Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino steps down a year after $700M rebrand backlash
Cracker Barrel announced on July 27 that CEO Julie Masino is stepping down August 10, roughly a year after a logo redesign triggered a national backlash, a stock drop, and a Trump post.
Cracker Barrel announced on July 27 that CEO Julie Masino is stepping down. She exits as CEO and board member on August 10 and stays on in an advisory role through October 9.
Her replacement is David Deno, former CEO of Bloomin’ Brands, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse.
The press release credits “a comprehensive succession planning and search process.” It does not mention the logo. Everyone else does.
Why Cracker Barrel’s logo rebrand caused a backlash
Masino took over Cracker Barrel in 2023 and set out to modernize a chain founded in 1969.
That meant a $700 million overhaul across the company’s 660-plus stores: refreshed menus, decluttered dining rooms, and less of the mismatched, tchotchke-covered wall décor the chain was known for.
Then came the logo. On August 19, 2025, Cracker Barrel unveiled a text-only design that dropped the “Old Timer,” the man leaning on a barrel who’d been on the sign since 1977.
The company later said the goal was practical, to read better on highway billboards for passing drivers. That’s not how it landed.
The logo fight went national fast
Social media trashed the redesign within hours, calling it generic and, in one widely shared phrase, “brand suicide.”
It didn’t stay a design argument. Prominent conservative figures framed the change as the company going “woke,” and President Trump publicly called on Cracker Barrel to bring the old logo back.
The money moved with the mood. The stock slid, dropping around 12% as the fight escalated, and comment sections filled with calls for Masino to be fired.
Somebody put up a “Fire the CEO” billboard along Interstate 40 in Nashville, styled to look like the rebranded logo. It turned out to be the work of Sardar Biglari, the Steak ‘n Shake owner and a longtime Cracker Barrel shareholder with his own history against the board.
Cracker Barrel reversed the rebrand in a week
The retreat was fast. Less than a week after the backlash began, Cracker Barrel announced it was keeping the Old Timer.
“We said we would listen, and we have,” the company posted on August 26.
Masino later admitted the miss directly. “We messed up,” she said in a November interview, adding that the intent was never ideological and that the data hadn’t shown the team how much people saw themselves in that logo.
There was an odd wrinkle, too. Masino told an investor summit that the original uproar may have been amplified by bots, meaning some of the fire that reshaped a 55-year-old company’s plans might not have come from actual customers.
Cracker Barrel says the turnaround is working
Here’s the part that complicates the tidy “backlash claims CEO” story.
The exit comes one week after Cracker Barrel raised its profitability outlook for fiscal 2026 and pointed to signs the turnaround is taking hold. The company reverted the logo, refroze the makeover plans, leaned back into nostalgia, and started clawing back customers.
The damage was still real. The chain reported a 7% revenue drop and a 10% decline in customer visits in fiscal Q2 2026, fallout the company tied to the rebrand.
So the timeline reads two ways. Either Masino steadied the ship and left on a high note, or she rebranded the company into a ditch and got shown the door once the worst had passed. The release, naturally, goes with the first one.
Who is David Deno, the new Cracker Barrel CEO
Deno takes over August 10 with four decades in restaurants and retail behind him.
He ran Bloomin’ Brands from 2019 to 2024, was its CFO before that, and held senior finance and operations jobs at Yum! Brands, Pizza Hut, and Best Buy. He currently sits on the boards of Krispy Kreme and Panera Brands.
That’s a resume built on operations and balance sheets, not brand reinvention. After the year Cracker Barrel just had, that’s almost certainly the point.
The Old Timer keeps his spot on the sign. The CEO who tried to move him does not.
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Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
Hat Tips:
Cracker Barrel via PR Newswire (July 27, 2026), verified for the succession announcement, the August 10 effective date, Masino’s advisory role through October 9, David Deno’s appointment and full career history, and the board chairman’s statement
Fox Business (July 27, 2026), verified for the departure timing one week after the raised outlook, the $700 million overhaul across 660-plus restaurants, and Masino’s December earnings comments
Fox News (July 27, 2026), verified for the raised fiscal 2026 profitability outlook and the framing of the exit against the rebrand fallout
Associated Press via Yahoo (July 27, 2026), verified for the conservative backlash, the “woke” accusations, Rep. Byron Donalds’ comment, and the August 26 revert to the old logo
The Hill (October 2025), verified for the stock beginning to fall within days, Trump’s call to revert the logo, and the logo being the brand’s “fifth evolution”
Yahoo Finance (June 2026), verified for the “Fire the CEO” billboard on Interstate 40, Sardar Biglari’s involvement, and the calls for Masino’s resignation
NRN and OutKick (October–November 2025), verified for Masino’s “we messed up” comments, the bot-amplification claim, and the 1977 introduction of the Old Timer
The Mirror via AOL (2026), verified for the 7% revenue drop and 10% decline in customer visits in fiscal Q2 2026