Cracker Barrel’s Masino on Menu Enhancements

very first star I saw somebody eating. And I was at our Mel Juliet store that we had recently remodeled, and I'm sitting next to this couple. It's an older couple. They're very very sweet, and she was the one who ordered it, and she like went in like hard, she went in ham on it right, like she was gonna do it's gonna do it. It's just like, oh, I just can't. I mean, it was it's just cute because it's so delicious, and you keep you keep going because

it's delicious right, Yeah, okay, I look for it. I look forward to you doing it, Mike.

And then when crackerber called same kind of thing, it was like, yeah, I mean it's always been like, is it a brand that I love? Where are they in their journey? Do I think that I can help them? Do I have like a point of view on it? And yeah, So it's I've just been I've been really fortunate that people have taken chances on me, worked with great people, and again brand.

how do you make their lives better? How do you meet their needs, whether it's coffee or hush prodcast rule, Chipherd's buy or a handbag. Like in my career, it's like all of those things, and you're really just saying, what is that problem or what is that opportunity that I'm trying to solve, and how do we get after it? So I am a pretty optimistic person. I believe most things in life can be done, they can be fixed, they can you know, and they're doing. And so I

also really believe in collaboration. I believe in people bringing their best self every day. I believe in learning from where you find yourself and constantly improving. So that's probably the biggest thing I talk with the teams about is like athlete I call it athlete mentality. Right, you know, somebody wins the Super Bowl, they're back in the I mean, they go on the party and they get drunk. But then the next day they're back and they're watching the

tapes like, where did we lose inches? Where did we you know, where could we have done a little bit better? And I think, especially in the restaurant industry, like every guest in front of you is an opportunity to be better, you know, to do better than you did the last time. And it's just such a great It's That's what I

love about it. That just the frequency that, like you know, some people would argue I'm a little masochistic in that, but like you just you always have the opportunity to be better and to do more, and that to me is really really exciting.

I'm doing to the culture is I question everything. If you find somebody who's like worked for me before, they'll be like, oh, yeah, she could be exhausting. She asked a lot of questions. But really with the intent of being better right and learning and moving things forward, I have a lot of curiosity about how to improve, how to just constantly be our best. And so I think

that's where building a team. You know, when you're building an executive team or just teams in general, whether you're the GM at a restaurant, you know you're trying to put together an assemblage of talents and skill set and people who don't always approach things the same way. Because I find that when you bring diverse thinking and perspectives together, that's where you end up with the best answers, So for me, that's what I'm always trying to orchestrate as well.

all of that. And so again it's that mix up of old and new, fresh perspective, people who really loved the brand for a long time. We're working on an innovation right now that is going to pool. Oh your mind. It's like it is one of those things where similar to hashbron cast role shepherds Pie. The team took an icon an icon of cracker barrel and just said, how do we think about it differently, which is kind of what happened with hashbron cast role shepherds Pie. Like, what

else can we do with this hashbron cast role? Can we want like a pancake? Make it a topic on something. We've turned them intoitator tots, like We've done all kinds of fun stuff and so this new one, I'm just I can't wait to actually talk about it publicly. But they're just always innovating and Matt is such a driver.

I'm so excited to have him on the team. He's got energy probably similar to mine, and that he's he's really pushing to fill the pipeline, to think about the stage game process a little bit differently, to make sure that we have plenty of room for testing and learning. We're also pulling out the archives. We're looking at things that we've done in the past that might need to come back in a new and different way, or it

might be time to revisit some of those things. So the team is just really energized, I would say, under their leadership, and I think look like anything when you have momentum. Momentum is so contagious, it's so precious. I'm always telling the leadership team, like our job as leaders is to create momentum, because when you have it, it's just the flywheels starts spinning and that's when things get

really really good. And I would say an innovation pipeline is the exact same way when you are at it and you're filling it, and like innovation begets innovation, and that creative mindset starts spinning. Like it's just it's a really rich and wonderful place to be. And that team is on fire right now, really thinking about a lot of good stuff. So I we tell you hash Broncast, Roll, Shepherd's Pie, the pot Roast, the new chicken and rice,

the ribs. That's this is just the beginning. We've got a few things if you kind of get out there a little bit. We've got a few things in tests around the country, and we've got a big test that's getting ready to launch, similar to the last kind of twenty item tests that we did in Texas. We're doing another really big one in December where some I know some things in there are going to be like absolute rock stars and going to hit the menu. So team has been real busy. I'm real proud of them.

really personally in that. We've we had some other positions in the past a cracker barrel that were sort of in between the GM and you know, a server, or the GM and the girl cook. And what we said was, no, you're the leader, this is your team. We want you to build it, we want you to own it. Now they've got a lot on their plates, so not exactly an easy conversation, but they get it right. And what I think that does is it just builds accountability, of build trust, It builds that sort of I'm in it

with you mentality. I'd say that's The biggest part, frankly is just really leaders focused on and focused on building their teams, developing their talent. But then I would say, secondly, we are really trying to focus and prioritize better as an organization and not keep changing the plan, not keep changing what we ask the field to do. Tell you one thing on one day and change it a couple days later. That's chaos. If you've ever operated in an

environment like that, it's really hard. And we had been doing a little bit of that in the past, and so really keeping them focused, keeping them on the right things, taking care of guests, the metrics that matter. You know, We've spent a lot of time getting them, getting them really focused on executing with excellence every guest, every day,

every shift. And I really believe that's what's paying off because then as a team member, you know what to do, you know what's expected of you, you know how you're going to be judged and what you're going to be held accountable to, and that's exciting, right. I think one of my management philosophies is that people don't wake up wanting to screw up, Like they don't come into work wanting to do a bad job. They really don't. They come in wanting to be recognized for the work that

they're doing. They've made a choice. They could do many other things, work many other places, but they're there, and so recognizing that contribution, helping them be their best, giving them the tools to make their jobs easier, to make them enjoyable, to recognize their contributions to me is really what being a great leader is all about, and building those teams is all about because people want to do good, they really do, especially in the hospitality business. You want

to take care of people. You want to have the time to smile and chat with them and create their day and work together as a team. That's what this industry is all about.

food for a such a great price. Like he's like, this is incredible, you know, And it's I think it's one of those little I want to say, like hidden gems or like untold you know, we don't shout it from the rooftops, but it's the thing that in all the research as we were building the transformation plan, that came back time and time and time again from our guests. It wasn't that you have the cheapest price. It was that you give us a fair price, a reasonable price,

but really delicious, abundant quality food. And that is the magic of cracker Barrel. It's not about being the cheapest or whatever. But I mean, that's sort of the other

interesting thing. I don't know if you heard Craig talk about it yesterday, but our average check for the quarter is like fifteen dollars, and the average casual dining check in the same quarter as twenty seven dollars, right, So it just we're a screaming deal for the home cook nature, the handcrafted nature of our food, how delicious it is, how abundant it is. So I think that's that guess

really recognize that. So while we've had to take a little bit of price to offset inflation to do some of the things that we're doing, and frankly we were behind on price. We hadn't taken a lot of price

over the last several years. There was some opportunity as we were looking because people weren't playing back that we were the lowest even though we were, so we knew we had a little bit of opportunity to sort of right size some of those like item prices, but really make sure that we're focusing on creating a great experience, delivering high quality food, making sure that people felt like it was still abundant because we haven't changed portion sizes

in years either. So really just all of those things continuing to come together. I think people are really recognizing it and it's resonating with them when value is so important because so many people are screaming and dealing and you know, it's just not kind of how we play our game.

looks different. They're different ages, they're different ethnicities. You see families, you see singles, you see friends together. It's literally a slice of America, which I really really love. Everyone's welcome and everybody enjoys Craco Barrel. But specifically that younger generation, they're really finding us. They're finding us in some interesting ways. One, they probably already experienced us with their family, either their

parents or their grandparents or something like that. But truly, we've had quite a few things go viral on TikTok lately, more so in the merch category. So I don't know. I actually this was not planned, but I do have these sitting here on my desk. Have you seen these? These are these Altoid retro sours. This is like a huge item from like I want to say, the nineties, maybe it's the two thousands. I'm not honestly not even sure.

But we are an exclusive carrier of these. These cannot keep in stock, Like I literally had to beg a favor to get them because I really love them. But those so those have blown up all over the socials, all over TikTok. But the other crazy fun thing is we have these sweaters that we call toofers because it looks like it looks like you're wearing a sweater or a sweatshirt with a T shirt underneath it, and but

of course you're not. And they're embroidered and they have all kinds of fun things on it, everything from like Christmas things to the latest collection that the merch team did is actually a hunting and fishing collection, so it's like deer and like a bass, and like all kinds of those blew up on TikTok. We had all these like gen A gen Z girls like filming themselves running

into Cracker Girl to get these things. They of course they all buy like an extra large and like, you know, because big sweaters are in again and we literally sold out of them in like a week. So it's like one of the hottest, hottest things we've had. And so we've got Christmas ones right now that are all the rage. But you know, we are, we are doing it so

lots of ways. And then you know, as we were talking about earlier, there's so many items on the menu that really are for everybody, you know, whether whether you want to have something as indulgent as the Ashbroncast Rule Shepherd's By or something might a like our girled chicken tenderloine, which is like a perennial favorite, low calorie, delicious marinated chicken brass. Like, you know, we've got something for everybody on the menu.

your life. If you have children or you don't, or you know, you're going from work, you want delivery, you know. So we just have to make sure that we're in all of those spaces in ways that are right for the brand and right for our guests, so that we're there to make sure that again we're solving problems for people. So letting people know that we got you, We've got all these great items in these great solutions in cracker Barrel can be a solution for them across many dimensions of their life.

of Cracker Barrel. You know, it is so unique. I mean I challenge you to wander around the Cracker Barrel retail store and not find something like there's something for everybody in from food to cord, apparel to games and toys. I mean literally we've got everything. I mean cards, I mean, it's crazy the amount of stuff we have. But that's just part of the charm, right there's something for everybody.

And what we're doing right now though with retail is really saying kind of like we did on restaurant, what are the metrics that matter? How do we actually really think about the ways to win and what's important in this business? Right on the restaurant side, it was like food made recipe, right, it's got to be to people in a quick and timely manner.

into something. I'm trying to get into the restaurant and other people are trying to come out. And so it's a little bit of a pain point today in terms of customer flow, not that they don't like being there,

but we can improve and optimize the customer flow. So we've just done a lot of customer journey work, kind of first time in the history of the company, to really understand journeys and what you know, if you're coming in for a to go order, what that journey looks like, versus if you're coming in for breakfast with your family, versus if you're coming in for a quick lunch, like,

those journeys are all really really different. And so how do we optimize the layout of the retail space and the items and where they are and how people want to shop for them in a way that really again meets their needs and provides a great experience. So if you come back to kind of the three imperatives that I've talked about that underpin the transformation, right, the first one is that relevancy piece, Right, do we have all

the right things relevancies about gaining market share? You know, how do we make sure that when you're thinking about the decisions whether it's to eat or shop, preper brels top of mind. The second one is food and experiences that people love and crave, and so that all comes together. And then the last one is driving profitability. So as

we have those underpin everything we're doing. Thinking about the layout of the retail items, where they are, how you journey through that is really really important to driving all of those, especially that second experiential pillar.

That's one of those things too that like young and old, everybody like finds himself watching a holiday Hallmark movie and in a weird way enjoying it. I think. So it is. It's an exciting promotion. So we've got a lot of cool things going on there. And frankly, the other nice thing about it is our team members can win too because we allow them to participate in the loyalty program. So I'm really curious, like if a guest is going to win, if a team member is going to win.

I've got the guy who leads all the field operations. He's like gunning away, you know. So it's it's it's super it's a super fun thing. But that's showing up in lots of different ways. I get. We talked about TikTok already that's a great place where we're really driving a different type of content and a different type of engagement.

I think you'll see some real changes in the way we approach Instagram that's looking and feeling really different under Sarah's leadership, and really just trying to match up the message with the guest with the channel, right. And then that's what great modern marketing is all about, is reaching you the way you want to be reached, with a

message that resonates. And so it's not kind of you know, I've worked for people before who've said like spray and pray, like where you just like put it out there and you know, you buy a lot of mass media and you try to like get everybody. It's it's targeted now, right.

Good marketers are really data driven. They understand need states, they understand their audience segmentation, They know who they're talking to and what's going to really resonate with them and really drive that relevancy and what they need and want from a relationship with the brand, right, which is ultimately

what you're doing. The last thing I'd say in all of that is our loyalty program is another really important way in because with six million people in that program, it is it is a such an important marketing vehicle, but also just way for us to reward those really valuable guests. I mean, it's a great way also for us to deliver value because you can earn and redeem on both sides of the business. And so it's got a marketing role, but it's also got obviously a loyalty role.

It's got you know, kind of frequency business driving roles. So I think Sarah and the team are really onto some exciting things, really driving that kind of stickiness and emotional connection that Krackerrel's always Crackerrel's always had an emotional place of people's heart, but really just making it feel more modern and relevant for today through the marketing.

are way ahead above our projections. You know, we're sitting at over six million people at the end of Q one, and it's just tremendous in one year. They're spending more, they're coming more often, and so really our challenge the summer was is it incremental? How incremental is it? We saw that they were about twenty six percent of traffic. I think I've shared that publicly, and so we weren't

sure in the beginning. I wasn't really sure at all, but we are very confident now we've really dissected that. We're really now starting to segment them, understand what motivates their behavior, what they want in a loyalty program too. Right, You kind of don't want to just feel like you're being marketed to or that it's turning into a transaction or somebody's just trying to get you in. You wanted to feel like genuine and in a way that adds

value again to your life or solves a problem. So we're doing a ton of testing right now on offers, on constructs, on you know, ways to even think about the two sides of the business. So in Q one we did a lot of testing on retail plus restaurant and how does that resonate with different sub segments of the six million. So lots to continue to learn there.

But what I love about it is it can be very hint driven, right, It's very factual, and then you can apply that across other populations and really get to some interesting business driving and more than anything like, yeah, it drives the business, but it drives that satisfaction and that emotional connection, which is really really what you're after

as a brand. You know, you want people who genuinely love you, who want to be a part of what you're doing, and that to me is the big exciting part of it for sure.

very long time. So what we sort of realized as we were going through the transformation is, gosh, we really need to look at the back of house and say, there's newer technology, there's newer ways to do things. Yeah, we know how to do it. We've been doing it this way for a while. And there's some real pros to that. There's some real things that you want to keep, but then there's also a lot of opportunity for improvement.

And that's what this process is about. It's a multi year project, it's a big one, but it's really saying are there new processes we should look at? Are there new ways to make the food? Where really we start with quality as the number one metric and all of this, like, how do we improve quality and just think about other ways to drive efficiency and make the jobs more enjoyable. There's so much handwork and what we do at Cracker Barrel.

We're not taking that away because that's the other thing people love, and our teams have such pride in what they do and the food that they create and that we share with people. But there are ways to do it easier, I or more easily. Sort that was bad grammar. I was talking to a group a couple of weeks ago that there were to do probably four five hundred people in the audience, and I said, okay, who literally goes and buys ahead of lettuce and chops it up

to make a salad? Still today? Right, like two people raise their hand out of like five hundred. I was like, okay, you guys are absolute. You know, rock Star over achieves everybody else goes and buys pre bag lettuce right, pre washed and like and it's those kind of things that we are still hand doing all of that at Cracker Barrel. And it's like, gosh, we could buy pre chopped onions. They taste just the same as the onions that you cut.

And those are the things that can make people's lives a lot easier in the back of the house, right, and you know, there's just there's just a lot to be said for things like that. So those are the kind of things that we're looking at. And then we'll attack a QUI, then we'll attack layout and the whole

nine yards. That's why it's multi year, multi phases. First phase has been in test in a couple of stores, and I think, as I said on the announcer or on the call yesterday, we will roll it system wide the first phase in Q three and then we'll get after equipment, we'll get after layout and things like that. So it's exciting, yeah, for sure.

I love it to see get the one with the like the fruity pebble things in it, or blueberries, or because we do all kinds of fun things.

I will definitely order that. I really I like to let the server guide me, you know, and see what they love and what they want me to try. Some stores are real proud of like the different things that

they make, but I'll, you know, pretty much anything. I literally had the fish fry last Friday because somebody was in a restaurant the day after Thanksgiving and a guest had come in to talk to me and we were just talking and he's like, gosh, you know, I really love the fish fries, Like, you know, it used to be like twelve ninety nine, now it's fourteen ninety nine. He's like, I understand that you have to raise prices. He's like, it's still an amazing value. He's like, I

get it. I get it, and I love the quality fish is better than this other person's fish. And he's like, you know. It was a really nice conversation. So he and I sat and had a fish fry together. So that was fun. I mean, I will literally go all over everything. I am also a big hashbron caster a girl, so I loved that from when I was a kid coming to Cracker Barrel and it's hard for me to not get that. Very cool. What's your go to?

one of the great things about Crockerrell too. You your breakfast all day long, which is super fun.

auto join the wait list. So if you are, you know, coming in on Sunday morning, when a lot of our guests like to join us, or Saturday morning for brunch or on the way to a you know, kids sports sporting event, you can join the waitlist from the app, which is kind of a hashtag pro tip, and then you just kind of walk in and sit down when you're ready, which is really exciting, so.