Jack in the Box Now Has a Food Truck (PHOTOS)

The latest food truck on your block might be owned and operated by...Jack in the Box.

The burger chain has jumped on the food-truck bandwagon by creating its own bandwagon.

JITB's "Munchie Mobile" debuted Friday in San Diego, CA and will travel over the next few months to neighboring Orange County and then Los Angeles.

Inspired by retro '70s silk-screened vans, the 34-foot vehicle bears a bold "lifelike" image of Jack in chest armor, helming an ancient Roman-style chariot borne by a tiger and a bear, their fangs bared.

Its outside is equipped with a window for ordering and pickup, and a menu displayed on a flat-screen TV. (The Munchie Mobile will offer a limited selection of burgers, fries and tacos.) Its interior is outfitted with a grill, fryer, and toaster.

"Food trucks are a popular trend these days," says JITB spokesman Brian Luscomb, "and our guests have been asking, 'Why doesn't Jack offer a food truck?' So we built the biggest and baddest food truck we could possibly imagine."

The Munchie Mobile will also be used at concerts and sporting events as well as community functions.

Its rear panel bears the message: "My other truck is a restaurant."

Now, I'm no expert on trademarks and the legalities of business nomenclature, but... there was a catering business called Munchie Mobile in Oxford, MS, which recently went out of business. Did JITB pay its owners to use that name, or once a business goes kaput is its name up for grabs? Some of my best friends are lawyers, but they're not awake yet.

All photos from Jack in the Box

 

Comments

[Nicole Dixson]

02:42 AM on 03/26/2011

Breakfast Jack and Kid's French Toast sticks meal. My personal favorite. Yum!

[dbrett480]

08:36 PM on 03/24/2011

Did they make these trucks because one Jack in the Box on every other block just wasn't enough?

[Mausinn]

11:50 AM on 03/22/2011

Tell ya what. If I have a choice between a JITB truck or a good old fashioned taco truck, the taco truck wins hands down.

[Willie Turnipseed]

11:36 AM on 03/22/2011

A Redesigned ROACH COACH?

[Yayabeanes]

08:30 PM on 03/21/2011

Are they doing a Taco Tuesday Two for one in the truck?

[weebles48]

02:08 PM on 03/21/2011

they have some really funny commercials. they can't top the weinersnitzle "gottcha" ad tho.
it's on the u-tubes, it's a hoot.

[JScott]

11:15 AM on 03/21/2011

So what In & Out has had one for some time, and their burgers are much better.

[rich3324]

11:03 AM on 03/21/2011

Cool, the Ecolimoble.

[April Pells]

10:10 PM on 03/20/2011

That is awesome.

[liberalbug]

12:34 AM on 03/21/2011

You just got to know some stoner college drop out got his dream job doing the airbrush work on that truck. Hopefully they paid him well, along with a life time of free burgers and munchies. Awesome indeed!

[Andy17]

08:44 PM on 03/20/2011

Lots of sports arena use 'branded' food these days, so this is not that surprising.
Given the choice between a generic burger from Acme, Inc. or a burger I already
had eaten before, I would go with Jack.

[xstevejx]

07:25 PM on 03/20/2011

Did JITB pay its owners to use that name, or once a business goes kaput is its name up for grabs?

That depends on if they trademarked the name and held onto the trademark. If they were only in one state, the trademark would usually only be valid in that state (and the article only says they have the JitB one in CA). That's why you have things like Edy's, Grand's and Dreyer's ice cream, depending on where you live...because others were already using one of those names in certain areas.

[Judith Berry]

04:13 PM on 03/20/2011

I wish it would come to Detroit! Love that place. T Berry's favorite spot!

[MajorKong]

03:24 PM on 03/20/2011

As much as I think this is a bad idea - I kind of like the over-the-top cheesiness of the artwork.

[xstevejx]

07:12 PM on 03/20/2011

Jack in the Box is the king of over-the-top cheesiness...their ads are usually great, even if a lot of their food isn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUYhcYw1ksw

[Yayabeanes]

08:32 PM on 03/21/2011

Many years ago and I mean many, Jack In The Box did a breakfast sandwich after 12pm. One real egg and I mean a real egg from cracked opened from the shell that was fried and put on a buttered hamburger bun.

[VerizonCells]

03:14 PM on 03/20/2011

That did not take very long... Did it? Looks like the big food corporations are about to destroy something else before most people even get a chance to have the real stuff.

[shande]

03:40 PM on 03/20/2011

Oh who cares. What a conspiracy theorist. It's not like people have not seen Jack in the Box before. Your gonna get that kind of food or your not. If people do not eat at the big boogie man corporations food trucks they die and be gone. You have a choice (at least for now)

[VerizonCells]

04:34 PM on 03/20/2011

You dont get and never will.

[weebles48]

02:26 PM on 03/21/2011

are you being forced to eat unhealthy stuff? i eat what i want, some good some bad but i choose it.
do you live in prison?

[French Toast]

03:08 PM on 03/20/2011

What kind of chucklehead would you have to be to order greaseball terrible fast food from a truck?

It's not the truck that's trendy, it's the food that comes from it that's delicious and usually high quality.

[A Thomas]

04:16 PM on 03/20/2011

And overpriced, only in affluent areas of West LA mostly. So Quality Food = $$$$ closing out a majority of the population in the process. JBX can have a Food (Roach Coach) Truck if they want. The greasy food you complain about comes from Popeye's and Church's Chicken....Or how about the grease coming off the average Pizza with Cheese on it?

Give me a break, I would get a Jumbo Jack from the truck, its just over a BUCK and I can afford that.

[Brass Hat]

08:15 PM on 03/20/2011

I suspect it will be higher than that, we had a Jack on Central ave that used to advertise $1.09 (IIRC) tacos on their sign. In fact, here in Mesa i know of a single unit (very nice store, a former Carl's Junior) that beats the other Jack's by about $.75 on my typical breakfast. I wonder what the prices will be here. As to killing other food trucks, i doubt it, out here in Phoenix we have tons of mediocre trucks serving job sites around here, this is no better or worse than that, and won't hold a candle to the trendy ones.

[French Toast]

03:52 AM on 03/21/2011

I eat literally none of those things. I'm a bit of a health buff. :)

If price point is your main concern then you'd be better served making at home. You get far better value for money when you consider unit weights. A fair point on pizza, though. You got me there, especially since I am on the east coast. NYC style pizza is pretty much ubiquitous. I'm one of the few people I know that take paper towels and soak that grease up.