Steak N’ Shake has taken credit for a billboard that appeared this week in West Nashville calling on Cracker Barrel to fire its CEO. The billboard mimicked Cracker Barrel’s recently controversial rebranded logo. On Thursday afternoon, Steak N’ Shake posted on its official X account admitting responsibility for putting it up. 

In its post the restaurant chain claimed that Cracker Barrel’s board has failed its shareholders by engaging in conflict with one of its largest shareholders instead of working cooperatively for the good of the company. Steak N’ Shake’s CEO stakes include a large financial interest in Cracker Barrel and the billboard was meant to convey dissatisfaction at how the company has been run. 

The relationship between the two companies has been rocky for some time. Steak N’ Shake’s owner and CEO Sardar Biglari holds a stake of around $54.5 million in Cracker Barrel according to Forbes. Biglari has previously criticized Cracker Barrel in public through actions such as selling hats with slogans urging Cracker Barrel to fire its CEO and promoting the notion that he was correct in his criticisms. 

Cracker Barrel responded with a statement that the billboard was a stunt by Biglari. The company said its shareholders have repeatedly rejected what Cracker Barrel describes as self-serving campaigns from him over the past fourteen years. Cracker Barrel’s statement included a critique that launching personal attacks through billboards to try to disrupt their business does not align with what serious or well-intentioned investors should do.