Cook Out runs a char-grilled burger, chicken and barbecue counter. Its menu centers on one idea: a main, two sides and a drink at a single flat price. Milkshakes and a wall of $1.99 wraps round out the rest of the menu.
The chain traces back to a single walk-up window in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cook Out has stayed privately held ever since, growing into a Southeastern institution largely without billboards or national advertising.
Cook Out History
Morris Reaves opened the first Cook Out in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989, built around a walk-up window rather than a dining room. Reaves built the menu on char-grilled burgers, chicken and barbecue instead of fried patties. That choice set the chain apart from the drive-thru chains already crowding the Greensboro market. He priced the food low from the start. That combination, a main with two sides and a drink for one flat price, became the format regulars still call the Cook Out Tray.
Cook Out has stayed privately held and family-owned through nearly four decades of growth. It has never sold shares or franchising rights to outside investors the way many competitors have. The chain runs almost no traditional advertising, skipping television spots and national campaigns in favor of word of mouth and its own oversized menu boards. That low profile has not slowed its spread.
Cook Out kept opening new counters across North Carolina through the 1990s and 2000s. It pushed into neighboring states once the format had proven itself outside its home market. Expansion carried Cook Out south into Georgia and Tennessee, north into Virginia and Maryland, and west into Kentucky and Mississippi over the years that followed. The chain now operates more than 250 restaurants across ten states in the Southeast and mid-South. North Carolina and South Carolina still hold the largest share of locations. Cook Out remains a private, family-run company built on the same char-grilled Tray format Reaves opened with back in 1989.
Cook Out Menus & Details
Three pages carry the detail behind the counter, keeping prices, off-menu builds and allergen declarations each in one place.
Cook Out Menu Prices
The full board, with every item’s price and calorie count, sits on the Cook Out menu prices page.
Cook Out Secret Menu
Off-menu shake combinations and other counter requests appear on the Cook Out secret menu page.
Cook Out Allergen Menu
Wheat, dairy and other allergen declarations sit on the Cook Out allergen menu page.