No, Cracker Barrel Has No Relation To The Cheese Brand

You're almost guaranteed to see at least one Cracker Barrel billboard while driving down a stretch of highway in the United States. As of 2020, there were only five states without a Cracker Barrel restaurant location, but road signs on highways aren't the only places you'll spot this familiar name. You've likely also seen it in the cheese section of your grocery store, too. Despite the same name and spelling, Cracker Barrel restaurant and Cracker Barrel cheese are totally unrelated. The latter is owned by Kraft Foods.

Though it wouldn't surprise us if the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store had a cheese brand, Kraft Foods makes sure to confirm that there is no connection to the two. On its website, Kraft Foods Cracker Barrel even writes, "It [Cracker Barrel] is not associated or affiliated with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store." In 2013, Kraft Foods even sued the Old Country Store brand over the name.

So, which of these two brands is the original Cracker Barrel? That would be the cheese, which launched in 1954. Kraft Foods introduced the brand with cheddar cheese, though the name has since been plastered on plenty of different types of packaged cheese, including Baby Swiss and Gouda. The brand took its name from the 1800s concept of using cracker barrels as makeshift tables to chat with friends at the local general store; Kraft Foods wanted its cheese to bring people together.

The first Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, on the other hand, didn't open until 1969. The first store was set in Tennessee and was also named after an actual cracker barrel. Both brands had the same thought process for deciding their name. But because they were two different concepts whose businesses didn't overlap, they never stepped on one another's toes — for the most part.

In 2013, the two brands had a disagreement after the Cracker Barrel chain announced that it would start selling its restaurant products in grocery stores. Kraft filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement due to the Cracker Barrel chain overstepping its boundaries by entering the grocery space.

"[Cracker Barrel Old Country Store's] actions threaten to destroy the substantial goodwill that Kraft has created in its Cracker Barrel trademark, and to create significant confusion and cannot be permitted," the lawsuit alleged (via USA Today). Kraft won the lawsuit, and the Cracker Barrel chain was not able to sell its desired products under the Cracker Barrel name. The Cracker Barrel chain previously sold its products on its website and in its brick-and-mortar locations without incident because those didn't directly create competition in the grocery store, and that appears to remain the case.