Raising Cane’s, the Louisiana-based fried chicken brand, recently signed a lease for a new outpost at 3000 Island Ave in southwest Philadelphia, which should be open this summer, according to a company spokesperson.
“Since opening our first Philadelphia location last year, Caniacs have given us such a warm welcome,” says Raising Cane’s Public Relations Director Julia Doyle. “We are thrilled to open our fifth location in Philadelphia early this summer on Island Ave., and we can’t wait to continue to grow around the area in the coming months and years!”
The new location is part and parcel of a push announced last year to open some 20 new restaurants throughout the region, as What Now Philadelphia previously reported.
Since then, Raising Cane’s was also named as a tenant in a forthcoming development at 16 Snyder Ave.
At the time, VP of company restaurants, Dustin Shearer, told What Now Philadelphia, “I think everybody in Philadelphia is excited just as much as we are. Four restaurants opened in the last couple of months in Pennsylvania and we’re so proud of that, we’re very excited about it and how the community has welcomed us.”
Founded in Baton Rouge in 1996 by the uncompromising entrepreneur Todd Graves, Raising Cane’s now has more than 600 locations across the country. However, that success was not without its doubters.
According to Graves’ story on the company’s official website, Raising Cane’s “began as a college dream” which was parlayed into an assignment for Graves’s business course that, “ironically, earned the lowest grade in the class. The professor said a restaurant serving only chicken fingers in South Louisiana would never work.”
Since then, Graves has gone on to not only build a chicken empire but also earn wide acclaim, with such accolades as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, SCORE Award for Outstanding Socially Progressive Business, Restaurateur of the Year by Louisiana Restaurant Association, and Louisianan of the Year by Louisiana Life.
