Is Cook Out coming to Louisville? Popular fast food chain teases opening with online poll

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If Buc-ee's has proven anything, it's that Kentuckians will go crazy when niche out-of-town chains decide to open a store in the Bluegrass State.

On the same day Buc-ee's opened its first Kentucky store in Richmond, a popular North Carolina-based fast-food chain served up fodder for a hungry following of Louisvillians hoping for a restaurant in the Derby City.

Cook Out asked in a post on its Twitter account Tuesday where users would like to see a new store, listing five locations that are currently without a location.

Louisville was one of them, along with Baltimore, Maryland; Pensacola, Florida; Dothan, Alabama; and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

The popular chain asked users to "VOTE AND LET US KNOW" in the same tweet. And Louisvillians did just that, flooding the responses with calls for Cook Out to set up shop in the city.

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A Twitter account called "Bring Cook Out To Louisville" voted in a quote tweet for — you guessed it — Louisville.

"This account was made in 2019... it has been a long time coming," the user, who only follows Cook Out's Twitter account, wrote Tuesday.

Another Twitter user, Keith Jones, emphatically endorsed Louisville.

"Louisville!!!!!" he wrote in a tweet Tuesday. "It’s actually embarrassing that you don’t already."

Meanwhile, Twitter user Jake C. used the opportunity to vote for Louisville and make a joke about a controversial development at the Oxmoor Center.

"This is even more overdue than Top Golf was," he wrote.

It's unclear whether Cook Out will be coming to Louisville. A customer service representative reached Wednesday referred The Courier Journal to an email address,which replied to a Courier Journal request for comment later that morning by referring the publication to the customer service hotline.

Founded in 1989 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Cook Out has roughly 300 locations across 10 states. Popular items at the chain include trays, in which customers can purchase a combination of entrees and sides, as well as myriad flavors of milkshakes.

If you live in Louisville and want to get Cook Out, you'll need to travel more than 50 miles west to reach the nearest location in Frankfort. The chain has 11 stores throughout the commonwealth, and one more is "coming soon" to Mount Sterling, according to the company's website.

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Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Is there a Cook Out in Louisville? Not yet, but company teases opening