‘Raising Canes’ chicken headed to Seattle

If you’re from Seattle, you likely know ‘Raising Canes’ from trips to Hawaii or back East. The popular chicken finger chain is soon headed to the Puget Sound area.

The restaurant’s formula is simple: chicken fingers, different sauces, and sides.

The first store opened on August 28th, 1996 in Louisiana. It was named after owner Todd Graves’ dog. According to the Canes website, there are now locations across the country and Hawaii. Most are in the deep south, but one is in Portland.

As first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal earlier this week, Canes has filed an application for “extensive interior and exterior upgrades to an existing building.”

The building is in the U-District at the corner of University Way and Northeast 45th Street, the site of old American Apparel, which closed in 2017.

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Raising Cane told Eater Seattle, the company is “continuously evaluating opportunities to grow restaurants in the Pacific Northwest… We will make a public announcement when details are more firm.”

Graves started in the restaurant when he was 24 years old. In a business class Graves took when he was in college, he said a business professor said it was unlikely a restaurant could survive on only one main course.

Since 1994, the company has seen continuous growth. It has a massive 8,000-square-foot restaurant in New York’s Times Square.

Its popularity can probably also be linked to the fact that many stores are open until 3:30 a.m.

No firm timeline or even location has been announced.