Seeing the CEO answers a lot of questions.
CB used to be a relatively inexpensive, decent family meal, with traditional stuff that you went back for. Much of the traditional stuff is gone, replaced by trendy stuff that only those that wouldn’t be caught dead in a CB would eat. The traditional items left are way more expensive and the quality has gone way down - for example, their hamburger steak used to taste like sirloin steak, now tastes like a hamburger pattie. The Friday fish fry used to be cod, now an unnamed “white fish”.
I have it on good authority from a former CB employee that one of their problems is that they don’t pay well. So new cooks are constantly coming in as the previous ones move on to greener pastures, and the food quality suffers as a result.
Still a good place to get breakfast, but anything else has gone way down hill.