Jack's facts for kids
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Trade name
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Jack's |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Genre | Fast food |
| Predecessor | Jack's' Hamburgers |
| Founded | Jack's' Hamburgers: November 21, 1960 Homewood, Alabama Jack's: 1975 Birmingham, Alabama |
| Founder | Jack Caddell |
| Headquarters |
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U.S.
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Number of locations
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246 as of November 6, 2023[update] |
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Area served
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Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi |
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Key people
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| Products | Hamburgers • Fried chicken • French fries • Soft drinks • Breakfast |
| Revenue |  US$940 million (FY 2021) US$500 million (FY 2020) |
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Number of employees
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7,200 as of 2023[update] |
Jack's Family Restaurants, LP, known as Jack's, is an American fast food chain. Its main office is in Birmingham, Alabama. Jack's restaurants offer places to sit and eat, drive-thrus, and takeout service. The menu mainly has burgers, fried chicken, and breakfast items. They also serve french fries and soft drinks.
As of June 2023, there were 238 Jack's restaurants open. All of these restaurants are owned by the company. Jack's plans to open about 20 new locations each year.
How Jack's Started
Jack's was founded by Jack Caddell on November 21, 1960. It began as a small walk-up stand in Homewood, Alabama. Homewood is a town near Birmingham. This first location is still open today. It has been updated several times, most recently in 2019. It is now seen as the main store for the chain.
The first menu had simple items. Hamburgers and fries cost fifteen cents. Shakes were twenty cents, and a "Fish-On-A-Bun" also cost twenty cents. By the mid-1960s, Jack's had grown. It had more than six locations in the Birmingham area. There were also stores in other states like Mississippi and South Carolina.
In the 1970s, Jack's expanded into south Alabama and Florida. Some of these locations closed in the 1980s. However, one person, Benny LaRussa, found success with Jack's. He bought one Jack's restaurant in the 1960s. In 1979, he bought 13 more Jack's stores. By 1988, he owned 33 stores. Then, in 1988, LaRussa bought all the rights to the Jack's restaurant idea. In 2015, a company called Onex Corporation bought Jack's. Onex is a private equity company from Canada.
In 2019, Onex announced they would sell Jack's. The sale was completed in August 2019. The new owner was AEA Investors, a private equity firm from New York.
What's on the Menu?
Jack's is especially known for its breakfast. Biscuit sandwiches are a very popular breakfast choice. You can get them with smoked sausage, country ham, egg, cheese, bacon, or country fried steak. Jack's also serves pancake breakfasts and wraps. For sides, they have hashbrowns, grits, and gravy.
For lunch and dinner, the "Big Jack" is a famous item. It's a double cheeseburger that many people love. You can get sides like French fries, coleslaw, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Their biscuits are also very popular. Jack's offers boneless chicken tenders with different dipping sauces. They also have bone-in fried chicken plates. You can find fried and grilled chicken sandwiches too. For lighter options, they have salads with grilled or fried chicken.
For dessert, Jack's has its special fried pies. They also make hand-spun milkshakes and ice cream. Sometimes, they offer special items for a limited time. These might include lemonade shakes or a Mushroom & Swiss Burger.
How Jack's Looked Over Time
Jack's restaurants first started as walk-up stands. They had a slanted roof. The sides had orange and yellow stripes going up and down. In the late 1960s, Jack's began changing these stands. They became full restaurants where people could dine inside. Many of these updated restaurants had walls that looked like stone.
The first signs were tall and had five poles. The word "Jack's" was written in white inside five separate rectangles at the top. The word "Hamburgers" was on a sign below. A small round sign showed the price, "15¢". Another sign on three poles said "Fries 15¢ Shakes 20¢". The last sign on three poles said "Self-Service".
In the mid-1970s, Jack's started using new signs. The name was written at an angle in white inside a red circle. The word "Hamburgers" was no longer on the sign. In the early 2000s, Jack's changed its logo again. The letters were no longer all capital. It still used the red circle, but the text was bigger and went outside the circle.
See also
- Milo's Hamburgers, another Alabama-based burger restaurant similar to Jack's
- List of hamburger restaurants
