Raising Cane’s chicken restaurant is coming to a second Valley city. What about Fresno?
Popular chain restaurant Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers plans to open a restaurant in Hanford, the first in what could be several locations opening in the Valley.
The quick-service restaurant founded in Baton Rouge has plenty of fans in the Fresno area who visit the restaurants when traveling out of town and are eagerly awaiting a closer location.
Raising Cane’s is coming to Clovis too. It plans to to demolish the former Pier 1 store on Shaw Avenue in Clovis and build a restaurant with a drive-thru there, opening in 2022.
The restaurant’s representatives have also said the company is looking to open a location in Fresno. There’s even hints surfacing as to where. Keep reading to find out more about a Fresno location.
In the meantime, Raising Cane’s is gearing up for a July 6 opening at 1765 W. Lacey Blvd. in Hanford, on empty land between the Chipotle and ALDI near 12th Avenue.
It will have a double drive-thru, large patio and employ about 100 people.
What is Raising Cane’s?
Even though the restaurant is highly anticipated, it may be unfamiliar to many people since it doesn’t have any locations in the central San Joaquin Valley. The closest are the four in Bakersfield, with a slew of restaurants in southern California.
The restaurant has about 500 locations nationwide, with drive-thrus that are thriving during the coronavirus pandemic.
The restaurant specializes in one thing: chicken fingers.
You can get meals that come with two, three, four or six chicken fingers. All come with french fries, Texas toast and coleslaw. Or, you can get three chicken fingers in sandwich form.
Raising Cane is the name of the founder’s dog — a friendly yellow lab featured in the restaurant’s marketing.
What about Fresno?
While the company has said it is interested in opening a Fresno location, it hasn’t said much about when or where.
That could be because the company hasn’t signed a lease or purchased property yet. Most companies won’t share information about where they want to go until a deal is finalized, just in case their plans fall through.
But a listing on a job website earlier this year got some fans talking. The listing was for a general manager position at Raising Cane’s in Fresno and it listed the location as El Paso and Blackstone avenues.
The Bee reached out to Raising Cane’s at the time, and received this statement via email: “Raising Cane’s is excited to bring its ONE LOVE – quality chicken fingers – to the Fresno area. We are still in the planning stages and hope to make an announcement soon on our first restaurant.”
A River Park representative said last month that the shopping center is not in talks with the restaurant about opening a location on its property.
The area has several restaurant vacancies. The chain has also been building many of its new locations from the ground up.
The company is planning to open more than 20 new locations 2021 and 2022 in northern California (which appears to include Hanford, according to its news release).
