Tampa Bay’s long wait for Cook Out is over. The Southern fast-food chain, known across the Carolinas and Southeast for its cheap combo trays and enormous milkshake menu, held a soft opening on Thursday, July 16, and an official grand opening Friday, July 17, at 5501 E Fowler Ave. in Temple Terrace, right near USF.
The location sits in a roughly 3,272-square-foot building that used to be a Boston Market. Cook Out bought the property back in May 2024 for $3.5 million and put about $1.2 million more into the buildout before opening — a long runway that made this one of Tampa Bay’s most anticipated fast-food debuts.
This is just the first of three Cook Out locations planned for the area, with Carrollwood and St. Petersburg restaurants also in the pipeline. If the crowds at the Temple Terrace opening are any indication, the other two won’t stay quiet for long — reports from opening week describe lines out the door from the moment doors opened.
For anyone who’s driven to Georgia or the Carolinas just to hit a Cook Out, the trip just got a lot shorter.