East Ridge Cracker Barrel to Sell Beer and Wine

It took the East Ridge Beer Board less than three minutes to approve a permit for Cracker Barrel to begin selling beer and sparkling wine at its location on N. Mack Smith Road.

The board heard from Tayo Atanda, a Nashville attorney representing the giant restaurant chain. Atanda told the board that beer and sparkling wine is a “new offering” for Cracker Barrel customers.

The restaurant started offering beer to its patrons across Florida, Atanda said. The company is now expanding into Tennessee and will ultimately offer beer across the nation.

The vote by the board was unanimous.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.