El Paso, Texas (KFOX14) \u2014 Raising Cane\u2019s built its restaurant concept around a straightforward idea: Focus on one main dish and work to make it consistently well.<\/p>\n
During a Daytime visit to the Raising Cane\u2019s at The Fountains at Farah<\/a>, Lawrence, an area leader for the restaurant company, explained how that philosophy shaped everything from the chicken fingers and sides to the drinks, catering options and closely guarded Cane\u2019s Sauce recipe.<\/p>\n \u201cWe only sell one thing, so we have to be perfect at it,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cAnd I promise you guys this: We are perfect at it.\u201d<\/p>\n We also explored the story behind the restaurant\u2019s dog-inspired name, the role catering can play during the busy back-to-school season and the company\u2019s involvement in El Paso community events.<\/p>\n Here are seven things to know about Raising Cane\u2019s and its intentionally limited menu.<\/p>\n 1. Chicken fingers are the restaurant\u2019s \u201cone love\u201d<\/p>\n Chicken fingers are not simply one option on the menu. Lawrence said they are the reason the other menu items exist.<\/p>\n \u201cOur one love is these beautiful chicken fingers here,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s all he really wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n That focus dates back to the company\u2019s earliest days. Raising Cane\u2019s founder Todd Graves opened the first restaurant near Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Aug. 28, 1996. The company says Graves developed the restaurant around a limited menu serving chicken finger meals, despite being told by professors and potential lenders that the concept would not work.<\/p>\n Lawrence said concentrating on one primary item allows restaurant crews to spend their time learning how to prepare it consistently.<\/p>\n We compared the approach to becoming an expert through repetition.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re exactly right,\u201d Lawrence responded. \u201cWe only sell one thing, so we have to be perfect at it.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. The sides were selected to complement the chicken<\/p>\n While the menu includes several familiar sides, Lawrence said each one was chosen to support the restaurant\u2019s chicken finger meals.<\/p>\n \u201cHe created the entire menu just to complement our one love,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n That includes crinkle-cut fries, Texas toast and coleslaw.<\/p>\n \u201cTo balance us out, because we all care about nutrition, right, he added the coleslaw,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The result is a menu that offers different combinations of the same core items rather than a long list of unrelated entrees.<\/p>\n 3. The drinks receive plenty of attention, too<\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s focused approach extends to its beverages.<\/p>\n Raising Cane\u2019s offers lemonade along with sweet and unsweetened tea. Lawrence said the lemonade is prepared fresh each day.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cool thing about our lemonade is that it\u2019s hand-squeezed every single day, so it\u2019s fresh and it\u2019s ready to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s official catering information says the lemonade is made with real lemons, pure cane sugar and filtered water. Its sweet and unsweetened tea is brewed fresh several times throughout the day. Both are available by the gallon for catering orders.<\/p>\n Lawrence admitted that sweet tea is a personal favorite, but he quickly returned to the restaurant\u2019s main message.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m absolutely addicted to our sweet tea, but our one love is our chicken fingers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 4. Raising Cane\u2019s really was named after a dog<\/p>\n The yellow Labrador pictured throughout Raising Cane\u2019s restaurants is more than a mascot created for the brand.<\/p>\n Lawrence explained that Graves named the restaurant after his dog.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a dog named Cane,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cHe chose to name his restaurant after Cane, just to represent the love that he had for his dog.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s official history adds another detail: Graves originally planned to call the restaurant \u201cSockeye\u2019s,\u201d referencing the salmon he fished while working in Alaska. A friend instead suggested that he name it after Raising Cane, the Labrador that frequently joined him at the original restaurant\u2019s construction site.<\/p>\n The tradition continued after the original Cane died. Raising Cane III now serves as the company\u2019s mascot, following Cane I and Cane II.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re on our third Cane now, and I\u2019m super excited about that,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n 5. Catering is designed to be easy to carry and serve<\/p>\n In our segment featured a catering spread with trays of chicken fingers, cups of Cane\u2019s Sauce and large beverage containers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly the setup that you will be receiving if you wanted to cater with us at Raising Cane\u2019s,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n He described the containers as straightforward for customers who need to transport food to a school gathering, work event, party, game or family meal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to hold, easy to access,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n Raising Cane\u2019s offers individual combos for groups as well as Tailgates with larger quantities of chicken fingers. Its official catering page lists Tailgate options ranging from 25 to 300 chicken fingers and recommends planning for three to four chicken fingers per person. Customers can add fries, Texas toast, coleslaw, sauce and gallon-sized drinks.<\/p>\n Those options can be useful during the back-to-school season, when families, classrooms, sports teams and workplace groups may be planning meals for larger gatherings.<\/p>\n 6. Community participation remains part of the local plan<\/p>\n The Daytime visit came as El Paso families and schools were preparing for a new academic year.<\/p>\n Lawrence said Raising Cane\u2019s crews were also preparing to participate in community activities around the city. During the segment, he pointed to Minerpalooza <\/a>and Way Out West<\/a> as examples of local events where the company planned to have a presence.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s broader community program focuses on working with schools, nonprofits and local causes through fundraisers, sponsorships and donations of goods. Its stated areas of focus include education, hunger relief, active lifestyles, pet welfare and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n For Lawrence, the local events, catering options and restaurant experience all return to the same focused message.<\/p>\n \u201cOne love,\u201d he said. \u201cChicken fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n DTC RaisingCane sV1_1080p<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Paso, Texas (KFOX14) \u2014 Raising Cane\u2019s built its restaurant concept around a straightforward idea: Focus on one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-389665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}