This report for the Milligan Stampede Online was on a new Cook Out restaurant coming to Elizabethton. The Johnson City location has been a very popular destination for Milligan students. I interviewed the Elizabethton planning director and several students for more information and comment. I also contacted Cook Out, but I did not receive an answer.
A new Cook Out location could soon be coming to the Milligan area.
The new restaurant would be built at the current location of Long John Silver’s on West Elk Avenue in Elizabethton.
“Cook Out was looking in Elizabethton about a year and a half ago,” said Jon Hartman, Elizabethton’s director of planning and economic development. Cook Out came to Hartman for help because their search for a location had been unsuccessful. Hartman connected Cook Out with a local real estate agent who found the location.
Milligan students have mixed reactions about the possibility of the new Cook Out.
“My first thought is ‘Why?’ because we already have one in Johnson City,” said Milligan sophomore Alyssa Bartlett. “I think it would be less crowded than the one near ETSU.”
“It’s about the same distance, so I don’t know why I would go to (the Elizabethton location) over Johnson City,” senior Tyler Jorgenson said.
“I feel the Elizabethton (Cook Out) would become the Milligan one,” Milligan senior Kelsey Teel said.
The new Cook Out location would be about five miles from Milligan, while the current Johnson City location is 5.5 miles away, near ETSU.
Hartman said Cook Out had come up in many conversations he has had with community members even before the company approached him.
“They like the food. They like the price,” Hartman said.
He expects a lot of traffic at the new restaurant.
He said the new Cook Out would have a slightly different layout from the one in Johnson City. It would be more similar to the Cook Out in Boone with a double drive-thru and slightly less seating.
The site plan for the new Cook Out will need the approval of the Elizabethton Planning Commission. After that, the Long John Silver’s property can be purchased.
If all goes according to plan, Hartman said the Cook Out should be open by the beginning of the next school year.
Neither Cook Out nor Mitch Cox Realty, who is working with Cook Out in this process, had responded to interview requests by the time of writing.
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