Jack in the Box

They've come East. We didn't have any idea until Mark was driving along and saw one. That's right, Jack in the Box is here.

While Josh had never been to a Jack in the Box, Mark had "enjoyed" their burgers when he was younger and living and working in L.A.

Opened in 1951, Jack in the Box is the offspring of Robert O. Peterson's original Topsey Drive-In which he established 10 years earlier. This was the first restaurant chain to utilize a two-way intercom system for drive-thru ordering. Mark remembers "speaking into the clown's mouth" which was a major ad campaign element.

While in the early days Jack in the Box was trying to go toe to toe with that other west coast fast food chain, McDonald's, by 1980 they began switching their target advertising away from the families with little kids and more toward a more affluent 20 and 30-year-old market. It seemed to work as Jack in the Box continued to grow and morph away from the traditional fast food burger joint.

Today, with well over 2000 locations, still mostly in the west, Jack in the Box has finally migrated to our area with two local restaurants: 5234 Ridge and 7425 Tylersville in West Chester. You can also find them on the web at http://www.jackinthebox.com/

Burger

We went in with Mark feeling nostalgia and Josh feeling a bit of trepidation at the thought of another ramped up fast food joint. We decided to order up their top of the line Sirloin Burger. We were pleased that they took our order and then like a growing number of newer burger chains, handed us a placard to put on the table so our food could be delivered.

It wasn't that long before our food was delivered hot off the grill and out of the fryer. The first thing we both noticed about our burgers was that it actually tasted fresh, not like most chains that ship frozen patties across the country. The second thing we noticed was that these were some peppery burgers. Now don't get us wrong, we both like some pepper on our burgers and these surely were made to please us. But be forewarned, if you are not a fan of pepper then you might want to stay away from this burger because it is a major flavor component.

The burgers were big and juicy and, to be honest, were much better than what we honestly were expecting. Granted they weren't on par with our favorite burger joints around town or even with our favorite newer style burger chains, but these were pretty darn decent burgers, especially considering the price and how quickly we were served.

The fries were fairly standard but also tasted fairly fresh. Oh, they were frozen mass produced fries but they were cooked just right and weren't sitting around getting mushy under a heat lamp until they were bagged.

Overall we were surprised by our Jack in the Box experience. We were left with the question of whether all the burgers were that peppery or that was just something they did with the Sirloin Burger. Maybe we'll have to go back some time and check out another of their burgers, like their classic Jumbo Jack with Cheese.