The Breakfast Chain You Didn't Know Was Owned By Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel has many devoted fans who feel connected to the chain, and showed with the backlash it received when it began modernizing its rustic country-store look in 2025. Cracker Barrel eventually reversed course, including returning the man sitting next to a barrel it had removed from its classic logo, which has a meaning behind it. But even those loyal customers may not know that Cracker Barrel owns a separate breakfast restaurant chain called Maple Street Biscuit Company.

Cracker Barrel bought Maple Street in 2019, seven years after its founding in 2012, praising the Jacksonville, Florida, fast-casual chain for making its food from scratch and paying attention to hospitality. Maple Street describes itself as a modern twist on comfort food. It also promotes its commitment to service, cleanliness, and sustainability.

At the time of acquisition, there were 33 Maple Street locations in seven states, and in the years since, it grew to 68 restaurants in 10 mostly Southern states. But that's no longer true. In September 2025, Cracker Barrel announced that it was closing 14 of the chain's locations, nearly 20%, saying they "didn't meet our financial expectations" (per USA Today). That move came after it had reduced expansion plans for Maple Street a year earlier amid low sales performance.

Maple Street Biscuit Company focuses on breakfast, but locations also stay open for brunch and lunch. Many of the meals feature its flaky biscuits, which are baked from scratch throughout the day. They're made with buttermilk, which is crucial when making biscuits, and true to the chain's name, they use maple syrup instead of sugar. (Maple syrup can also unexpectedly boost breakfast as an addition to scrambled eggs or a subtle sausage gravy sweetener.)

Classic Biscuit Sandwiches with egg, cheese, and meat are on the menu, as well as one with egg, goat cheese, spinach, and pepper jelly. There are several Signature Chicken Biscuits with fried chicken breast, including: the Five & Dime with bacon, cheddar, egg, and spicy sausage or shiitake mushroom gravy; the Sticky Maple with bacon and maple syrup; and the Squawking Goat, with crispy fried goat cheese and pepper jelly that was rapturously highlighted on Food Network's "Guilty Pleasures." Customers can get biscuits and gravy, or other options like Chix & Waffles with an Asiago-bacon waffle, Brunch Bowls with eggs over ingredients like potato hash, grits, and veggies, and breakfast tacos. Sides include fried green tomatoes, grits, and Smashbrowns hashbrowns with green onions.

Maple Street teamed up with Columbia, Tennessee-based Muletown Coffee Roasters in 2022, and now serves its small-batch coffee at all of its locations. Patrons can also get a classic brunch pick-me-up with three kinds of mimosas at select locations.