The long-awaited Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has opened its first restaurant in the central San Joaquin Valley.

The Hanford location opened Wednesday at 9 a.m. at 1765 W. Lacey Blvd., near 12th Avenue and Hanford Mall. Twenty people in line before 7:30 a.m. had the chance to win free Raising Cane’s food for a year.

The restaurant has a double kitchen and drive-thru, and will employ 170 people.

The chain is also planning to open restaurants in north and southeast Fresno and one each in Clovis, Visalia and Tulare.

Here’s our previous coverage of the restaurant’s plans for Hanford.

Hanford Raising Cane’s

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.

Raising Cane’s is gearing up for a July 7 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.

This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 12:52 PM.

Bethany Clough

The Fresno Bee

(559) 441-6431

Bethany Clough covers restaurants and retail for The Fresno Bee. A reporter for more than 20 years, she now works to answer readers’ questions about business openings, closings and other business news. She has a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and her last name is pronounced Cluff.