The Smart Reason Cracker Barrel Has A Peg Game At Every Table

Homestyle country restaurant Cracker Barrel has been flapping jacks and slinging Southern-style comfort food, made with a commitment to local and domestic sources, since its inception in 1969. Today, the only places you won't find Cracker Barrel is in five states. While many genuinely love the food, not everyone agrees on the quality overall, but one thing almost everyone can agree on is how much fun it is just to go to one.

Part of that is exploring the fascinating assortment of goods in Cracker Barrel's storefront before and after a meal. No small part of it is also the games you get to play while you wait for your food, with Cracker Barrel's famous peg game, also known as peg solitaire, leading the charge at every single table.

It turns out the peg game has been tied to Cracker Barrel from the very beginning. "We put a few [peg] games on the tables so folks could amuse themselves while waiting for their meals," the restaurant, founded by Dan W. Evins, shared on its Facebook page. Even now, despite the distraction of smartphones, the peg game is going strong.

But the peg game is only a part of Cracker Barrel's entertainment aims, all focused on keeping hungry people's minds off their grumbling stomachs. Oversized rug-made checkerboards commonly dot Cracker Barrel restaurants, often, fittingly positioned on barrels, further helping customers kill time (and keep kids occupied). Cracker Barrel even used to play live music on its porches, and while that's no longer done, it didn't stop the restaurant from partnering up with Dolly Parton twice, first collecting a gold record and later winning a Grammy (who knew a restaurant could win those?). And let's not forget the legendary storefront where you can browse while waiting for your table or while you digest your meal afterward. 

Cracker Barrel is so committed to entertaining its guests that it has continued to order and sell (500,000 a year, to be exact) the peg game for over 50 years, with father Ollie, son Adrian, and future generations making each game by hand in a small 10-by-10-foot room. Nothing lasts forever, though; as best we can tell, just like the original Cracker Barrel shut down, Qualls and Sons appears to have closed.

Despite this apparent closure, Cracker Barrel restaurants still have a game at every table and even sell a nostalgic peg game ornament to adorn holiday trees online. Regardless of how you snag a copy, winning the peg game can be both challenging and easy, all at the same time. It's challenging because only two poorly thought-out moves can make it impossible to complete, and it's easy because there are nearly half a million solutions based on which hole starts empty. Cracker Barrel itself even offers two solutions for you to memorize (which is totally not cheating, nope, not at all) and impress your friends.

If you'd rather figure it out yourself but need a little help, here are a few tips. First, avoid making jumps into corners or from the middle of the board. Both of these can stop your game fast, though in some cases, one or two of these moves may be necessary. You can also try cutting out diamond patterns of empty holes and making groups of pegs to jump through. Lastly, try working your pegs so that the final few left to clear are clumped in a line at the bottom.