Raising Cane's targets spring opening in Glen Ellyn
If the opening of the Raising Cane's in Glen Ellyn looks anything like the one in Batavia, be prepared to wait in line to order chicken tenders.
It's not that chicken tenders are the most-popular menu item. Chicken tenders are really the only menu item.
You can, of course, order dipping sauces and fries, but that's not what brings patrons to Raising Cane's.
It's the cooked-to-order tenders - and the chance to win free Cane's for a year - that brought about 150 people to the chain's new restaurant in Batavia last week. The company expects a similar crowd when its new Glen Ellyn restaurant opens this spring.
"We've heard a lot of positive feedback in the community," said Dakota Strange, Raising Cane's Chicago area leader of marketing. "And we expect great turnout."
Raising Cane's initially floated February for a potential opening date, but it now plans to start serving Glen Ellyn customers sometime in the spring. Strange said it's not a delay necessarily but that the company is now working on hiring employees as construction takes shape on the 3,707-square-foot restaurant at Roosevelt Road and Main Street.
"We're not going to rush anything," he said.
The Louisiana-based chain has embarked on a suburban Chicago expansion with new restaurants recently opening in Westmont and Schaumburg.
"Here in Chicago, we've been opening up in the suburbs, and we've been spacing it out properly," Strange said.
Like the other openings, the Glen Ellyn restaurant will hold a "Lucky 20" drawing to award 20 customers with free Cane's for a year. The new restaurants typically accept entries from 8:30 to 9 a.m., with the Lucky 20 drawing between 9 and 10 a.m.
The first 100 customers also will receive a free T-shirt with the purchase of a combo meal and free box meal on their next visit.
The Batavia High School drum line and dance team regaled crowds at the Randall Road location, and Glen Ellyn "Caniacs" can expect their own source of entertainment at the opening.
"We're working on trying to get some of that local community flair there," Strange said.
Raising Cane's founder Todd Graves wrote a business plan for the concept in college, but his professor gave him a failing grade. Graves eventually raised enough capital and got a small business loan to open his first restaurant in 1996 at Louisiana State University.
And since chicken fingers are a staple of the college student diet, the chain went on to open restaurants near or on the campuses of Boston University, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Loyola University.
Graves named the restaurant after his yellow Labrador dog. He kept the menu simple: Patrons have their pick of three sides - coleslaw, crinkle-cut fries and Texas toast - to accompany chicken fingers. And for anyone counting, one chicken finger, breaded and fried, has 140 calories.
"Cane's does not use microwaves or heat lamps to cook or heat its meals," Development Manager LuAron McCormack wrote in a 2019 letter to Glen Ellyn officials.
Nearly a year ago, Raising Cane's won village board approval to build the restaurant and the drive-through after demolishing two vacant buildings formerly occupied by an Arby's restaurant and Caribou Coffee.