Maine’s only Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has closed permanently after nearly 15 years.
The restaurant chain told Mainebiz in a statement on Wednesday that the South Portland location struggled to overcome post-pandemic difficulties, among other challenges.
“As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate the performance of our stores, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our guests and our business,” a Cracker Barrel spokesperson said in an email. “As part of this process, we have made the difficult decision to close our store in South Portland.”
“It is not uncommon for a store’s traffic patterns and volumes to change over time, and we saw this occur in South Portland coming out of the pandemic,” the company said.
A spokesperson told Mainebiz that the company plans to assist the impacted employees and managers during this transition and offer them employment at other Cracker Barrel locations.
Cracker Barrel (Nasdaq: CBRL), which is based in Lebanon, Tenn., specializes in Southern-style comfort food. It has over 660 restaurants in 43 states, but its 357 Maine Mall Road location was the only one in Maine. (With the South Portland closing, the nearest location is in Londonderry, N.H.)
‘We extend our sincere thanks to our employees who worked so hard to keep our fireplace glowing and to the guests who have dined with us, celebrated with us, and made us part of the South Portland community for nearly 15 years,” said the company. “We look forward to reconnecting with them at our other Cracker Barrels soon.”