Cracker Barrel, the restaurant chain based in Lebanon, Tennessee, has sued one of its insurers over a settlement the group made in an employment discrimination suit, alleging the insurer didn’t pay the restaurant’s holding company after it paid out claims totaling $2 million. Cracker Barrel, as the Workplace Prof Blog says “has been the subject of much scrutiny as far as its labor practices towards blacks and women” (and, I would add, its accommodation practices towards minority customers). The restaurant has vigorously defended itself in some instances, and in others (as with the underlying lawsuit here) made settlement offers. The chain’s current suit alleges that the insurers were obligated to reimburse the company for these offers but didn’t do so. The insurers, for their part, deny that they had any obligation of reimbursement in this case.

Back in 1991, according to the website 365Gay.com, the company went on the record as stating it would only hire employees who “displayed normal heterosexual values which have the foundation of families in our society.”
Personally, I love their food. But the reputation of the restaurant puts its clients in a pickle. Do you support the restaurant by eating there? If so, are you supporting their questionable hiring policies, too? Should customers vote with their wallets?

Now, I’m getting hungry. Only two more hours until lunch…

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