Why are two Cook Out restaurants operating side-by-side in Raleigh? We looked into it
In an extremely North Carolina development, there are currently two Cook Outs operating side-by-side on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh.
One has been there for more than two decades, a typical drive-thru-only fast food restaurant in the traditional Cook Out style. The other just opened, but with a new dining room and the same Cook Out menu.
So, what’s the deal?
The answer will get us closer to unraveling a recent Cook Out mystery and learning exactly what to expect from Roo’s Chicken, the much anticipated but little-known-about chicken spin-off from the North Carolina-based fast food chain.
While it has a Cook Out menu and Cook Out emblazoned on its side, the new restaurant might not be a Cook Out at all.
Above the dining room door is another name, “Roo’s Chicken,” with a logo featuring a racecar-driving rooster. There are also the words “Open for Breakfast,” which is partially covered by a sign saying, “Coming Soon.”
But a recent spin through the new drive-thru revealed very little. An employee was eager to take this reporter’s order, but couldn’t say when the new menu might go into effect. Since I had just had a cheeseburger for lunch, I said thanks anyway and left, though in retrospect a milkshake couldn’t have hurt — it is very hot, after all.
Anyway, in with the new usually means out with the old, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here either.
A call to the long-established New Bern Avenue Cook Out revealed that it isn’t going anywhere. An employee who answered the phone said that despite the shiny new Cook Out next door, the old one is here to stay.
We sent an email to Cook Out corporate on Wednesday afternoon to learn more about Roo’s Chicken, but haven’t heard back.
What we do know is we seem to be closer than ever to having Raleigh’s first Roo’s Chicken.
Cook Out bought the Roo’s Chicken property in 2021 for $900,000. It had been a KFC location, but the restaurant closed several years ago. In 2001, Cook Out bought the next-door property for $310,000.
Corporate filings for a Roo’s Diner date back to 2018, but no restaurant has ever opened under that name.
Cook Out owner Jeremy Reaves submitted filings in 2019 for a Taco Roo’s at the New Bern Avenue location. New filings were submitted in 2023 for Chicken Roo’s. Thomasville-based Cook Out previously served a menu under the name Taco Roo’s within a Wilmington location, but has since reverted the restaurant to a traditional Cook Out.
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