Looking for Jacks vegetarian options? Jack’s is a Southern biscuit-and-burger chain first, but a handful of real menu items are meat-free once you know what to order. This guide covers the safe bets, the ones to skip, and the cross-contact details worth asking about at the counter. New to eating out this way? Start with our answer to what about the vegetarians before you dig into Jack’s specific menu.
A Quick Look at Jack’s
Jack Caddell opened the first Jack’s on November 21, 1960, in Homewood, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. The walk-up stand sold fifteen-cent hamburgers, fries, and twenty-cent milkshakes. Growth came fast through the 1960s: more than a dozen locations around Birmingham, plus a push into Mississippi and South Carolina. Expansion continued into south Alabama and the Florida panhandle during the 1970s, though a rough stretch in the 1980s closed a lot of those stores.
Benny LaRussa turned things around. He bought a 13-store franchise territory in 1979, grew it to 33 locations by 1988, and bought the entire franchise system that same year. Jack’s has stayed a corporate-owned chain since. Onex Corporation, a Toronto-based private equity firm, bought Jack’s in 2015 for a $234 million equity investment. Onex sold to AEA Investors in August 2019 and walked away with roughly $835 million, a 3.6-times return on its stake.
Jack’s now runs close to 290 corporate-owned restaurants across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Its first Florida location opened in Milton in March 2026, and headquarters are still in Birmingham, the city where it all started.
Jacks Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Jack’s doesn’t build its menu around vegetarians, and there’s no plant-based burger or dedicated meatless sandwich anywhere on it. What you get instead is a short list of sides, breakfast items, and desserts that happen to skip meat, if you order them the right way. Here’s how the menu breaks down, based on Jack’s own March 2025 allergen listing and its current menu descriptions.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Buttered biscuit (standalone) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (shortening type not published) |
| Grits | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (no dairy listed, but unconfirmed) |
| Hash browns | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (fryer oil type not published) |
| Breakfast Deluxe platter (as served, with meat and sausage gravy) | ❌ No (standard with a choice of meat and sausage gravy) | ❌ No |
| French fries | ⚠️ Check (fryer oil type not published) | ⚠️ Check |
| Green beans | ⚠️ Check (Southern-style sides are often seasoned with pork) | ❌ No (if pork is used) |
| Mashed potatoes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter, milk) |
| Cole slaw | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg-based mayo) |
| Side salad (no dressing) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (may include cheese) |
| Fried pies (apple, lemon, strawberry) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg, dairy) |
| Ice cream and milkshakes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (likely, but not confirmed vegan) |
Breakfast Is Your Best Bet for Vegetarian Options at Jack’s
Skip the platters and build your own plate instead. Jack’s standard Breakfast Deluxe comes with two scrambled eggs, grits, hash browns, a biscuit, and savory sausage gravy. It’s not vegetarian as served, since the gravy is built from sausage and a choice of meat comes standard. Order the pieces separately instead. A plain buttered biscuit, a side of grits, and hash browns make a real vegetarian breakfast, and none of the three name meat in Jack’s menu description.
Jack’s calls itself the maker of “the official biscuit of the South,” and the biscuit itself contains only wheat, milk, and soy according to the allergen chart, no egg and no listed meat. What isn’t published anywhere is the shortening used to make it. Southern biscuit recipes have historically leaned on lard, and Jack’s hasn’t said publicly whether its biscuits use animal fat or a vegetable shortening. If that distinction matters to you, ask before you order.
Grits come with no milk or egg listed on the allergen chart, a good sign for anyone trying to eat vegan at breakfast, though Jack’s doesn’t confirm that in writing. Hash browns list only soy as a declared allergen and skip meat in their description too. They likely come out of a fryer shared with breaded chicken, so ask if cross-contact matters to you. A pancake without syrup rounds out the vegetarian breakfast list, though it contains egg, milk, and wheat, so it’s not a vegan pick.
Sides, Salads, and Sauces
Past breakfast hours, sides carry the weight for vegetarians at Jack’s. Mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and a side salad without dressing are all confirmed meat-free. Cole slaw runs through egg-based mayo, so it’s vegetarian but not vegan. The side salad’s allergen listing shows milk, likely from a cheese topping, so check before assuming it’s dairy-free.
French fries are the trickiest call. Jack’s hasn’t published what oil it fries them in, so there’s no way to confirm they’re free of animal fat. The allergen chart also flags wheat cross-contact on the fries, a sign they likely share a fryer with breaded chicken. Some locations serve fried fish and shrimp “prepared in our kitchen alongside other menu items,” per Jack’s own allergen warning, dated March 2025. If avoiding fryer cross-contact matters to you, ask a team member before you order fries, hash browns, or anything else that comes out of the fryer.
Green beans are the one side worth a second thought. Southern-style green beans are frequently cooked with ham hock or bacon for flavor. Meat isn’t a federally regulated allergen, so Jack’s ingredient statement wouldn’t have to disclose it either way. Check with the counter if you want to be sure.
For sauces, the Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette is the one dressing with no allergens listed at all, making it the most likely vegan option on the condiment list, though Jack’s doesn’t label it as such. Ranch, Thousand Island, Dijon Honey Mustard, Comeback, and Honey Mustard are all egg-based and vegetarian but not vegan. BBQ sauce lists only soy, so it’s a solid vegetarian and likely vegan choice for dipping fries.
Desserts and Milkshakes
Jack’s dessert case is entirely vegetarian and entirely dairy-heavy. Apple, lemon, and strawberry fried pies all contain egg, milk, and wheat, so they’re a solid vegetarian pick, not a vegan one. As with the biscuits, fried pie crusts are traditionally made with lard in the South, and Jack’s hasn’t confirmed which shortening it uses, so ask if that matters to you.
Every ice cream and milkshake flavor is vegetarian but contains dairy, ruling out vegans across the board. Jack’s also warns that all ice cream and milkshake flavors have the potential to contain tree nuts or peanuts, or to come into contact with them during prep, even flavors that don’t obviously call for either.
What’s Vegan at Jack’s?
Not much. Nearly every one of the confirmed Jacks vegetarian options runs through eggs or dairy, from the biscuits to the sides to every dessert. Grits are the closest thing to a safe vegan pick, since the allergen chart lists no milk or egg. The Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette and BBQ sauce are the two most vegan-friendly condiments, both missing dairy and egg from their listed ingredients. Beyond that, you’re relying on unconfirmed items like the french fries and green beans, since Jack’s doesn’t publish enough detail to call either one vegan with confidence. If you’re strictly vegan, this isn’t a chain to plan a trip around.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Jack’s publishes a full allergen listing covering egg, milk, soy, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, and sesame, current as of March 2025. A few things stand out if you’re weighing Jacks vegetarian options against specific allergens:
- Select locations serve fried fish and shrimp out of the same kitchen as the rest of the menu, a limited-time offering as of Jack’s most recent update. Ask before ordering anything fried if you’re avoiding seafood entirely.
- Nearly every biscuit, sandwich, and side lists wheat and soy, so this isn’t a chain that works for a gluten-free or soy-free diet. Jack’s says directly that it can’t guarantee any item as gluten-free.
- All ice cream and milkshake flavors carry a tree nut and peanut cross-contact warning, even flavors without either ingredient in the name.
- Jack’s allergen guide only applies to select US locations, with the exception of the wheat and gluten information, which applies chain-wide. Details can vary by store, so it’s worth confirming with the specific location you’re visiting.
Tips for Vegetarians at Jack’s
- Order breakfast a la carte. A biscuit, a side of grits, and hash browns beat the standard Breakfast Deluxe platter, which comes with a choice of meat and sausage gravy by default.
- Ask about the fryer. If avoiding cross-contact with fried chicken or fried seafood matters to you, ask whether fries and hash browns are cooked in a shared fryer at that location.
- Skip the green beans if pork seasoning is a dealbreaker, or ask the staff directly since it isn’t listed either way.
- Build a plate from sides. Mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and a side salad add up to a real meal outside of breakfast hours.
- Don’t expect a sandwich. There’s no veggie patty or meatless sandwich build at Jack’s, so plan on sides and breakfast items instead of a burger substitute.
- Ask about shortening if avoiding animal fat matters to you specifically. Jack’s hasn’t published whether its biscuits and fried pies use lard or a vegetable shortening.
Conclusion
Jack’s isn’t built around vegetarians, but it isn’t a dead end either. A biscuit, grits, hash browns, and a run of classic Southern sides get you through a meal. Cross-contact and shortening questions are worth asking if animal fat matters to you specifically. For the basics on eating this way anywhere you go, start with eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, then browse our full set of restaurant guides. If you like Southern comfort food with more reliable vegetarian options, check out our guides to Bojangles, Hardee’s, and Cracker Barrel.
