Dan
Evins, the founder of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store chain, has
died. He was 76. The company said Evins – known as Danny – died Saturday
in Lebanon, Tennessee. No cause of death was given. Evins opened his
first restaurant in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 1969. The restaurant catered
to highway travelers and focused on offering Southern hospitality,
country-style cooking and a gift shop that came to define the chain. He
fashioned the restaurant after the country stores of his youth in rural
Tennessee and used a number of family recipes. The restaurant was named
after the practice of customers gathering at country stores to share
news and play checkers on top of an empty barrel that had been used to
deliver crackers to the store.
