Why Cracker Barrel's Attempt At A Fast-Casual Spinoff Fell Apart

Just because a restaurant gets as successful as Cracker Barrel doesn't mean everything it touches will turn to gold. By almost any measure the Southern comfort food chain is one of the biggest names in American food, boasting over 650 locations and a cultural ubiquity that is understood by even those who haven't experienced it firsthand. But stepping out of its comfort zone can be a big challenge for any restaurant. That was clearly shown by Cracker Barrel's disastrous rebranding attempt in 2025, and it was also revealed by its ill-fated spin-off concept that few have even heard of: Holler & Dash.

Holler & Dash was Cracker Barrel's foray into the world of fast-casual dining. Sort of a Southern-fried answer to Chipotle. The menu was built around biscuit sandwiches, including a signature Southern chicken biscuit sandwich, along with other options like fresh farm bowls and yes, avocado toast. At the time it was launched in 2016, Cracker Barrel couldn't be clearer about what it was doing. The company was explicitly aiming for a more urban audience, looking to be hip and young with a more industrial, modern look ripped straight from the fast-casual playbook.

From a market perspective, it made a certain kind of sense. This was a way to reach a group of people who just didn't go to Cracker Barrel, in an industry that was growing rapidly at the time. Three years after opening the first location in Homewood, Alabama, there were seven locations in total. But someone else was doing what Holler & Dash did better — and Cracker Barrel knew it.

Maple Street Biscuit Company was founded in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012, and the concept was quite similar to Holler & Dash. Mostly biscuit sandwiches (with a few comfort food bowls), all done in a smaller footprint fast-casual setting. By 2019, it had grown to 33 locations across seven states. At the same time, Cracker Barrel investors had begun to question the direction of Holler & Dash, worried that the start-up was adding more costs that weren't worth the relatively slow growth. The answer? Buy the place that was already an established brand and growing quickly.

In late 2019, Cracker Barrel acquired Maple Street Biscuit Company for $36 million. Naturally, the writing was on the wall for Holler & Dash. Only a few days after the acquisition, Cracker Barrel announced that all seven locations would fold into the Maple Street Biscuit brand. The company still clearly felt the breakfast and lunch fast-casual industry was something worth investing in, but it was simply easier to take over a brand that had already done what it was trying to do.

Maple Street has done well for Cracker Barrel, and has since grown to over 50 locations, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing. There were once over 60 locations, but 14 of them closed after a decline in sales resulting from the whole logo change controversy. Folks were so mad that even a subsidiary with a totally different name and brand couldn't escape the firestorm. As Cracker Barrel has learned multiple times now, change is hard.