This week my Uncle Herschel made his first trip to Las Vegas and I was there to greet him. I take my food seriously and Uncle Herschel really isn’t my uncle but rather my favorite breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
I love him like family.
Generally we don’t write about chain restaurants but I was so excited when news broke about Cracker Barrel coming to Las Vegas. Good food at reasonable prices and it’s a general store, too.
Let’s start with the restaurant. Crack Barrel Old Country Store is located at 8350 Dean Martin Drive right next to the Silverton Hotel & Casino. When you walk into the restaurant it’s like you are stepping back in time. The décor is more of an old wooden farmhouse that serves big hearty meals to fuel you up for a big day of work.
Uncle Herschel’s breakfast consists of two eggs any style, cooked to order along with grits, Sawmill gravy, homemade buttermilk biscuits and fried apples or hash brown casserole. You also get to choose one meat from the following: country ham, sugar cured ham, farm raised catfish, chicken tenderloins, grilled pork chop or a half-pound hamburger steak.
My go-to is the country ham, which is salty cured and so good. You can’t go wrong with Momma’s Pancake Breakfast – three pancakes, two eggs and either sausage, thick sliced bacon, turkey sausage or turkey bacon. Their pancakes are so light and fluffy and I just love the warm little Cracker Barrel bottles of syrup they serve. My wife swears their biscuits and gravy are the best anywhere.
Their lunch and dinner menu is filled with home-style comfort foods. Some of their signature dishes are their Homemade Chicken N’ Dumplings, Meatloaf, Roast Beef, and Farm Raised Catfish dinners. All of the platters come with two or three sides and biscuits or corn bread. Cracker Barrel offers weekday lunch specials with a set featured lunch for each day. They also have daily dinner specials.
The menu is quite massive. If you like breakfast for dinner you are in luck because breakfast at Cracker Barrel is available all day. Save room for dessert because they have a nice assortment of cobblers, apple dumplings, cakes, pies and sundaes.
Every Cracker Barrel has a general store where you can buy just about everything. They have clothes, candles, country decorations, kitchen items, toys and more. One of my favorite parts of the general store is the old time candy and sodas I used to buy when I was a kid in Pittsburgh. They have stuff you just don’t see in regular stores.
Every visit to a Cracker Barrel is like a trip down memory lane. Having just opened and as good as the food is, there will be long lines for quite awhile but trust me when I say it’s worth the wait. You also can sit out on the front porch on one of their signature rocking chairs and relax until your name is called. I’ll pass on the rocking chairs during the months of July and August but it will be nice in the spring and fall.
Cracker Barrel strives on consistency as no matter where you go to one of their restaurants it is going to taste the same. Every waiter or waitress truly looks happy to be working there as they make you feel like you have come over for a family dinner rather than out to eat. Cracker Barrel gets it right and I’m happy Las Vegas now has one. We will be getting a second later this year in North Las Vegas.
I give the Cracker Barrel a rating of 3.75 Forks.
Website: WagerTalk.com Twitter: @MarcoInVegas.