DINING

Jack in the Box fast-food burgers are returning to Florida: Will your city get one?

Gannett Florida Network

Florida is abundant in a lot of things: people, sunshine, gators ... fast-food restaurants.

And there's always room for more food.

Now the Jack in the Box restaurant chain is returning to Florida.

The company said it is expanding to Florida and Arkansas and will open 14 new restaurants. While the company hasn't said for sure where they will open, they have posted "franchise opportunities" in Tampa and Orlando. The California-based food chain is most notable for their burgers, tacos, salads and their iconic branding. Their staple mascot is familiar to anyone from the West Coast, a strange ping-pong ball clown head, often seen nodding from car antennas.

This will be the company's first time opening Florida restaurants in more than 30 years.

What are the best new restaurants in FL?Here are 10 of our favorites that opened in 2022

Other possible Jack in the Box locations in Florida

A Jack in the Box restaurant viewed from outside.
  • West Palm Beach
  • Boca Raton
  • Jacksonville
  • Port St. Lucie
  • Gainesville
  • Lakeland
  • Fort Myers
  • Cape Coral
  • Palm Bay
  • Palm Coast

More possible locations:

  • Miami
  • St. Petersburg
  • Hialeah
  • Fort Lauderdale
  • Pembroke Pines
  • Hollywood
  • Miramar
  • Coral Springs
  • Clearwater
  • Pompano Beach
  • Miami Gardens
  • Davie
  • Sunrise
  • Deltona
  • Plantation
  • Deerfield Beach

What kind of food do they serve? Jack in the Box menu items

What makes them unique is that they have a vast menu, which differs depending on the location. But aside from hamburgers and cheeseburgers, they serve all kinds of fries (regular, curly and "spicy triple cheese and bacon sauced and loaded fries), onion rings, all kinds of fried chicken (strips and poppers), egg rolls, hard-shell tacos, stuffed jalapenos, various salads, breakfast burritos, sausage croissants, milkshakes and mini churros.

Is Jack in the Box in Florida? They used to be

According to Jack in the Box, this would be their first foray into Florida in 30 years. Burgerbeast.com reports that in 1979, Jack in the Box's then-parent company, Ralston-Purina, closed or sold all of their restaurants in the southeast. The site says that all locations in Florida — in Tallahassee, Sanford, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Bradenton and Orlando — were gone by 1980.

Where does Jack in the Box exist?

According to the Jack in the Box website, the burger chain has locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennesse, Texas, Utah and Washington

What is Jack in the Box famous for? Interesting facts about the burger restaurant

◦ The restaurant was founded by Robert Oscar Peterson in 1951 in San Diego, just as the whole drive-in concept was gaining steam (think of those old TV shows showing meals being delivered to cars in parking lots by waiters and waitresses on roller skates).

◦ According to Mashed, Jack in the Box was originally called "Topsy's Drive-In," part of a popular San Diego chain of drive-in restaurants. But that's where Peterson separated himself by taking the concept of drive-in eating a step further.

◦ While Jack in the Box wasn't the first fast-food restaurant to use an intercom system to speed up orders, it was, apparently, according to History.com, the first to use a two-way intercom system in a drive-thru.

◦ The restaurant's mascot is Jack Box, a clown with a ping-pong-shaped head. They got rid of the mascot in 1980, according to Mashed, and changed the name of some restaurants to Monterey Jack's, which didn't last long. The mascot returned in 1984 in a weird series of commercials.

Jack in the Box is a corporate sponsor of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers and once held gave out a free burger and soda to everyone in the Bay Area if the team scored more than two touchdowns in a game (they did).

Chain restaurants not in Florida, but we wish they were ...

Big Boy

A newly rebranded Big Boy statue at the new Frisch's Big Boy location at Carew Tower in downtown Cincinnati on Monday, June 4, 2018.

Best known for its chubby mascot in red-and-white checkered overalls, holding its signature sandwich — the original double-deck cheeseburger — Big Boy offers breakfast; burgers and sandwiches; salads; dinner; and various desserts, including Michigan 4-Berry pie — it's home office is in Warren, Michigan, after all — and its legendary strawberry pie.

Don't be afraid to wash down that cheeseburger with a Famous Big Boy Caramel Butter Pecan shake, too.

Big Boy was founded 82 years ago in California as Bob's Pantry.

In-N-Out Burger

Why oh why can't In-n-Out Burger come to Florida?

Besides serving great-tasting hamburgers, In-N-Out Burger gets mad props for its top-notch customer service. (It also ranked No. 28 on Forbes' list of America's Best Employers.)

Chomping into its signature Double-Double — two burgers and two slices of cheese — feels so much better when it's served to you with kindness, right?

In-N-Out's menu is limited, but its not-so-secret menu shows customers how to add a little zing to their orders.

It can't go without mentioning that their fries are made fresh, and you can taste that freshness.

Sheetz

A Sheetz gas station store.

OK, so Sheetz isn't a restaurant. However, like Wawa, it has a following and people are passionate about it, so it's included on the list. Both convenience stores offer freshly made food and also are gas stations.

The Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz sells a mix of fast food and other convenience store items, including MTOs — made-to-order food items — donuts, burritos, french fries and its newest brand of specialty coffees called Sheetz Bros. Coffee.

Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons is getting ready to open shown Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 612 Roosevelt Road.

In the 1980s, Florida was home to two Tim Hortons, in Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach, but they proved unsuccessful, so here's our plea to try again.

Tim Hortons was founded 55 years ago in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and first specialized in coffee and donuts. Now its menu includes breakfast, sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups and baked goods.

WE WANT!...:6 national restaurant, supermarket and convenience store chains we want to see in Florida

(Psst! Florida's missing these, too!)

The following restaurants are hyper-local — for instance, Taco Villa is available only in central and north Texas, and Blake's Lotaburger has locations just in the southwest — but they're worth mentioning, too.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune and Treasure Coast Newspapers contributed to this report.