Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is an American fast-food

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

chain specializing in chicken fingers founded in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey in 1996.

History

Founders Todd Graves and Craig Silvey were both enrolled in a business plan writing course while studying at different universities. Graves wrote the business plan and Silvey submitted it, for which Silvey received a C-minus grade. At the time, Graves worked at Guthrie's Chicken Fingers. The business plan was rejected numerous times by potential investors, so Graves earned the needed money working as a boilermaker in a Los Angeles, California refinery and fishing for

sockeye salmon The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

in Alaska. He and Silvey obtained an SBA loan, which they used to open their first restaurant, located in Baton Rouge at the intersection of Highland Road and State Street near the LSU campus. In 2022 Raising Cane's sued a

Hobart, Indiana Hobart is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,890 at the 2020 census, up from 29,059 in 2010. It has been historically primarily residential, though recent annexation has added a notable retail corridor to the cit ...

shopping center because Cane's had missed discovering, before they'd signed a long-term lease, that the shopping center had a non-compete agreement with McDonalds that prohibited other vendors selling chicken fingers in the complex.

International expansion

The

chain A chain is a wikt:series#Noun, serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression (physics), compression but line (g ...

first began expanding internationally in 2015, opening its first restaurant in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the no ...

. The namesake mascot, a dog, is not seen on signage and merchandise, as dogs are not popular in Kuwait.

COVID-19 pandemic

In March 2020, many of Cane's locations switched from dine-in to pick-up and

take out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

service only because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, while others closed temporarily. As of July 2020, certain locations had reopened their dining rooms, although Graves said the company was in no rush to do so on the full scale. In 2021, in response to a shortage of workers the company began dispatching hundreds of corporate employees to work in its restaurants as cooks and cashiers, in addition to their existing duties regarding the hiring of new employees. The company plans to hire 10,000 new employees. The company's co-CEO claims that corporate employees are trained in the kitchen and on the register under normal circumstances.

Mascot

Graves' original dog was Raising Cane, a yellow Labrador. Other namesake Labradors have served as company mascots, as well as certified

therapy animals A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

. *

References

* {{Fast-food chains of the United States Chicken chains of the United States Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food poultry restaurants Regional restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1996 Companies based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Restaurants in Louisiana 1996 establishments in Louisiana American companies established in 1996 Privately held companies based in Louisiana