There's one up the road from us. We've eaten there a number of times. Nice place, good food and friendly waitresses. I like the place...
I am told the old guy on the sign was a real person, and one of the founders from the early 1960s. I guess his name was Hershel. He wasn't a "Cracker", like Cracker-Jack, though for me, that would be all the more reason to like him.
The Cracker term wasn't always a bad thing, nor does it have a damn thing to do with slavery. Just the opposite. The "Crackers" were so named, because they cracked whips, but not at slaves, but rather at cattle. They were the original cowboys of the eastern seaboard, who drove cattle from Florida to the Carolina's for the summer, and back to Florida for the winter, through stands of dense pines. They used whip Cracks to move the herd.
They were the first American Slaves before hand, being mostly Irish Indentured Servants, enslaved by the English, who survived and became freemen. They were nomadic, rustic, and tough as nails.
But the Cracker in the restaurant name has nothing to do with the cowboy "Crackers". It has to do with Sea Biscuits, or naval crackers, which were often used by pioneers in place of hard tact. That formed the core of a style of down-home cooking, which is what the restaurant focuses on. Its like one of my favorites, Grits and Red-eye Gravy with eggs and ham.
When I was a kid, Cracker Brand Peaches were the best canned Georgia peaches you could buy.
It was ignorant anti-white Bigots like Jasmine Crocket who turned the term "Cracker" into a racial pejorative.
A classic recipe is Labscouse
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9E-P89Acsg
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