Cracker Barrel has a new look. A “modern” logo, refreshed dining rooms, and a campaign called All The More. The CEO insists the update honors the DNA of the brand.

But this is where I see a risk.

About ten years ago, our team was tasked with rebranding Sonny’s BBQ. If you’ve driven through the South, you know the signs: Sonny’s locations dot I-95 and I-75 like mile markers of a familiar road trip.

Our instinct was to modernize, to chase relevance with a younger audience. But as we studied the brand, something else came into focus: Sonny’s wasn’t just about food or design. It was about place. The real estate mattered. The highways mattered.

Cracker Barrel, like Sonny’s, is an interstate brand. These restaurants aren’t simply destinations — they are part of the journey itself. They live in the pauses between exits, in the relief of stepping off the road into a space that feels familiar and dependable.

That’s the cultural role. That’s the brand stage.

And this is where I worry the current rebrand loses its way. Because the conversation online isn’t about the logo. It isn’t about the dining room refresh. It’s about whether Cracker Barrel still feels like a trusted stop — the place where road-weary travelers know what they’ll find, from hashbrown casserole to rocking chairs out front.

When you’re designing for a brand that lives on the interstate, aesthetics alone aren’t enough. You have to design for geography, for the psychology of the road trip, for the promise of consistency when everything else blurs past the windshield.

If you miss that, you don’t just miss the exit. You miss the essence of the journey.

Anyone along for the ride?