Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers couldn’t have plucked a more prominent campus perch for its third Michigan store, number 935 overall for the privately held Baton Rouge–based chain.
With fanfare featuring the U-M dance team and giveaways drawing overnight campers, it opened September 16 at South U and East U in Vic Village South, catty-corner from the Diag.
“We have a crazy amount of student population crossing this intersection every single day,” says VP of Company Restaurants Dustin Shearer.
That anticipated volume prompted them to revise their original floorplan to maximize seating. There’s room for 122 people in a dining room decorated with dozens of what the company calls LCGs, or local cultural graphics, from a Tom Brady jersey to a Gilda Radner album.
As the name suggests, the streamlined menu focuses on marinated, never-frozen chicken tenderloins breaded to order. “It’s just basically how many chicken fingers you want, or do you want a sandwich?” Shearer says, explaining the company’s One Love motto. (A trademark dispute with Bob Marley’s estate was resolved in 2014.) They come with a signature sauce: a tangy, mayonnaise-based trade secret.
A combo of four fingers, crinkle-cut fries, house-made coleslaw, Texas toast, and a drink is $11.59. (It’s also 1,290 to 1,590 calories, depending on the beverage.) Iced teas and lemonade are made fresh daily.
Customers can order online, at kiosks, or at the counter into the wee hours— staying open late is typical for their college-town locations. Founder and CEO Todd Graves, with a net worth estimated by Forbes at $17.2 billion, still runs the company he founded in 1996 near the LSU campus and named for his labrador retriever.
The initial crew (starting at $15 per hour, according to one candid cashier) was slated to exceed 160 employees, though their restaurants typically settle at a headcount between sixty and 110, Shearer reports.
“If people are looking for a four- or five-hour shift, we got it. If people are looking for a six- to eight-hour shift, we got it. In the morning, late at night, whatever works with their college schedule,” he says.
“We do what we need to do, right? We take care of our crew, our customers in our community. We serve a quality product at a great price, so I think the value is really good.”
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, 1116 South University. (734) 452–0934. Sun.–Wed. 10 a.m.–2 a.m., Thurs.–Sat. 10 a.m.–3 a.m. raisingcanes.com
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