ORLANDO, Fla. – The chicken-finger-focused fast-food chain Raising Cane’s is looking to open at least 12 stores in the Orlando area and at least 25 locations across the state of Florida.
“So, we decided last year, let’s go to Florida and started looking at locations,” said AJ Kumaran, Co-CEO and COO of Raising Cane’s. “We have 25 locations locked-in in Florida already. And we have a little over ten — right at a dozen — restaurants coming to Orlando, specifically.
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Raising Cane’s first opened in Baton Rogue, Louisiana with a menu focused almost exclusively on chicken fingers, fries and coleslaw along with its signature “Cane’s Sauce.”
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“Our chicken fingers are made out of chicken tenderloin, which is the juiciest, tender most part of the chicken,” Kumaran said. “It’s like the filet of the chicken. And it comes to our restaurant — it’s never frozen — and then we bread and fry it and serve it. It never goes under a heat lamp. So it is truly made to order and served to you.”
Kumaran said the company has seen strong customer demand to bring the chain to Florida for some time.
“We get a lot of requests on a regular basis to open restaurants in various cities and I have to say the ask and the scream for Orlando and Florida in general continues to dominate,” Kumaran said.
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According to Kumaran, the first Florida location will be opening in Miami “in the next couple of months.” He added that the first Orlando-area restaurant would likely open “right toward the back end of this year.”
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Kumaran said that the first Central Florida location would open either in Kissimme of Altamonte Springs.
“It’s kind of going back and forth (which city will see the first location),” he said. “The development pipeline is gonna change city to city.”
Outside of Central Florida and Miami, Kumaran said the company also has its sights set on Gainesville and Tampa among others.
“We are we are looking opportunistically all across the state,” he said. “A variable with that is that right location. We’d like to open drive-thru buildings because that is convenient for our customers.”
According to the company it already has locations permitted at the following locations:
- Altamonte Springs in the area of Altamonte Drive and Maitland Avenue
- Osceola County in the area of U.S. 192 and Rolling Oaks Boulevard
- Kissimmee in the area West Osceola Parkway and North Thacker Avenue
- Kissimmee in the area of West Irlo Bronson Parkway and Holiday Trail
- Orlando in the area of South Orange Avenue and West Illiana Street
- Orlando in the area of Narcoossee Road and Irenic Way
- Orange County in the area of Daryl Carter Parkway and Palm Parkway
Kumaran said he hopes potential customers in the Orlando area are excited to get a taste of what Raising Cane’s has to offer.
“I want to tell the citizens of Orlando, just wait. We’ve got great chicken finger meals coming their way.”