Big company, small town: Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Lebanon, Tennessee

Posted Jun 25th 2008 5:10PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Products and Services, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Entrepreneurs

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

As with many interstate travelers, the Cracker Barrel is a regular meal stop during my family vacations. Partaking of some comfort food, perusing the country store for toys and foodstuffs we recall from our childhoods, and resting for a spell in the rocking chairs can be just the thing after long hours on the road.

But also like many travelers, I'm sure, I had no idea that the Cracker Barrel came from the small town of Lebanon (pronounced LEB-nun by many natives), Tennessee, the county seat of Wilson County, east of Nashville.

A local spring was the chosen site for the town, and a nearby grove of red cedars inspired the town's biblical name. The town was incorporated in 1819, and Cumberland University opened its doors there in 1842. The town square -- which today features antique and gift shops that bring tourists from far and wide -- was the site of a Civil War battle in 1862. Some 130 confederate soldiers are buried at Lebanon's historic Cedar Grove Cemetery.

The town expanded once the Tennessee and Pacific Railroad came to town after the Civil War, followed by the Lebanon Woolen Mills and the Gulf Red Cedar Company in 1908. General George Patton's tanks passed through the town on their way to Europe, and after World War II, the town expanded again, with the opening of Tennessee's first industrial park, which is the site of Cracker Barrel's corporate headquarters.

Interstate 40, the main route for traffic between Nashville and Knoxville, passes just south of Lebanon. In the 1960s, when the interstate system was still fairly new, fast-food places popped up like mushrooms along the highways. Dan Evins, who worked in the family gasoline business in Lebanon, began to imagine a place that was more comfortable, reliable, and inviting than the typical fast-food joint -- a country store like small towns across the nation used to all have.

Dan opened the first Cracker Barrel Old Country Store in 1969 on a plot of land on the outskirts of town that the family owned. With its country cooking and gifts that were "worth buying," it was a big hit. With friends and local associates as investors, the Cracker Barrel became a chain of 13 locations in the South by 1977.

Until the oil embargoes of the 1970s, Cracker Barrel sold gasoline as well as comfort food. The company went public in 1981; CBRL Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) is the Cracker Barrel's parent company. Today there are more than 500 locations in more than 40 states.

I'm not sure when I'll ever get down to Lebanon, but no doubt the summer won't pass by without a stop at a Cracker Barrel for the biscuits and gravy with fried okra.

Be sure to check out more Big Company, Small Town posts.

Tags: CBRL, comfort food, country store, Cracker Barrel, Dan Evins, fast food, Interstate 40, interstate system, Lebanon, Nashville, small town, Tennessee

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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)

6-23-2008 @ 9:24PM

Latisha said...

C...surely you just!!! Then again... thats what the devil can do on earth. I will pray for you brother/sister.

6-25-2008 @ 7:06PM

Jeff said...

Cracker Barrel should convert into a retirement home, if it isn't one already.

6-26-2008 @ 9:22AM

Bianca said...

Why stop in New Jersey. New York loves good southern cooking, why not put a few in New York. Why do we have to travel to New Jersey to go to a Cracker Barrel? Is there a good reason why there are no Cracker Barrel's restaurants in New York?

6-26-2008 @ 11:08AM

just me said...

Born in Carthage, I must comment on another reader's remark that we say, "Cathridge." I've never heard it pronounced that way! Actually, it sounds more like, "Carthidge." Now, as a resident of Lebanon, I must admit that I catch myself saying, "Lebnun" quite a bit. I didn't find the writer's mention of this offensive at all; that's just the way many people talk around here. It's called an accent, ya know. Just because we speak with that Southern twang doesn't mean that we are a bunch of uneducated rednecks. ;o)

Anyway, I'm glad this article puts a little bit of a spotlight on both Cracker Barrel and Lebanon. Cracker Barrel offers tasty country cookin' (you should give it a try if you haven't already) and Lebanon is a great city in which to reside, work, and enjoy yourself. Y'all come see us! ;o)

One other thing: I cannot believe there is no CB in or around Las Vegas! We recently vacated there and I was certain we would at least pass by one on our way from Vegas to the Grand Canyon. Boy, was I wrong! lol

6-26-2008 @ 12:56PM

KSCARNEY1 said...

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A CRACKER BARREL AND NEVER WILL. NOR WILL I SUPPORT WITH MY MONEY ANY COMPANY THAT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST OTHERS FOR ANY REASON. HOPE THE PEOPLE THAT RUN IT CHOKE ON A CRACKER OR A BARREL FALLS ON THEM.

6-26-2008 @ 9:23PM

Joe B. Hayes Jr said...

There was a small handpainted (removable) sign
by the door of the Cracker Barrel....said "first crackerbarrel".....Manchester was proud of being the one that started it all....COM ON YOU MANCHESTER PEOPLE, I NEED ALITTLE HELP HERE.
IN FACT THERE IS A REAL TER THERE , THAT WITNESSED THE WHOLE THING....AND THERE WAS A "OIL MAN ", cant remember the name.