Cracker Barrel is trying to modernize. Bless its heart.

In my younger and more vulnerable years, I ate at Cracker Barrel.

A lot.

I loved it. Not ironically. Not tongue-in-cheek. Fully and wholeheartedly.

I loved the biscuits and the gravy, which is to say I loved the rocking chairs lining the porch and homestyle dishes lining the tables. I loved the decor because it never made any sense. I loved how they played on a nostalgia for something I never experienced — an idyllic portrait of life in the rural South. (I’m Southern but from New Orleans.)

Most of all, I loved how going to a Cracker Barrel always felt like a journey. The chain reminded me of road trips, which were generally required to eat there. My college roommate and I would routinely drive a half-hour from our Baton Rouge apartment to get biscuits and gravy during halftime of Saint