'm speaking kind
of from the outsider perspective, there's a perception among coastal
elites that cracker Barrel is coded as old white and Southern,
(29:16):
and therefore inherently, even though it's just selling biscuits and
pancakes and things to whomever goes through the door, and
people seem to love the place, inherently problematic. There's something
problematic about the perception which is not even rooted in
anything of it, for it's old white and Southern.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Well, what I would say, and I am not an
expert in cuisine, clearly, but in my experience, white and
black people in the South eat very very similar foods.
So I've never met anybody of any race in the
South who was like, you know what, I'm not really
a biscuit guy, you know what, I'm not really I'm
(29:57):
not really into fried catfish, you know what. I'm not
really into cobblers and pecan pies and all this stuff.
I just I see people eating very similar foods. I've
been into cracker barrels all over the Southeast, and my
experience would reflect what Congress McDonald's just said, which is
most of the people there are just good old fashioned people. Now,
(30:22):
would it surprise me if Cracker Barrel, to your point
to the New York Times codes because it's a Southern
based company, as more likely to be eaten in by
a Trump voter than I don't know, I'm trying to think.
I don't even know what the equivalent restaurant of liberals
would be. Yeah, I would think that. But it's all
(30:44):
over the South. I mean, so this is what people
have picked up on the South.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
This is what they picked up on. Is that to
quote modernize it or to update it is to desuthernize it.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
But that's my issue with it. It is the South.
It's like say, but that's the point. It's everyone's issue
with it. That's why there's five hundred thousand tweets.
Speaker 9 (31:04):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
And this is where I also think you. I think
it's very similar to bud Light. You take somebody from
New York or LA who would never drink a bud
Light and they say, you know what we should do.
We should have trans influencers. Was there any trans person
who was not drinking bud Light because bud Light wasn't
trans enough?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The reason people go to Cracker Barrel is to get
a good home cooked, old school style Southern meal that
your black grandma or your black or your white grandma
might have made for you back in the day, and
as some grandmas to this day continue to cook. And
so when you're trying to take away that which made
(31:47):
people go to it in the first place. Again, I
don't understand the marketplace for cracker barrel is not to
be Applebee's. And that's not a shot at Applebee's. But
Applebee's is like the most we'll probably just got a
big deal we're about to do with Applebe's and they're like,
this is done forever. But I would say like Applebee's
is the most generic Americana style food out there. Like
(32:10):
what does Applebee's stand for?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Right?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It's like kind of this is generic. This is generic.
Do you feel like I feel like Applebee's just caught
an out down there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I'm trying to take Applebee's out. But like Chili's you
would be like, hey, Chili's is Mexican style food. Olive
Garden you'd be like, Olive Garden is Italian style food.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Outback is Australian steak steakhouse South Texas Roadhouse.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I mean it isn't is it though? Is out back
Australian I get.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I know it's not at all like that, but you
understand the branding concept. The entire branding of Cracker Barrel
is Southern style food. There is no competitor for that.
There's a lot of competitor for Applebee's.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
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ain't imagining it. The world has that's gone insane. We
claim your sanity with Clay and Fun.
Speaker 8 (34:04):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Let's dive right into
calls here, but just tell you about Crockett Coffee. I
realize I'm holding up not a mug but a glass,
but it's got Crockett coffee. I drink it cold too.
You can make cold brew with your Crockett coffee for yourself.
Highly recommend you do so. Go to Crockett Coffee dot com.
Like Cracker Barrel, a great American brand that also has
a C in the name. You think this is a coincidence.
(34:32):
I think not Rocket Gota.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Replaced by the way Davy Crockett from our logo.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
We aren knows. We decide that it is too antiquated.
If we can make him look cooler, we will, but
we will not get rid of Davy Crockett. He is
an American patriot and hero, and we celebrate him and
American history in general. But remember ten percent of prophets
goes to tunnel the towers. Please get some Crocket coffee today.
Try the mushroom coffee if you haven't already. It's really
interesting stuff. Deborah in Virginia once talk Cracker Barrel. I
(35:01):
had a feeling. What's going on? Debra?
Speaker 6 (35:04):
Thank you for having me on. I wanted to say
that Cracker Barrel was one of my favorite restaurants of
all time. They changed their menu maybe two years ago.
They dropped the pot roast off of their menu and
replaced it with something else which just didn't hold up
to the standard they had before. And since they did that,
(35:26):
I haven't gone back.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
What do you think about changing the logo.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
I don't like it. I don't see the point. I
think that they've made a huge mistake.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Thank you call a bunch of people wanted to weigh
in ANDed in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
What you got for us, very clay.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Yeah, listen, I agree with that caller from San Antonio,
Cracker Barrel. The menu is trash man, not the menu,
but the execution. Their product control is trash. I went
in there a couple of months ago and I had
the basic chicken friede and it was god awful. So
they need to keep the menu, like you said, more socially.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
So sorry, sorry you disagree with the caller from saying,
I guess I'm confused.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
He said the changes were great. You're saying the changes.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I'm saying they need to improve their quality control. The
existing menu is good, but the way they're executing it
is trash.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Leonard in Virginia really quick, all right, Leonard Trump, we'll
come back third hour. We're getting delused and cracker Buck
had no idea what he was stepping into today. Well,
President Trump is saying that he's going to go on
patrol in DC. We'll dive into this as well as
crime is plummeting in our nation's capital. More data for
(36:44):
you on that. We will share it all with you.
More Cracker Barrel feedback and Trump's big legal win. All
that coming to you third hour neck
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexted show. All right,
we got a lot, let's have some fun our number
two Thursday edition of the program. Some news out there,
as we discussed in the first hour, Trump with a
big legal win New York Appeals Court tosses his five
hundred million dollar mortgage fraud civil penalty verdict from Attorney
(00:24):
General Letitia James. Trump has reacted as you would imagine
that Trump has reacted. We've got news that Trump now says,
we'll have some fun with this, probably in the third hour.
First of all, DC crime has basically collapsed. Carjackings down
eighty three percent, robberies down by half in the nine
some odd days since Trump deployed the National Guard and
(00:49):
additional resources to help drive down crime. As we are speaking,
I believe it is now venue jinks this thing because
inevitably it's going to end. But it has been over
a week since there was a murder in Washington, d C.
They have searched the record books and they cannot find
a summer, which is when murder typically peaks. Kids are
(01:11):
out of school, there's way more people out and about
in the streets. It's usually that time when murders are
peaking all over the country. They have not found a
summer stretch like this in decades, going back to try
to find a period of time where there has been
no murders occurring. So we're gonna get into this maybe
(01:32):
in the third hour, but let's first, We're gonna get
to cracker Barrel momentarily here.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
But I tease this.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
As we went to break yesterday, as many of you know,
producer Greg dropped the ball. He said, we like to
end hours and we certainly like to end the show
if you haven't noticed on an uplifting idea, and producer
Greg said, hit this talk back, and immediately it was
a guy talking about working on the suicide hotline and
trying to get people to not kill themselves. And everybody
(02:01):
was just like, well, thanks, producer Greg. We're just going
off into the rest of the day in an awful spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, to be fair, that the gentleman was saying that
people who have cats, when they are in a very
bad way mentally, sometimes what is able to get them
through that when they call the suicide helpline is well,
I need to take care of my cat.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
All that's very fine, but suicide helpline stories should not
be the one that we in the show.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We did not get fair warning. We thought people, we
thought catl were going to be coming at you and
making fun of you, and instead it was like a
very earnest and serious talk back.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's because I suggested that MSNBC, instead of rebranding as
ms now, should should rebrand as Minopause, the Menopause Network,
and that they should spell the pause paws with a
cat paw to reach out to all of their childless
cat ladies that are the base of the MSNBC viewing audience.
(03:04):
But producer Greg, after throwing the show off the rails,
recorded his own talkback we have not heard this.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
To apologize to everyone here, it is. Hey guys, it's
producer Greg.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Sorry, I kind of led you down the path there
on that last talk back yesterday. It was a little grim,
but I thought it was an interesting point, especially as
someone who owns three cats myself, that women won't kill
themselves because they have to feed their cats. Anyway, Sorry
(03:38):
about that.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Mio Couppa.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Is pretty good. I'll give a to Greg on that one.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
He also though even there he's trying to be like,
have it both ways like, Hey cat people, I've got
three cats too. I think there may be a revolution
brewing among the cat fanatics out there. And but thanks
to producer Greg So, that leads into so hopefully all
of you are still alive. That leads into cracker Barrel,
(04:09):
which is dead because they have decided that they need
to rebrand themselves. So I have eaten at cracker barrel
a lot. During the commercial break, my mom texted me
and said, your dad and I used to eat at
the very first cracker barrel in Lennon. Lennon, Tennessee spelled
(04:30):
like Lebanon used to stop there going to Tennessee football games.
The Southerners are not going to be happy about this,
So I don't know what percentage of our audience has
ever eaten at a cracker barrel. I have eaten at
many different cracker barrels over the years. The way that
I would describe cracker barrel is it's basically what your
grandma cooked if you grew up in the South.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
That is this where I would say, as a Yankee,
my first introduction to country fried ste ache, perhaps.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
That would be that would be on the That would
be a very bit they fry a lot of things
at Cracker Barrel as your grandma in the South would
have fried everything. They have great biscuits and gravy. They
have I mean again the way that highway. How are
they for the gluten free community Clay, Probably not great.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Probably not great, That's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I don't think gluten free New Yorkers are not the
base of the Cracker Barrel food pyramid.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think it's fair to say they have I feel judged.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They have a country store which has all sorts of
things that your grandma would like to buy. I think
that's probably a fair way to I'm looking at the
menu now. A lot of the food is beige. What
does that mean the color? It's just like looking at
the menu.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
They have all the pictures of the food, and it's
it's just like variations of beige. I mean it is
like wings, bread, things that are deep fried in bread,
things put between pieces of bread, and French fries.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yes, like they have corn bread with everything, they have
rolls with everything. The bread is very much of a
Southern staple, so it basically is whatever was super popular
to eat in the South in the forties, the fifties,
the sixties, the seventies. I think it's probably fair to
say this is that writ large Now. I think the
(06:24):
Cracker Barrel is basically in all fifty states. They're based
here in Nashville. They decided Buck that they needed to
rebrand to get hipper, to get fresher. Now, of all
the restaurant chains out there, I can't think of a
less hip and a less forward thinking. And I actually
think that's the strength of the brand. In other words,
(06:46):
the nostalgia is what makes Cracker Barrel exist as a brand.
If you want to go to a hip restaurant, you
are not going to go to Cracker Barrel. That's not
their brand. So they rebranded. They took the old grandfather
off of their logo sitting by the Cracker barrel, and
(07:07):
they now just have the words Cracker Barrel written there
the stock. This is crazy. The stock today has dropped
eight dollars a share. They have taken one hundred million
dollars off of the market cap. Do we have the
audio of the cackling Rachel Maddow looking new CEO of
Cracker Barrel. It's as if she is a terrorist trying
(07:29):
to destroy the existing track, Like if you created a biscuit.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
She's a biscuit terrorist clan.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
If you created a movie villain to destroy a Southern
restaurant chain, it would look exactly like this woman looks.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Do we have the audio of this woman?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I think she was on Good Morning America talking about
how everyone loved the red don't have any We will.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Have it in the next second, so I'll introduce it.
So this is, uh, this is just to me.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Maybe this would have a decade ago, but Cracker Barrel
seems to me to have completely bud lighted themselves, and
I think they're going to have to fire the CEO.
I think they're going to have to acknowledge what I
just told you, which is Cracker Barrel is a nostalgic
place designed to evoke fond memories of people who used
to eat Southern meals like this in the past, and
(08:21):
is not ever going to be something different than it is,
and in fact should lean even more into the brand
that it is created, as opposed to trying to be
I don't know, like an orange and brown version of Applebee's.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
No shame this Applebee's out there. It is impressively calorically
dense in some cases here the hash brown casserole, shepherd's
pie comes in and a lean fourteen hundred calories.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So it is not a place for you go to
lose weight. You do not go to cracker Barrel to
lose weight.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And can I honest question cracker Barrel versus Olive Garden?
Which one is? Which one do you think has better food?
Because I have not been to the cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I am an I'm an expert on chain restaurants because
I have eaten at them all often frequently. I think
it just depends on what kind of food you want.
I mean, olive Garden I think is pretty good Italian
food in a chain setting, just like I think, and
people are gonna get all fired up at me. They're
even gonna agree. Is like I think chain restaurants in
(09:26):
general do a pretty good job. Like is is outback steakhouse?
What an actual Australian steakhouse looks like?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You know, but you know that you know that Foster's
Australian beer I believe is well. First of all, it's
not I don't know if it's sold in Australia. Probably is,
but I think it's like bottled in New Jersey or something.
It's like, oh yeah, I'll do it well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
But by the way, this goes both ways because they
sell Budweiser as a premium brand in Australia, right, So
like Budweiser is I don't know that it's what is
the most premium brand?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I'm sorry. Fort Worth, Texas is the primary brewing location
for Foster's. You can't you can't find it off a Foster's.
But guess what.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The Bloomin Onion maybe the greatest chain restaurant dish ever created.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'll throw it out there. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
If you don't like a Bloomin Onion, I would submit
to you your taste buds probably don't work.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I think that was the most calorically dense single menu
item across all American restaurants at one point in time,
the Bloomin Onion. I think it was something like almost
three thousand calories if you ate one of those, So
I would hope you taste good.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It is amazing, And so I think, what's happening here
is I just said this on Fox News right before
we came on the air. Aisha Hasny, who used to
live in your building in New York City. To tie
everything together, she was hosting for Harris Faulkner. I really
think that all of these companies need a director of
(10:58):
common sense, and that is someone that actually consumes the
product and says, hey, is this something that the base
that actually made this company exist is going to support?
If you had that bud light never happens with Sidney
with Dylan mulvaney. They should go with Sidney Sweeney. The
(11:19):
cracker barrel new logo and the remake does not happen
like this. You would not have Nike lighting its brand
on fire with Colin Kaepernick back in the day. The
NBA wouldn't decide to put political slogans on the back
of jerseys and Black Lives Matter on the court. Again,
just basic common sense. These companies and this is me
(11:41):
getting on a soapbox because it fires me up so much.
These companies employ people who have never ever been fans
of the company that they're leading, and they decide that
they should make a choice without understanding the base of
the company at all.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You can't you can't run a kitchen if you don't
know what your food tastes like. You can't be a
good chef if you're not putting that wooden spoon up
to your mouth and knowing what's going on. You got
to eat your own cooking. Whether it's radio or it's
running a restaurant or whatever. You got to know the
product you're putting out there.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Look, if you didn't have a Southern grandma, you probably
shouldn't be the CEO of Cracker Barrel, because if you
had a Southern grandma, you would recognize the menu and
you would know exactly what the business is. They're trying
to evoke the idea of walking into your grandma's kitchen, right,
can I say grandma home cooked meals?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Caller Steve in San Antonio, Texas wants to weigh in
on this one, and I think we should let him
because he has a different perspective on the Cracker Barrel.
What's going on? Steve?
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Good morning, Thank you.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
I'm in San Antonio.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Cracker Burrel's been here a long time, long long time.
So I've beaten there, you know, now and again for
a long long time. And in recent years product took
a turn for the worst. You know, I don't know
why or exactly what it, what the particulars of that were,
(13:09):
but I had pretty much stopped going there and then
I saw something that that they've changed their menu forget
exactly how they said it, so I wasn't checked it out,
and yeah, it really did look different, and I saw
food coming out that looked different. So I tried it
and they improved it like five hundred percent from where
(13:30):
it had dropped to.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And thank you for calling in as a Cracker Barrel
employee to tell us, shuch thing the.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
The stock dismissive, dismissive of our esteemed callers taste buds.
Sure I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I don't buy that this guy happens to call in
and give the exact corporate line that the CEO good morning.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
We have a plant in this the audience.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I'm just saying, when you call in with the exact
talking points of the corporation, I just question whether you
are giving your true opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe maybe
he just happens to have the exact talking points. We'll
play it for you that the CEO gave this morning
on Good Morning America. I just think it's awful. I'm skeptical.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You come for the Cracker Barrel, you best not miss
when you're when you're talking about mister Clay Travis's cracker barrel.
You better know what you're doing with the odds.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
What are the odds that somebody calls in and sounds
exactly like what the CEO would want them to sound like,
and maybe exactly the.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
New Country Fried steak is just Look, I have no
dog in this fight. I've never even been to this place.
I don't even think I've seen one before. This is
not a thing we have in the in Yankee town
in the Northeast. Okay, I don't think there are any
cracker guys. Are there cracker barrels up in the Northeast,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I would bet they have a cracker barrel somewhere in
rural New York.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I would bet.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's a good question how many different states are these in.
I would bet the majority of this audience has been
to a cracker barrel before.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Wow, there are cracker barrels in New York near major highways. Yeah,
not in New York.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
City, but yeah, most most people out there, I would
think I would think that they actually that they actually
have probably been there. Well, if you think san Antonio
Caller was actually organic and he just happens to have
the exact same opinion, as the CEO when we come back,
we will play the CEO this morning saying everybody loves
(15:26):
everything that she's doing. It's ironic how that always happens
when the CEO goes on television. Everybody agrees with every
decision they've made. But I want to tell you about
trust and will. Maybe maybe you were listening to producer
Greg's final call at the end of the last show
and you were thinking, Hey, maybe it's time. Maybe it's time.
I got to go get my trust and Will done.
Trustinwill dot com. You can get twenty percent off. Right now,
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we're having a funeral for Cracker Barrel. Go ahead and
take care of your own funeral. Get your trust and
Will done. Trustinwill dot com is the website twenty percent
off when you use my name, Clay.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Look, everybody needs to do this.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
If you think your family's gonna feud after you're gone, grandmother, grandfather, dad, mom,
whoever it is. If you're trying to make your family's
life better and you're trying to leave behind less chaos,
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best for the family, why not tell them exactly. You
don't have to get a lawyer you can save twenty
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percent right now. Trustinwill dot com. My name Clay, that's
trustinwill dot com. My name Clay.
Speaker 8 (16:32):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
All each day.
Speaker 8 (16:39):
Spend time with Clay and find them on the free
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
All right back? Oh sorry, my bad, yeah, whatever, Close enough,
we're both going to do the same thing, which is
the CEO Cracker Barrel. Let's just hear from her on
the changes, because she thinks she's a genius.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
What if all the customers are coming at you hard
enough about the look at a restaurant and they want
to go back to the old way.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Would you do it?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Honestly, the feedback's been overwhelmingly positive that people like what
we're doing. I'll give you another SoundBite. I actually happened
to be in Orlando last week with all of our managers.
We bring them together and once every other year, and
the number one question that I got asked Michael was
how can I get a remodel? When can I get
a remodel? How do I get on the list. So,
because the feedback and the buzz is so good, not
(17:27):
only from our customers, but from our team members. They
want to work in a wonderful restaurant. So we're doing
everything for our guests and our team members.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Doing everyone great.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Clay, everybody loves my leadership up the greatest CEOs ever existed.
Why is Good Morning America interviewing the CEO of Cracker
Barrel Because there have been five hundred thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
X posts about this Clay. Think about that, five hundred
thousand posts about a logo chain. It's wild. Our federal
government has a funding problem. You know that one of
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in debt is just going to keep going and going,
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Speaker 1 (18:56):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show didn't make
suspect this, but just saw his tweet. Probably the man
who is going to be the next governor at the
Great State of Florida. Byron Donald's used to work at
Cracker Barrel, and I'm gonna let you tell the story
to everybody. I appreciate you calling in. So you come
(19:17):
down to the South from New York and you got
a job at Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Absolutely, it's going to be with you. I worked at
Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee when I was going to college.
I was a waiter. I actually was able to become
a three star waiter, and so that's how high I
rose in the ranks. Man, it was a three star.
I basically did everything in that store at the one
in Tallahassee, and then when I moved to Naples, I
transferred to the one down in Naples. It's on I
(19:43):
seventy five things at one on one. I worked there
for about four or five months in Naples before I
got my first.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Job at the Naples Cracker Barrel. Congressman, did they just
did they have the butler slip you like one hundred
dollars bills? You know that's a very high high rent area.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Listen, even at the Naples Cracker Barrel, it's about biscuits
and hash brown casse role. That's what it's about. They
nobody's slipping hundreds in there. I honestly that.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
So, what do you think about the rebrand? So this
is actually a brand? I was, it's funny your world
and Cracker Barrel collides. I used to work at an American
Eagle back when I was a teenager. So the whole
Sydney Sweet thing, I felt like that whole controversy was
designed for me. When you saw that they're rebranding and
changing the logo and everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
What's your reaction?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I hate it. I don't even understand why it needed
a rebrand. Cracker Barrel is a staple of you know,
of the country. Everybody comes in there to eat. It
doesn't matter who you are. You've come in there, You've
had your your pancakes and your scrambled eggs and bacon.
You made sure you got your biscuits. You might have
tried the chicken, the country Fried steak, or the chicken
fried chicken. Look, I'm going through the menu and it's
(20:52):
been more than twenty five years since I worked there,
But I will tell you it's a staple. So I
don't even know why we needed this rebrand. Something just
are what they are. That's Cracker Barrel, old country store.
I don't even know why they've removed that out of
the name. And then and even in the inside it
looks it looks like what they did is they try
to have it become like a photo a photo shoot
(21:13):
for like better homes and gardens. I don't even know
what that place looks like. It doesn't look like anything.
That is what Cracker Barrel. What made Cracker Barrel a
real staple in the United States Congressman.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
If I know I am, I'm sorry to say I
have never never been to a cracker barrel establishment, which
is clearly.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Bug is from You're from New York too, I could.
It doesn't surprise me, like I grew up going to
these things all over the country. But I mean described
cracker barrel food to Buck as someone who's I was gonna.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Say, I mean, this is a gentleman. This is a
gentleman who both appreciates the menu and had to help
people navigate it for many years a long time ago, Congressman,
what as a as a first time or if I
walked in there, what is like the best of cracker barrel?
Speaker 6 (21:55):
Like?
Speaker 2 (21:56):
What would I forget about my dietary restrictions? Will leave
that aside.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Let me help you. If you're coming in for breakfast,
you have to get the old timer's breakfast, very simple, straightforward.
A couple of scrambled eggs, some bacon, some sausage. They
don't really do link sausage too much. Most if it's
Patty sausage. You could get biscuits. You might get toast
if you ask for it, but you really just want
the biscuits. If you really want to get into it.
(22:22):
Get the French toast. The French toast is some of
the best I've ever had, whether I was serving it
or I'm eating French toasts somewhere else. That's really good stuff.
If you're coming in for dinner, you can't go wrong
with the catfish filets. They're awesome. Fried oak grilled, it's
gonna be great. If you love fried oakrall you can
get that. Green beans are always there. Macaroni and cheese
(22:43):
is always on point and real quick. For the people
who love biscuits, you gotta have their sausage gravy. I
was never a sausage gravy guy, but a lot of
people like it. It's iconic. Man, it is great food. No
matter what you eat, go there. I'm telling you, when
you travel the country, go to Cracker Barrel. Maybe not
this new version. I'm one of the old ones that
we're still designed the old way because the food is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Why do you think this happens? Like you are running
for governor of Florida, You're in Congress now. You have
to talk to people from all different backgrounds all over
the state of Florida, all over the country. And as
you just said, most people understand cracker barrel. It's like
old Southern cooking. You know what you're gonna get. Everybody's
grandma cooked like that if you're in the South at all,
(23:28):
and it has kind of that down home nostalgic feel.
Why is there such an and look, you can connect
this with bud light. I think you can connect it
with lots of things. Why do we let people who
never consume the product go out and try to change
a brand like this?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It seems to happen everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I mean, look, I think you sometimes will get a
new CEO who thinks they have to rethink everything to
prove their worth. What you really need to do as
a chief executive is just make sure that the brand
is earning money, make sure that the operations sound, make
sure the employees are getting the support that they need,
and then you know, no pun intended, but just let
the place cook because if it's cooking good food, people
(24:09):
will continue to come. So these rebrands, I think sometimes
you'll have an executive who thinks they have to leave
their mark, and that's really not what you need to
be doing. You need to make it be making sure
that everybody's making money the earning for shares continue to
look good. I don't know how much they're spending on
this rebrand, just looking at how some of the responses
have been, like mine and a lot of other responses,
it's not going well, you know, so that's probably going
(24:31):
to cost shareholders money. It's pretty unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Okay, shifting gears here.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
We got college football kicking off in Ireland this weekend
and other places, and then next weekend. I was actually
going to text you about this. Now I got you
on the show, I'll just tell you I am going
to Alabama Florida State. I have never been to FSU
for a game. For those of you who don't know,
Big Saturday in Tallahassee. When will you be at the game?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Two?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
What should I know? And or ghos at Florida State.
I think I'm gonna take a couple of my kids
for that game on opening weekend to college football.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Number one, I won't be in Tallahassee. I wish I was.
I was already scheduled to be in another part of
Florida doing an event. So I'm sad I'm miss the Knowles,
but you know, I'm looking forward to seeing how we
start this season. Two, make sure you take your kids
to the Unconquered Statue at the stadium. It's an iconic
statue right in front of Doe Campbell it trust me,
(25:29):
it's it's nothing like it. Three And I'm and I'm
pulling from my knowles. I think we're going to rebound
from last season. So when that tomahawk chop comes out,
let your kids do the tomahawk chop. Let them be
a part of it. It's iconic in college football outstate.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I want to throw this. I just want to throw
this out there. I was looking at looking this up
and hatsip our friend Sean Davis, Congressman. This may go
a little bit too. What happened with Cracker Barrel? Bring
us back around here for a second. The Cracker Barrel Chick.
This is the New York Times Cracker Barrel chain, evoking
Southern style home cooking and hospitality long scene as a
white coated establishment that aligned with conservative social norms. Oh
(26:11):
oh okay, you see.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
This is what I mean. You get some news, some
new ceo who thinks it's time to do something different.
Now they're concerned that too many conservatives eat at cracker Barrel.
I got a news flash for this lady. I'm assuming
it's a lady. Now that's that's the news.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's definitely it's a lady who looks like it looks
like she's feeding her five cats while she's watching MS.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Now, yes, oh boy, all right, newsflash for her. This
is how you lose customers because go look at your
customer base. They're just regular people. They go and they
eat good breakfast. A lot of repeats from people who
live in the community who swear by Cracker Barrel and
now they're going to go somewhere else. I mean, this
is how you end up losing your company. This is
(26:51):
these are the dumb decisions for people who think they're
smarter than everybody else. What she should do is go
be undercover, boss and go travel the country before you
do these remodels, and to see how people are in
these restaurants. Like I worked in a Cracker Barrel for
almost four years. Everybody was great. I never felt, you know,
I'm a black man. I never felt like, oh, somebody
was trying to hold me down because I was serving
(27:13):
biscuits in the morning.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It sounds to me, Congressman, like you disagree with the
new York. The New York Times describes it as a
quote cracker barrel as quote a lightning rod for identity politics.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's the New York Times. Of course I disagree with them.
They're stupid. They don't know what you're talking about. That's
why they're all sure.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
But I mean, I do think this is important. You
worked as a waiter there, and you said this earlier.
People from all different backgrounds come in, and it sounds
like you had a really good experience with the patrons
and the overall environment of the place when you worked there.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, well, what percentage of patrons would you say if
you had to just put a percentage on it. We're
just we're friendly and polite folks who were there to
have a nice meal, either alone or with their friends
or family. Like, what would you what would you put
that number at? Roughly and your four years of working now,
I'm just curious.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Oh, it's like ninety eight percent. Ninety eight Yeah, a
good number. You know, every now and again, somebody might
get a little rowdy if they didn't get their biscuits.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Well that's true of any that's true of any restaurant, right,
But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Ninety percent everybody was good. They just they just want
to come in to eat good food.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
That's what it's about, all right, Congressman, anything else you
want to announce while we're here, while we got you,
and you're already running for governor. Right, I'm a Floridian,
So can you keep this place? Can you just promise
you'll keep this place awesome when you're governor?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
What I what I'll tell you is in Florida, we're
going to continue to be the free state of Florida.
That will not change. Everything is going great. Proud and
honored to have President Trump's endorsement, Rick Scott's endorsement, most
of the congressional delegation. We're just gonna take our state
to a whole nother level, but it will continue to
be the free state of Florida.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Appreciate you, sir. We'll talk to you again soon, especially
as that gets closer. Right, thanks for making the time
for us today, Congress and Donald's all.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Right, takeing these of guys.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
You never know. You don't have to look that long.
You figure figure it out. The CEO came in, it's
because there's this there's a perception among people. This is
what I think we've unearthed here, and I'm speaking kind
of from the outsider perspective, there's a perception among coastal
elites that cracker Barrel is coded as old white and Southern,
(29:16):
and therefore inherently, even though it's just selling biscuits and
pancakes and things to whomever goes through the door, and
people seem to love the place, inherently problematic. There's something
problematic about the perception which is not even rooted in
anything of it, for it's old white and Southern.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Well, what I would say, and I am not an
expert in cuisine, clearly, but in my experience, white and
black people in the South eat very very similar foods.
So I've never met anybody of any race in the
South who was like, you know what, I'm not really
a biscuit guy, you know what, I'm not really I'm
(29:57):
not really into fried catfish, you know what. I'm not
really into cobblers and pecan pies and all this stuff.
I just I see people eating very similar foods. I've
been into cracker barrels all over the Southeast, and my
experience would reflect what Congress McDonald's just said, which is
most of the people there are just good old fashioned people. Now,
(30:22):
would it surprise me if Cracker Barrel, to your point
to the New York Times codes because it's a Southern
based company, as more likely to be eaten in by
a Trump voter than I don't know, I'm trying to think.
I don't even know what the equivalent restaurant of liberals
would be. Yeah, I would think that. But it's all
(30:44):
over the South. I mean, so this is what people
have picked up on the South.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
This is what they picked up on. Is that to
quote modernize it or to update it is to desuthernize it.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
But that's my issue with it. It is the South.
It's like say, but that's the point. It's everyone's issue
with it. That's why there's five hundred thousand tweets.
Speaker 9 (31:04):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
And this is where I also think you. I think
it's very similar to bud Light. You take somebody from
New York or LA who would never drink a bud
Light and they say, you know what we should do.
We should have trans influencers. Was there any trans person
who was not drinking bud Light because bud Light wasn't
trans enough?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The reason people go to Cracker Barrel is to get
a good home cooked, old school style Southern meal that
your black grandma or your black or your white grandma
might have made for you back in the day, and
as some grandmas to this day continue to cook. And
so when you're trying to take away that which made
(31:47):
people go to it in the first place. Again, I
don't understand the marketplace for cracker barrel is not to
be Applebee's. And that's not a shot at Applebee's. But
Applebee's is like the most we'll probably just got a
big deal we're about to do with Applebe's and they're like,
this is done forever. But I would say like Applebee's
is the most generic Americana style food out there. Like
(32:10):
what does Applebee's stand for?
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Right?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It's like kind of this is generic. This is generic.
Do you feel like I feel like Applebee's just caught
an out down there.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I'm trying to take Applebee's out. But like Chili's you
would be like, hey, Chili's is Mexican style food. Olive
Garden you'd be like, Olive Garden is Italian style food.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Outback is Australian steak steakhouse South Texas Roadhouse.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I mean it isn't is it though? Is out back
Australian I get.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
I know it's not at all like that, but you
understand the branding concept. The entire branding of Cracker Barrel
is Southern style food. There is no competitor for that.
There's a lot of competitor for Applebee's.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
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cell phone service. It's a matter of who you want
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to this. Puretalk. That's a cell phone company that I use.
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ain't imagining it. The world has that's gone insane. We
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Speaker 8 (34:04):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Let's dive right into
calls here, but just tell you about Crockett Coffee. I
realize I'm holding up not a mug but a glass,
but it's got Crockett coffee. I drink it cold too.
You can make cold brew with your Crockett coffee for yourself.
Highly recommend you do so. Go to Crockett Coffee dot com.
Like Cracker Barrel, a great American brand that also has
a C in the name. You think this is a coincidence.
(34:32):
I think not Rocket Gota.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Replaced by the way Davy Crockett from our logo.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
We aren knows. We decide that it is too antiquated.
If we can make him look cooler, we will, but
we will not get rid of Davy Crockett. He is
an American patriot and hero, and we celebrate him and
American history in general. But remember ten percent of prophets
goes to tunnel the towers. Please get some Crocket coffee today.
Try the mushroom coffee if you haven't already. It's really
interesting stuff. Deborah in Virginia once talk Cracker Barrel. I
(35:01):
had a feeling. What's going on? Debra?
Speaker 6 (35:04):
Thank you for having me on. I wanted to say
that Cracker Barrel was one of my favorite restaurants of
all time. They changed their menu maybe two years ago.
They dropped the pot roast off of their menu and
replaced it with something else which just didn't hold up
to the standard they had before. And since they did that,
(35:26):
I haven't gone back.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
What do you think about changing the logo.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
I don't like it. I don't see the point. I
think that they've made a huge mistake.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Thank you call a bunch of people wanted to weigh
in ANDed in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
What you got for us, very clay.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
Yeah, listen, I agree with that caller from San Antonio,
Cracker Barrel. The menu is trash man, not the menu,
but the execution. Their product control is trash. I went
in there a couple of months ago and I had
the basic chicken friede and it was god awful. So
they need to keep the menu, like you said, more socially.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
So sorry, sorry you disagree with the caller from saying,
I guess I'm confused.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
He said the changes were great. You're saying the changes.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I'm saying they need to improve their quality control. The
existing menu is good, but the way they're executing it
is trash.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Leonard in Virginia really quick, all right, Leonard Trump, we'll
come back third hour. We're getting delused and cracker Buck
had no idea what he was stepping into today. Well,
President Trump is saying that he's going to go on
patrol in DC. We'll dive into this as well as
crime is plummeting in our nation's capital. More data for
(36:44):
you on that. We will share it all with you.
More Cracker Barrel feedback and Trump's big legal win. All
that coming to you third hour neck
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