I am not generally a food snob - have been known to frequent far too many drive-thrus. But I am obviously missing something about Cracker Barrel, although it has been several years since I have eaten in one. I think it was the greasy pale "gravy" poured over a number of items that did me in. I admit to having been raised and spent most of my life in the North, so maybe it is a regional thing.
Other cahins - Chilis, Applebees, 99 (New England chain) are fine - just can't even stomach the thought of ever going into a Cracker Barrel again much less actually eating there.

The Cracker Barrel in Durham, NC has s-l-o-w service. I've been once or twice but I prefer I-Hop. I Wish I-hop was on my side of town, but my waist line is grateful it isn't.

Interesting to know about the books on tape. Do they also have books on CD (no tape player in the car)?

Go Travel, I think the Round Table is a good idea. We can leave Dr Phil out of it :D
But I would love to know where leelani got her ideas and what makes her the expert on what makes a person "Southern"?
Tandoori Girl, my car used to do that too but it was a pizza place in NY :)
Who makes their own chicken and dumplings ? Do you roll out the dumplings or just drop big blobs in?
I am from the big blob school of dumpling making ~

I am nothing if not unsophisticated, and I don't like Cracker Barrel, either. I love comfort food--stuff like hot open-face roast beef sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and the like. At CB, the pancakes aren't very good, and I've tried various dinners there (my mother loves it, but then she also loves buffets for some reason), and it's just never been better than average at best.

I love King's (mainly a PA chain) for breakfast, and Denny's always works in a pinch. Great milkshakes.

what do you good folks think about Marie Callenders?

Blue York and Massabluesetts liberals cannot eat at Dennys or Cracker Barrell.

ncgrrl, I don't know if they have CDs but I'll bet they do. Why not?

Scarlett, my mom used to make them with Bisquik (she is from New Mexico), they were light and fluffy and I never thought they could be better. Then I had my ex's grandmothers. She made them with flour and water and would roll them out and cut ribbons. They were more like Cracker Barrels. She would cook the chicken and literally smother it with soooo much butter. Lawd, it was good. Liberal salt and pepper too. I'd love to find a good southern cooking restaurant here. You have lots in Jax I do believe. My husband still drools when he thinks about Beach Road Fried Chicken there.

As my father-in-law likes to say, it's happy hour somewhere in America. Off I go.

I love Cracker Barrel! There is something homey and comforting about eating there, especially when its cold and the fire is roaring. While I don't care for all their food (including their gravy), I love the corn muffins, fried chicken, chicken and dumplins, etc.

We do like Cracker Barrel for their veggie plates. We really dislike IHOP.

My mother made her dumplings by dumping pillsbury roll dough out of the can into boiling chicken and broth.

"[A] true Southerner is someone born in the South. If your parents cooked country, comfort food when you were growing up, then you can judge that type of food. If you are a country, comfort food expert, then I apologize."

leelane, that is about as ridiculous a statement as I've read today. If you have taste buds, you can judge food as good or bad. I know good Japanese food when I eat it without being from Tokyo. And I didn't have to be born in Brooklyn and eat sausage and peppers as my first solid meal to know good Italian food from bad. Rick Bayless is one of this country's authorities on Mexican cuisine, and his eateries are outstanding, but he's as güero (gringo) as you can get (and his spoken Spanish grates with his awful accent)!

If birthplace is the ONLY way to get expertise, why aren't you out in the streets denouncing the Creole chef du jour, Emeril Lagasse, a carpetbagger from Fall River, MA daring to cook Louisiana cuisine in New Orleans?! (I denounce him for franchising himself as a brand, not his cooking, which is usually excellent.)

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. And the "but you can't judge anything about the South, you're not a TRUE Southerner!" argument doesn't hold water with me. I'm Southern, and I tell non-Southerners: Judge away, check out everything I love about the South (and all the reasons I don't live there now)!!

Denny's for breakfast is one of my favorites--their Slams are slammin'! Also like Bob Evans, dh loves their biscuits and gravy, I like their ribs. We've only eaten at Cracker Barrel once but enjoyed it. We had their breakfast pancake special, a berry and whipped cream topping thing. Totally unhealthy but yummy. Friendly's is also one of my favorites for any meal--love their "Happy Ending" sundaes! Didn't care for Marie Callender's. We found them kind of rundown looking and the food unimpressive. Tried a couple of different ones but they all seem the same.

Consumer Reports rated "First Watch" as the number one family chain. I don't think I've ever seen one of those. Po Folks & Cracker Barrel got fairly good ratings.

The lowest ratings went to:

Coco's
International House of Pancakes
Waffle House
Shari's
Shoney's
Bickford's Family Restaurants
Denny's
Friendly's

If you eat Mexican food for the first time, you can say whether or not you like it. You cannot "judge" it, compared to other Mexican food since you do not know anything about that type of cuisine. That is all I'm saying.

I do not mean anything negative when I say Scarlett is not a true Southerner. If I lived in New York, I could not say I was a true New Yorker since I was not born there but I could say I enjoyed living there a lot. Simply stating a fact. Sorry if that makes some unhappy.

I have half of a Marie Calendars' pie sitting on my counter right now - and you can bet that it wont be there at bed time ;)

My Gentleman friend is a "Hill-Billy from SW Virginia and I am a "New Yaaaker" and he loves Cracker Barrel when we travel. He loves all that sausage and gravy stuff and grits and he always asks if the chicken and dumplings are made with "slick" dumplings. I am used to a dumpling that's like a stewed bisquit. According to him, they have to be like slippery noodles. I put up with all these silly food differences because he makes bisquits from scratch, that are to DIE for!

minette, does he make sausage gravy? There's nothing better than a redneck who makes sausage gravy. Except one who makes his own biscuits. You are a lucky girl. That is one thing I'd gladly go off my atkins diet for -- biscuits and red-eye gravy. Why do they call it red-eye?

Don't they make red eye gravy from ham? and you get those little red specks in it? Could that be why?

I was born in Arizona, does that make me an expert on SouthWestern food and Mexican too :)
As if there is even a logical answer to that... LOL.

Here is the answer to that question!
____________________________________
The name "red-eye gravy" (sometimes referred to as "red-ham gravy")
derives from the fact that a circle or oval of liquid fat with a
slightly reddish cast will form on the surface of the gravy when it
is reduced. This is the "eye" of the name.
______________________________________

Tandoori Girl:
Yes, he makes sausage gravy and it must be with spicy, hot hillbilly sausage. Red-eye gravy must come from "salt-cured VA ham".
By the way, I just gave him a hug to check up on all this info( he's doing the dishes!) and he would like it known that a Redneck is a "Flat-lander" and the mountain people are HillBillys, or, as he says,(for the more sophisticated folks here on Fodors) MOUNTAIN WILLIAMS.
M.