My first and only time at a CB was last November in Titusville, FL. I was with two other Atlantis shuttle launch Tweetup-pers - one from CA/NY and the other from Morocco. I don't remember what any of us ordered, but I do know I had the greens as a side. Yuck.

During our meal, the Moroccan said something to the effect of "so this is typical food of the South?" Us: "Noooooooo."

^ I went to Threadgill's during AUS DO in February and saw it on Groupon earlier this week (or last week).

My partner and I make a conscious effort to avoid the chain while on the road both for the bad food and its policy of blatant discrimination against LGBT employees. I highly recommend buying a copy of Jane and Michael Stern's book "Roadfood" to find great independent restaurants on the highways and byways of this great country that are worth patronizing.

Never had a problem with the one near me. Chicken & Dumplings every time^

Toad in the hole in the UK is Yorkshire Pudding Batter poured over browned sausages and baked. Served with onion gravy.^

I had breakfast at a CB. Once. I had lunch at a CB. Once.

Southern food doesn't translate well into a chain atmosphere, though I have found Southern food done exceedingly well in a few cafeterias. Any cuisine can become a letdown, given a need to commercialize and a clientele that doesn't look too closely into the issue of authenticity.

Not saying that CB falls into either category, but saying that certain narratives come to mind when a diner is confronted with boiled turnip greens over which fried bacon has been ladled (rather than the greens being boiled with the bacon). Or a breakfast gravy called "sawmill" that one might unkindly remember as having been "sawdust."

On the positive side, if a chain has a lot of customers, which CB does, it must be doing something right. Perhaps if I ever revisited, I might change my mind, but there are too many convenience store/Exxon/Shell stations that sell premade tuna sandwiches that are more likely to be of interest to me.

One thing I did appreciate very much about a CB. I remembered a candy called Valomilk from childhood. Couldn't find it elsewhere--evidently the manufacturing process is so exacting that the candy can't be more widely distributed?-- but I located it at a CB on a driving trip one day.

So good. ^

I looked at Threadgills website. The food looks great and the prices are reasonable for an independent restaurant. I'd guess Cracker Barrel prices are less expensive and there's no way you can have that kind of quality and prices in a chain. Threadgills sounds like the prefect Triple D kind of place. I'd like to try it the next time I get to Austin.

Cracker Barrel would not be bad if it were not for all the racket made by families and their children. Food is passable if one is really hungary.

The closest I've been to really hungary is really austria. I did not eat at Cracker Barrel there.

My memory of UK "Toad in the Hole" was a slice of bread, hole in the middle, placed in skillet with a bit of hot fat/grease, egg broken in hole, the result fried for a while. About as luscious as it sounds.....(but then it was the Royal Navy version, a venue given to such delicacies as "Spotted Dick").

"Slumgullion, anyone?"

I'm no fan of Cracker Barrel, if for no other resons than (a) the biscuits are atrocious, (b) the cornbread is sweetened, heretical at best, and (c) the cooks routinely fail to salt the grits, a dish which must be salted during prep. The only possible saving grace is that CB seems the only "chain" which lists "Country Ham" on the menu and serves a reasonable facsimile thereof.

Exactly, but don't forget the country gravy with zero meat and zero taste, and the sloppy, gooey 'hash brown casserole' instead of nice crispy hashbrowns or homefries.

While I have no personal knowledge of this, the grits are probably not prepared, they probably arrive frozen in a bag and are reheated.

I am convinced (after only one try) that the "Hash Brown Casserole" is a result of secret, rejected and unfortunate experiements in 1941 by the company which provided canned C Ration foods to the US Military.

As a mere boy, I learned to make "Cream"/Country gravy, a Southern standard. The version produced by CB comes from a mix produced by one of the world's leading suppliers of wallpaper paste.

God forgives most sins, but not poorly prepared grits (and folks who eat "instant' or "quick" grits are greasing their pathways to Hell). While sugared cornbread may keep a soul long in Purgatory, serving unsalted grits insures a rapid irreversible descent into the Pit.

I would not even accuse CB of that felonious custom. I've seen pre-prepped Polenta at the suppermarket, almost inexplicable, but a cup of grits weighs only a couple of ounces, stores on a shelf indefinitiely, and expands to feed four people.

I will admit to coming from a household in which grits were considered a "savory" dish, requiring butter, runny eggs, pan juices, gravy, bits of sidemeat, even cheese, but never served with any sweeteners, while corn meal mush, now rarely encountered, even in the frozen North, always came with eaither sorghum or cane syrup. One assumes that the Bostonnais would have never developed "Indian Puddling" unless they had experienced substantial Southern exposure.

Little known secret... I do this anytime I have breakfast there... I always replace the hashbrown casserole with "nice crispy hashbrowns". Their hashbrowns are really, really good if you like that... :)

Not many people know they offer that option.