Authored By chloe.morrison

Jack’s Family Restaurant is bringing its first eatery to Chattanooga’s Lookout Valley on Cummings Highway.

“We have been expanding into Tennessee,” Pam Measel, spokeswoman for the restaurant, said via email. “Chattanooga will be our sixth location in Tennessee, and we will open our seventh location in Jackson, Tennessee, later this year.”

Officials said they are shooting for a mid-June opening.

The stores generally employ about 50 people, and the investment here will be $1 million.

Jack’s serves breakfast items such as biscuits, hash browns and meal specials. It also has chicken dinners, hamburgers, milkshakes, fries, cole slaw, green beans and more.

The first Jack’s opened in 1960 in Homewood, Alabama.

By 1974, there were 78 Jack’s locations, but in the 1980s, the company experienced challenges and shrank its footprint to fewer than 60 restaurants.

By 1988, Benny LaRussa, who became a franchisee with the purchase of one store in 1968, had expanded his footprint to 33 Jack’s stores.

And in 1989, LaRussa bought the whole chain and franchising rights, and began the slow rebuilding of the company.

Jack’s is now owned by Onyx, a private equity firm.

That purchase went through in July with no changes during the acquisition.

“Our goal is to serve our customers quality food with quality service,” Measel said.

She also said that the company is “community-minded” and always looking to help give to organizations in need or volunteer during natural disasters by feeding volunteers.

“We are excited about this new opportunity to serve this new market and look forward to being an active corporate citizen,” she also said.