North Carolina Chronicles, Chapter 4: Fast Food
Anyone else hungry?
Alright, here’s how this one’s gonna work. There’s no grand overarching theme to this chapter, no emotional life story, no real critical thought—none of that. I’m just gonna talk for 3500 words about fast food in North Carolina. Cool? Let’s get started.
Cook Out
Cook Out is everything that's right with America and if you dislike it, you're the problem.
The menu at Cook Out includes: burgers, dogs (hot/corn), chicken sandwiches (regular/Cajun/spicy), wraps (chicken/bacon), quesadillas (cheese/chicken/beef), chicken nuggets/strips, barbecue (grilled chicken/pulled pork), BLTs, fries (regular/Cajun/cheese/chili cheese), onion rings, hush puppies, walking tacos, cheese curds, coleslaw, and chili.
This seems like a fairly basic menu at its core, but pretty much all of these menu items are drowning in customization options. There are so many different styles of sandwiches and wraps that I don’t even think I tried half of them by the time I left Carolina. Burgers can come with a wide variety of condiments, including some you probably wouldn’t expect and which I have never seen offered on a burger at any other fast food joint, like quesadilla sauce! Man, their quesadilla sauce is so good. It’s the same basic formula as Taco Bell’s (jalapeño, sour cream, chili powder), but it’s a million trillion times better. I could drink a whole cup of it on its own.
And this is without even mentioning the ice cream. Cook Out is proud to offer more than 40 milkshake flavors year-round, from fruity Banana Berry and Red Cherry, to standard candy-filled offerings such as M&M and Snickers, to total sugar rushes like Caramel Fudge and Orange Push-Up. They also have two seasonal tastes: Fresh Watermelon in July and August, and Fresh Eggnog in December. Sometime toward the end of our stay in Carolina, Leah tried to make it a point to try every flavor, but there are so many that doing so would require consuming a simply absurd amount of Cook Out, so she never completed this quest.1
To drink, they’ve got Coke products, but c’mon, that’s some Georgia crap. For an authentic North Carolina experience, you want Cheerwine, the cherriest cola ever conceived by the human race. Cheerwine is essentially the state liquid of North Carolina2 despite Pepsi also originating in the state and predating it by nearly a quarter-century. Is Pepsi really that bad, guys? If you want, you can even add ice cream and get a Cheerwine float (or a Coke float, but again, c’mon).
The best part? They’re open super late, with some locations open until 4am on weeknights and 5am on weekends. Unless you’re an early bird craving Cook Out for breakfast, you can get a tray anytime you want. Dinner on the way home from work? Check. Late night munchies after a night out (or, more often, while grinding out a paper for class)? Easy. A halftime meal while the Vikings are playing in the NFL London game on a lazy Sunday morning? I’ll get to that in a future chapter.
Pretty much all of Cook Out’s food is complete junk, but it’s amazing and—crucially—cheap. A colleague of mine in grad school called it “the best tray of garbage you’ll ever get for $5”. The way I ordered, it usually ended up being ~$8, but still: well worth it for the variety and quality of fast food.
The only real problem with Cook Out is just how popular it is. Most locations are so bumpin’, especially late at night, that the drive thru line can easily get backed up all the way onto the street, even at locations that have a double drive thru.
The funniest location in this regard is the new one in Chapel Hill, which opened in September 2022. Since 1998, the Town of Chapel Hill has banned new drive thrus from being constructed without a Special Use Permit, and they have since almost never approved permit applications for this purpose. Because Chapel Hill is a college town with a bunch of fast food-eating young adults, this policy gets a lot of flak, but it actually makes a ton of sense if you consider the town’s geography.3 It also prevented Chapel Hill from getting a Cook Out (a chain reliant on drive thrus) for years. Then the pandemic led to the closure of a long-standing Burger King with a drive thru that predated the ban, and Cook Out swooped in as fast as they could.
One problem: the drive thru was built to support a Burger King. Cook Out is a completely different beast.
I went to the Chapel Hill location exactly once, after a concert in April 2023.4 It was 10:15pm on a Saturday and the drive thru line was backed up onto the street despite also snaking through the entire parking lot. They had some poor worker standing out there in a reflective vest directing traffic by yelling at the top of his lungs at undergrads so they didn’t crash into each other or block parked cars from exiting.
While I was trapped in the slowly moving drive thru, I texted my friend Josh Mayo—my former classmate at UNC and former colleague with the Town of Chapel Hill—who still works as a transportation planner for the Town. He noted that the Town “really freaked out about [Cook Out] staying out of the street, but that drive thru is just not built for the queueing they need”.
This doesn’t really happen in the North. There is no northern analog to Cook Out; there couldn’t possibly be. The closest thing I can think of is Culver’s, but Culver’s is classier (read: pricier), not nearly as hectic, and isn’t open late at all. Sometimes Taco Bell drive thrus get messy when they’re the only joint open, but still not nearly to the same extent.
I love Cook Out to death and I miss it every day.
Rating: 10/10
My regular order: Big double burger with chili, cheese, quesadilla sauce, and Cajun seasoning; Cajun fries; chicken quesadilla with extra sauce; Cheerwine float. If I wanted to cut out meat, I just got two cheese quesadillas with extra sauce and double Cajun fries on the side.
Bojangles
Bojangles is pretty much everything I imagined a Southern fried chicken chain would be when I moved from the North.
They serve chicken just about any way you might want it: fried chicken baskets, Cajun filet biscuits, chicken strips (they call them Supremes), chicken sandwiches (crispy or grilled)…notably, no nuggets, though I’m struggling to imagine what a Bojangles nugget would look or taste like.
Additionally, pretty much everything else on the menu is styled like or at least inspired by Southern classics. They’ve got country ham, they’ve got biscuits and gravy, they’ve got pimento cheese. Sides include Cajun fries, Cajun pintos, dirty rice, green beans, and mac n cheese. Wash it down with a cup of sweet tea5 and top it off with a Bo-Berry6 biscuit or sweet potato pie for dessert. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Minnesota anymore.
The Bojangles menu item is the Cajun filet biscuit, and it absolutely lives up to the hype. To begin with, Bojangles’ biscuits are the best biscuits in fast food. They might as well be running unopposed given that almost every other fast food biscuit is inedibly dry and Bo’s isn’t, but even past that, it’s just a damn good, creamy buttermilk biscuit. On top of that, the Cajun filet is seasoned perfectly, with a Goldilocks amount of kick that invites those who despise bland food while remaining accessible to those who can’t handle spice. If you get one item as a Bojangles first-timer, it should 100% be the Cajun filet biscuit.
The rest of the chicken is frankly hit or miss. The Supremes are usually good enough, but I’ve never felt any desire to order them aside from when they’re the only option (I’ll get to this in a second). The fried chicken is a mega grease bomb. Depending on which location I’m ordering from, the grilled chicken sandwich is either the best fast food grilled chicken sandwich I’ve ever had or way too wet with tomato juice and mayonnaise. The crispy chicken sandwich pales in comparison to its competitors from other restaurants.
Sides can make or break any fried chicken meal, and in Bojangles’ case, they definitely make it. My favorite was always the dirty rice—probably the most underrated item on the menu—but the more popular Cajun fries and Bo-Tato Rounds are also great, as is just about everything else to some extent.
Bojangles’ other biscuits are quality, but they’re not the Cajun filet biscuit, so I never feel like ordering them unless I’m just not in the mood for chicken—and if I’m not in the mood for chicken, why am I at Bojangles? The lone exception is the sausage biscuit, which I have consumed on occasion for basketball reasons: Bojangles runs a promotion in the Triangle through which you can get two sausage biscuits for $1 the morning after UNC scores 100 points. I lived in Carolina during a period of abnormally bad offense for Tar Heel basketball, so 100-point games were rare, but every now and then, Bacot and Co. did put enough proverbial biscuits in the basket for us to get actual, physical biscuits.7
And if you’re awake, you can get those biscuits at the crack of dawn. Bojangles is the early yin to Cook Out’s late yang; almost every location opens at 5:30am. If I’m ever awake at that time, it’s because I haven’t gone to bed yet—I’m writing this sentence at 2:37am—so breakfast Bojangles was never in the cards for me, but I’m sure some sickos8 do it all the time.
After reading the last section, you probably assume Chapel Hill’s drive thru ban has barred Bojangles from the town as it did Cook Out, and you’d be partially correct. There’s no standalone location, but Tar Heels have a few options to get their Bo’s fix.
For years, Bojangles has had concession stands at several Carolina sporting venues, including Kenan Memorial Stadium (football), Boshamer Stadium (baseball), and Dorrance Field (soccer and lacrosse). I’m pretty sure Supremes and fries are the only items on the menu at any of these stands, and given the Supremes are generously a B-tier Bojangles item, this doesn’t exactly satisfy the craving. Still…it’s there.
As with Cook Out, the real satisfaction came in fall 2022, when Bojangles replaced an old Wendy’s in the student union. I unfortunately never made it to this location before I left Carolina, but I’m told it serves the full menu and honors the 100-point special. That’s the good stuff.
But my fondest memories of Bojangles don’t come from Chapel Hill or any of the other places I called home. They come from the road. Bo’s was, almost without fail, the first place Leah and I would stop for food on road trips, and honestly, I can’t think of a better “driving around” food than a Cajun filet biscuit.
Here up north, the closest I think I can reasonably get to Bojangles is Popeyes, but Popeyes costs like $75 per person now, so that’s a non-starter. Bo’s is very slowly encroaching into northern territory, as they’ve got locations in central and southern Illinois and have plans to expand into Ohio and New Jersey. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be Bo Time in Minnesota before I die.
Rating: 8/10
My regular order: Cajun filet biscuit, individual Cajun fries, individual dirty rice, small sweet tea (if I’m feeling it; usually I just get water). If you’re trying to cut out meat, this probably isn’t the restaurant for you, but you can get by with an egg and cheese biscuit and most of their sides are vegetarian.
P.S. Leah would probably want me to note her unending disappointment that Bojangles is a Pepsi establishment.
Smithfield’s
Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q is a pretty mediocre chain with an unbearably catchy jingle that fortunately (for both of us) I can’t find online. Its menu is exactly as advertised: fried chicken and eastern North Carolina barbecue (with a small selection of sides and desserts).
If you’re ever talking barbecue and someone says their favorite style is “Carolina”, you can rest assured that that person has no idea what they’re talking about. Or perhaps they hold strong convictions on what “Carolina style” truly is, cuz the Carolinas claim three different styles as their own. Because hogs are so common in the region,9 all of these styles are almost universally served on pulled pork.
South Carolina has their mustard-based “Carolina gold” style. I don’t like mustard, so I would have hated living in a place where this was the prominent barbecue style; it’s right up there with the absurdly large roaches and the mere existence of Myrtle Beach as one of the biggest reasons I’m glad I wasn’t raised in South Carolina.
North Carolina has two styles of its own. The Piedmont of west-central North Carolina has its ketchup-based style, often called “Lexington” style after its city of origin.10 It’s fine, but the real star of the show is “Eastern” style, which uses vinegar as its base and adds some pepper for an extra kick. I’ve seen this style served with several different types of vinegar, but the correct way to serve it—in my (and pretty much everyone else’s) opinion—is with apple cider vinegar; it’s too bland otherwise.
Smithfield’s knows their customer base, so they use apple cider vinegar. And if you’re looking for some fast food Eastern-style barbecue, Smithfield’s is serviceable, but that’s about the highest praise I’m willing to give it. The chicken is somewhat bland and the sides are exactly fine. And that’s all they’ve got.
Cook Out also does an Eastern-style, apple cider vinegar barbecue sandwich.11 It’s cheaper, the sandwich is pretty much the same quality, and the rest of the menu is far superior. Go there instead; that’s what we did most of the time. Better yet, go to one of the many local barbecue joints sprinkled throughout eastern North Carolina. You won’t regret it.
If anything, I regret not doing it enough. Authentic Eastern-style barbecue is notoriously difficult to find outside of the region. Since moving to Minneapolis last month, Leah and I have tried two Twin Cities restaurants that claimed to serve it, but neither of them did it right; the first used balsamic vinegar and the second used white vinegar. Of course, both of these items were listed on the menu as “Carolina style”, so I should have known they had no idea what they were talking about.
Rating: 5/10
My regular order: A combination plate with dark meat fried chicken, barbecue pork, and sides—the sides are supposed to be hush puppies, coleslaw, and potato salad, but I usually substituted the last two for fries and baked beans.
Other North Carolina-based chains
A few other North Carolina chains that I didn’t indulge in quite as much as the other three, but which still deserve a mention.
Biscuitville
As you can probably gather from the name, this fast casual chain specializes in biscuits of all kinds. It also serves a ton of other breakfast favorites, all of which are delicious. I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone visiting North Carolina. One problem: I’m a night owl and every location closes at 2pm. C’est la vie.
Rating: 7/10
RISE
RISE Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken is, you guessed it, another breakfast chain that specializes in biscuits (and chicken). Their menu isn’t quite as breakfast-heavy as Biscuitville; options include Buffalo chicken, Nashville hot chicken, and chicken tender baskets with fries, and they’ve got Cheerwine donuts to boot. Yum! RISE also closes in the early afternoon, but luckily for me, there was one within walking distance of my Raleigh apartment.
Rating: 7/10
Hwy 55
Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries, known as Andy’s Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers prior to 2012, is a retro joint that specializes in burgers, cheesesteaks, and frozen custard. I had it exactly once en route to an interview for a job I didn’t get. I don’t even remember what I ordered.
Rating: N/A
Other Southern fast food chains
Unfortunately, not everything from the South originated in North Carolina. A couple other spots deserve a shoutout.
Zaxby’s (Georgia)
The first I ever heard of Zaxby’s was when my younger brother had it on a trip to visit family in Georgia. He hated it—said it tasted like “Walmart chicken”. This was a few years before I moved to the South, but I’d always kept that description in the back of my mind.
Once I moved to North Carolina and got around to trying Zaxby’s, I also hated it, but for an entirely different reason: it wasn’t Raising Cane’s. It was the same basic concept—chicken fingers, fries, toast, and a vaguely tangy orange sauce (Worcestershire/ketchup/mayonnaise)—but it was worse in almost every way. The chicken was somewhat juicier than Cane’s, but the fries, toast, and especially sauce were all deeply bland in comparison.
Two things pushed me back to Zaxby’s to give it a second chance: 1) I met Leah, who likes Zaxby’s, and 2) the closest Raising Cane’s was in the East Carolina University student union, an hour and a half east of us in Greenville.12 After a few tries, I found myself tolerating Zaxby’s. But I’m not gonna pretend I miss it now that I live within biking distance of a Cane’s.
Oh, also, they serve a bunch of other chicken stuff but who cares?
Rating: 6/10
Krystal (Tennessee)
Despite being somewhat of a Southern staple and originating in nearby Chattanooga, Krystal actually has zero North Carolina locations. They have a Puerto Rico location but nothing for us Tar Heels. Shame.
As a result, all of my Krystal memories are from road trips. My favorite came last Labor Day weekend on a trip to Atlanta. After getting our usual Bojangles to lead off the trip, Leah and I decided that our next food stop was going to be the first Krystal across the Georgia line on I-85. (We’re healthy eaters like that.) So we pulled up to the Krystal in Commerce and the drive thru line was pretty long, but we were hungry for Krystal, so we waited. Then it was our turn to order.
Employee: “Please hold on a second.”
Eli: “No biggie!”
… … …
Employee: “Just to let you know, I’m sorry, but we’re out of burgers.”
Eli (to Leah): “I was gonna get chicken anyway. Did you want burgers?”
Leah: “No, that’s fine.”
Eli (to Employee): “That’s fine!”
… … …
Eli: “Are you ready for our order?”
Employee: “I said we’re out.”
Eli: “That’s okay; we didn’t want burgers. I was gonna get chicken.”
Employee: “Oh, no, we’re out of everything.”
Eli: “Oh, well that’s not what you said. Uh…have a good day!”
Employee: “Bye.”
There were at least five cars behind us. The store wasn’t scheduled to close for another hour and a half. Whoops!
The next location down I-85 was open 24 hours, so y’know: no harm, no foul.
Rating: 9/10
North Carolina Chronicles
Chapter 1: The Cop
Chapter 2: The State Fair
Chapter 3: Job #1
Chapter 4: Fast Food
Chapter 5: Job #2
Or, more correctly…she hasn’t yet!
I don’t drink alcohol. If you live in North Carolina and you do drink alcohol, you might have read this phrase and immediately started reciting a laundry list of craft beers you think could hold this title. You might be right; I’d just have no way of knowing.
Downtown Chapel Hill is essentially two northeast-southwest streets (Franklin and Rosemary) immediately parallel to each other at the top of a hill, with side streets running between them. If you block traffic on either of those streets, there’s a good chance you gridlock the entire neighborhood. The drive thrus Chapel Hill has allowed since the ban have all been on the outskirts of town, mostly in new developments near Interstate 40.
North Carolina legends the Mountain Goats at Cat’s Cradle
They also serve unsweet tea, which is a scourge on humanity. One location mistakenly gave me unsweet in the drive thru when I asked for sweet, and I didn’t notice until it was too late. Morally, I think I would have been well within my rights to commit arson, but I am a benevolent fast food customer.
Blueberry
I lived in Carolina for four basketball seasons. The Tar Heels didn’t break triple digits at all in the first season, then they did it once in each of the next two seasons (the second of which was gloriously against NC State) before breaking out for three 100-point games in my last season down south.
Regular people with 9-5’s
Eastern North Carolina especially is one of the most hog-dense regions in the United States.
It’s also sometimes called “Western” style, which always seemed wrong to me given that “western North Carolina” is a whole different region that’s west of the Piedmont.
I’ve always wondered why Cook Out’s barbecue is Eastern style given its origins in Greensboro, just 30 miles from Lexington.
Raising Cane’s bought a building in downtown Chapel Hill in December 2021. As of this writing, 18 months later, we still don’t know when it’s opening.
Commenting after the fact to note that I neglected to include Char Grill, a Triangle-specific burger joint, but I also only had that once and mostly forgot about it.
I like the optimism! Gonna get all the milkshakes one day. Next trip to NC is gonna be so yummy