Louisiana-Based Fried Chicken Chain Raising Cane's To Grand Open First San Diego Location On May 1

April 26, 2018

Currently with more than 350 outposts around the world, Raising Cane’s is opening its first San Diego County location in Santee on Tuesday, May 1, and to celebrate, the fast-food chain is hosting a grand opening celebration with a "Lucky 20" drawing to award twenty customers with free food for a year.

Founded by Todd Graves in Baton Rouge, LA in 1996 and named after his yellow Labrador, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is a fast-food chain that now has more than 375 restaurants in 24 states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with multiple new restaurants under construction. Known for its chicken finger meals, the rapidly growing company earned the distinction of being among the Top 3 quick service restaurant chains in the nation for 2017, based on food quality, customer service, cleanliness and other factors.

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The first San Diego outpost will sit within a 3,360 square-foot building at 8867 Cuyamaca Street in Santee and offer the company's first double drive-thru. Like other locations, the concise menu at Santee's Raising Cane's will be centered around fresh-never-frozen, hand-dipped chicken fingers that are breaded and fried to order and available in combo platters and on sandwiches. Raising Cane's will also be opening another outpost in Vista as early as this July, with plans to open up to 30 locations in the San Diego area over the next ten years.

The new restaurant will kick off its grand opening festivities on Tuesday, May 1, with a "Lucky 20" drawing to give twenty customers ages 13 and older free Cane’s for a year. Santee’s new Raising Cane’s will start accepting entries at 6:30am., with the Lucky 20 drawing held between 7:30-8am. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be hosted by Mayor John Minto and the Santee Chamber of Commerce starting at 8am. Z90.3 will be onsite to pump up the opening day crowd with a live radio remote and "Caniacs" will be encouraged to take photos with Raising Cane’s 1967 Cadillac that was restored and upgraded on the Discovery Channel series Fast N’ Loud. Doors open to the public at 9am. The first 100 paying, dine-in customers will also receive a Cane’s t-shirt, along with a voucher for a free box combo that may be redeemed on a subsequent visit.

Along with its focus on chicken fingers, Raising Cane’s is renowned for its commitment to active involvement in its local communities. On April 25, Neuroth and his fellow crewmembers volunteered their time planting trees at the park and campgrounds at Santee Lakes.

"We had a lot of fun spending time outside and helping make the 190-acre park even more beautiful," said General Manager Matthew Neuroth. "Santee Lakes has seven amazing recycled water lakes and hosts over 660,000 visitors a year, so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to volunteer there for our pre-opening service project. We will also be the Presenting Sponsor for the LSU Crawfish Boil that is coming up on May 27."

If all goes well, other outposts may come to San Diego in the near future. For more information on Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, visit raisingcanes.com.