Cook Out (restaurant)

Cook Out was founded by Morris Reaves.[3] He is currently the owner of the company, with his son, Jeremy Reaves, serving as the CEO. As of November 2019, there are 263 locations operating in ten states.

The first Cook Out location opened in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1989. After opening the first location, over 50 more locations opened in the state of North Carolina before expanding out of the state.[4]

The company opened its first out-of-state store in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on July 30, 2010.[5] Cook Out opened in Clemson and Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 2010. At the very end of 2011, Cook Out opened restaurants in Columbia, South Carolina; Blacksburg, Virginia; and Radford, Virginia. In March 2012, Cook Out opened its first location in Lynchburg, Virginia, and shortly thereafter in Harrisonburg, Virginia.[6] 2013 saw new Cook Out locations in Georgia, and in 2014, there are plans to launch several more Georgia Cook Out locations.[7] In 2016, Cook Out expanded into the state of Mississippi with stores in Oxford, Jackson, Hattiesburg, and Starkville, and the company's first Alabama location, in Tuscaloosa.[8] Other locations in Alabama include Jacksonville (July 2017),[9] Auburn (Dec 2017), Huntsville (Jan 2018), Opelika (May 2018), Troy (June 2018), Mobile (Dec 2018) & Montgomery (Jan 2019). A location will also be opening in Birmingham in late 2019. In 2018, Cook Out expanded its Virginia locations adding Collinsville, Virginia which opened in September 2019.[10]

All of their restaurants indefinitely halted indoor dine-in since mid-March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing take-away and delivery. On 5 April, Cook Out announced it opened its new restaurant concept Taco Roo's Tacos & Chicken in Wilmington, North Carolina.[11] The new restaurant has the normal Cook Out menu and it also features a special menu that has a walking taco in a Doritos bag.[12] Cook Out has plans to open more Taco Roo's restaurants.[13]

Cook Out's menu consists of a range of common fast food items from hamburgers, to North Carolina style barbecue, and even quesadillas.[14] A signature to the Cook Out menu is the Cook Out Tray which features massive combinations of entrees, sides and a drink for a low price. Another feature of Cook Out's menu is their vast selection of milkshakes.[15] They serve almost 40 flavors of their fancy milkshakes year-round, and seasonally add flavors like Fresh Watermelon in July and August and Fresh Eggnog in December. A featured drink on their menu is Cheerwine, a local North Carolina cherry soda usually only served in North Carolina and surrounding states.[14]

• Official website