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A musical about the witches from The Wizard of Oz breaks West End box office records, its producers say...

heh. "Sketchy" ought to make Brooklynites more amenable to the joint. It seems the Eddie Haskell nature of most chains is what gets folks' backs up.

Cracker Barrel?

why not just have a Denny's, a Friendly's, a Hooter's, a Hardees?

We need more Moon over my hammies, not a cracker barrel.

Waffle House always seemed sketchy to me and Cracker Barrel ain't that great.

Oh, Waffle House. How I miss thee. I'd love for "scattered, smoothered, covered, chunked, topped and diced" to enter Brooklyn's vocabulary.

The lawsuit was settled last year, with Cracker Barrel pretty much acknowledging a pattern and practice of racial discrimination.

From the African American Registry:

That settlement found that Black customers at many of the country store-themed restaurants were seated in areas segregated from white patrons frequently received inferior service and often were made to wait longer for tables. Blacks who complained about poor service also were treated less favorably than whites. Cracker Barrel operates 505 restaurants in 41 states.

Other forms of discrimination included refusal of service and making black customers sit in the smoking section regardless of whether they requested it or not.

I happen to be reviewing the Cracker Barrel situation prior to writing about a discrimination case Arab-Americans in Florida have filed against -- you guessed it -- Denny's.

The issue here, folks, is not Cracker Barrel so much as it is Marty. If Cracker Barrel wants to come to Brooklyn, buy a lot, build a restaurant and hire workers, that's their business. We can vote on their racist tendencies with our pocketbooks.

But pandering to a lousy national restaurant chain is emblematic of Marty's embrace of the worst of what the rest of the country has to offer at the expense of Brooklyn and Brooklynites. From Ikea to Bruce Ratner, Marty is hell-bent on turning our beloved borough into the Mall of America. Enough already.

And the idea that he can't revoke his invitation after learning of Cracker Barrel's little race problem? Ha! What's next: "I can't call Dennis Rader and tell him not to come just because it turns out he's BTK?" C'mon, Marty.

Did sumbody say Noo Yerk Sit-tay?! Yee haw, yoo ding-dang Noo Yerkers sher git yerself all werked up over silly ol' Cracka Barrel! YEEE HAW!!

Ballwasher, we're not talking past history as in 100 years ago. We're talking withing the 21st century. If not them, it will be someone else? Good. Please let it be someone else. Yeah, I'm not progressive for not supporting an organization with endemic racism. Oh well, I guess I'm "closed minded".

Read on and get educated:

http://www.naacp.org/news/2004/2004-09-09.html

Specifically:

"The plaintiffs and witnesses have accused Cracker Barrel of engaging in a pattern of discrimination against African American patrons, reporting discriminatory violations in more than 200 cities. The amended complaint filed in the case includes 21 new plaintiffs, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 42, and 96 new witnesses, bringing the total to 408. Cracker Barrel is one of the nation's largest restaurant chains, with approximately 450 restaurants in 41 states. It employs approximately 40,000 people.

According to the amended complaint, the restaurant's discriminatory conduct includes: denying service to African American customers and their associates; allowing white servers to refuse to serve African Americans; seating African American customers and their associates in a segregated area (often in the smoking section of the restaurant); and requiring African American customers and their associates to wait longer to be seated or served than white customers.

Over 50 witnesses claim that managers directed servers to seat African American customers away from white customers. More than 400 witnesses, including Cracker Barrel customers and current and former employees, support the plaintiffs' claims. The witnesses, roughly one half of whom are white, describe "a culture of racism." They claim they have observed African American customers treated rudely, subjected to racial slurs and served food that was taken out of the trash. In the suit, plaintiffs and witnesses further claim that this behavior was ignored or even condoned by Cracker Barrel management."

for the record the cracker barrels around the interstates in cleveland are brand new chains.

do not lump northeast ohio in with the rest of the state, they are in the process of seceding anyway.

To protest Cracker Barrel's arrival on the scene on the grounds that its past racism will besmirch some phantasmagorical state of progressivity is like protesting that the see-through blouse Jenna Jameson is wearing on that DVD cover reflects poorly on her virginity.

As for the argument that Cracker Barrel's proclivity for "settling out of court" on so many lawsuits suggests concentrated corporate mendacity ... Newsflash, bozo. That's how most lawsuits end.

Ultimately I don't see how it makes the slightest bit of difference whether Cracker Barrel opens a restaurant in Brooklyn. So they set up shop, hire some locals for a few crappy jobs, and belch out a few heart-clogging entrees. So what? If it wasn't Cracker Barrel it would be somebody else. It's just one more thing for self-styled "progressives" to get hysterical over on internet chat boards and then do nothing about.

I went to law school in the middle-of-nowhere Ohio (a three year-long sentence that absolves me from any past or future transgressions, far as I'm concerned). The only thing that made that time bearable was the food at the CB two towns over. I was born and raised in NYC and don't know squat about "Southern" whatever. But I do know what good food is: thick, crispy slabs of bacon, perfect eggs, an amazing hash-brown casserole, grits, and biscuist and gravy! Obviously, if you eat this stuff more than once a fortnight or so your heart will explode. But it's one of life's little pleasures.

"...there's no room in the pot for Southern culture..."

Bryan, I have nothing against Southern Culture. And I don't think most people have any problems against Southern Culture. But I tihnk the majority of people out there are taking issue with Cracker Barrels very recent racist past.

I love going to "Dallas BBQ". "Krispy Kreme" is awesome as well. "Cracker Barrel". Well, they are simply an organization that seems to have a checkered past of institutionalized racism. Plain as that. And I don't support places like that. Most people don't. and Marty Markowitz is a showman who actually has good sides to him, but it's baffling how he can support such a company.

What's open-minded and progressive about accepting a racist company into a melting pot of a city? Especially one that goes out of the way to settle their main lawsuits out of court.

Southern racism is not a cultural horizon I want to expand to.

Why is it that New Yorkers take such great pride in being the melting pot of the world, but for some reason (if commenters here are representative) think that there's no room in the pot for Southern culture? You've got Chinatown and little Italy, why not hillbilly village? As an actual native and resident of the South who also likes NY a lot, I can see where transplanted southerners would like to have a place to get a taste of the old country (or ol' kuntry as they would probably spell it on stereotype reinforcing signs in my neck of the woods). In a city of millions, there have to be thousands of former southerners who would welcome the familiar taste of butermilk biscuits and sweet tea. All of the other open-minded, progressive types could also expand their cultural horizons just a bit.

mmmm.... how about a Popeye's? I love Popeye's. They blow KFC out of the water.

About the only thing I miss from living in the South is decent biscuits and gravy. Cracker Barrel will do in a pinch, but you can't beat Bob Evans -- and red gingham is totally the new black. I invited them to open shop here, but I'm not an elected official and they weren't impressed. Even so, they sent coupons for their grocery line of frozen sausage and biscuit sandwiches.

I was going to mention all the places Brooklyn should import food from, but I really don't want anyone to know about them. I'll be really vague.

There's a place outside of Destin, a place near the river in the Quarter, and a couple of places down in the Delta that they should import. None of these places charges over $10 and all fill you up and make you happy.

One of the few things I miss about the south.

If Brooklyn is going to import Southern food, please let it be Richmond, VA's Bill's BBQ.

Pulled pork sandwich with a side of hush puppieds and a large limeaid = a little slice of nirvana for $4.