Cracker Barrel’s CEO Exit Proves Its Loudest Critic Right

Cracker Barrel’s chief executive, Julie Masino, is stepping down Aug. 10 with a $4.6 million payout, capping a three-year tenure that collapsed under a rebrand backlash. David Deno, who ran Outback Steakhouse parent Bloomin’ Brands for five years, takes the job the same day. Cracker Barrel shares slipped 2.38% on the news.

The exit hands a win to Sardar Biglari, the activist investor who has spent 15 years and seven proxy fights telling Cracker Barrel’s board its strategy would fail. He still does not have a board seat to show for it.

A $4.6 Million Exit After Three Turbulent Years

Masino joined Cracker Barrel in July 2023 with a mandate to modernize a chain that first opened its doors in 1969. She updated the folksy logo, pulled antique tchotchkes off dining room walls and reworked the menu for younger diners, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported her departure.

Under the transition agreement, Deno confirmed Deno’s August 10 start date as chief executive, while Masino stays on as a senior adviser through Oct. 9 to help with the handoff. A regulatory disclosure shows the company filed the severance terms with regulators, describing payments and equity treatment consistent with a termination without cause under her existing contract.

Deno also spent time in senior roles at Best Buy International and at Yum Brands, the parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, before landing at Bloomin’ Brands, the Tampa-based owner of Outback Steakhouse.

Why Is Cracker Barrel’s Chief Executive Leaving Now?

Masino’s departure follows nearly a year of fallout from a rebrand that briefly erased Cracker Barrel’s folksy logo, triggered a sharp stock slide and a wave of political backlash, and left sales still negative even after the company reversed course. The board chose an outside turnaround veteran rather than wait out a full recovery.

The rebrand, marketed internally as “All the More,” swapped the chain’s illustration of a man leaning against a barrel, alongside the words “Old Country Store,” for plain text on a yellow background. The backlash was immediate and loud enough that Masino later said it felt like being “fired by America.”

Within about a week, Cracker Barrel reversed course and restored the old logo. The damage to sales and to Masino’s standing with the board did not reverse nearly as fast.

The Rebrand’s Bill Comes Due

The numbers from the year since tell their own story. Cracker Barrel’s own disclosures, relayed through earnings reports and trading updates, show a chain still working through the hit.

• 18% – the peak drop in Cracker Barrel’s share price during the August 2025 backlash over the logo change
• $797.2 million – quarterly revenue after the rebrand fallout, a 5.7% decline the company tied directly to the controversy
• $70 million to $110 million – the full-year adjusted outlook Cracker Barrel cut to roughly half its earlier target
• 2.5% – the same-store restaurant sales decline still showing up in the most recent quarter reported, even after the logo reversal

Cracker Barrel is still guiding toward $3.35 billion to $3.45 billion in full-year revenue, even as it flags a traffic decline of 7% to 8% company-wide. Retail sales, at least, have turned slightly positive, up 0.5% in the same recent stretch.

The Investor Who Called the Collapse

Sardar Biglari has been a fixture at Cracker Barrel long before any of this. The Steak ’n Shake chief executive runs Biglari Holdings, an investment firm believed to own roughly 2.23 million Cracker Barrel shares, close to 10% of the company, a stake worth an estimated $90.7 million.

Biglari has waged seven proxy contests against Cracker Barrel’s board over 15 years, pushing for seats and for a different strategic direction each time. His most recent campaign, filed in the aftermath of the rebrand collapse, took direct aim at Masino and the board that backed her.

Cracker Barrel’s transformation plan has failed.

Biglari wrote that line in his latest proxy statement to shareholders, arguing the board’s modernization push, culminating in the logo debacle, had destroyed value rather than created it.

A Proxy Fight Biglari Still Hasn’t Won

Shareholders reelected Cracker Barrel’s board last fall despite the pressure campaign. Proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis had urged a vote against at least one sitting director, Gilbert Dávila, citing the rebrand fallout and board performance. Biglari’s slate did not pick up a single seat.

Ten months later, Masino is gone anyway. Biglari has never won a board seat at Cracker Barrel in 15 years of trying. He just watched the board remove the executive he spent the past year publicly campaigning against.

What David Deno Inherits

Deno arrives with a résumé built for exactly this kind of repair job. Five years running Bloomin’ Brands, plus earlier stints at Best Buy International and Yum Brands, gave him a track record across multiple dining formats and a big-box retailer under pressure.

What he inherits is a brand still bruised. Same-store restaurant sales were down 2.5% year over year through the first 11 weeks of the most recent quarter, even as the company works to reassure shareholders the worst of the rebrand damage is behind it. Retail sales have edged into positive territory, but only just.

Deno takes the chair Aug. 10. Biglari, still without a board seat after 15 years of trying, will be watching from the outside.

Frequently Asked Questions

What restaurant chains has David Deno run before Cracker Barrel?

Deno spent five years as chief executive of Bloomin’ Brands, the Tampa-based parent of Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, from 2019 to 2024. Earlier in his career he held executive roles at Best Buy International and at Yum Brands, the parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Did Sardar Biglari win a board seat at Cracker Barrel?

No. Biglari Holdings has waged seven proxy contests against Cracker Barrel over 15 years, and its most recent campaign drew support from proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis against at least one sitting director. Shareholders still reelected the board last fall, and Masino’s exit came through the board’s own succession process rather than a settlement with Biglari.

What happens to Julie Masino after October?

Her transition agreement keeps her on in an advisory capacity through Oct. 9, 2026, alongside the $4.6 million payout tied to a termination-without-cause structure under her existing contract. Cracker Barrel’s filings do not disclose what she plans to do afterward.

What is Steak ’n Shake’s connection to Cracker Barrel?

Nothing operationally. Steak ’n Shake and Cracker Barrel compete in casual dining, but Sardar Biglari, Steak ’n Shake’s chief executive, separately runs the investment firm Biglari Holdings, which owns roughly 10% of Cracker Barrel’s stock, a stake believed to be worth about $90.7 million.