Raising Cane’s Bets on First Stores in Three New Cities

Raising Cane’s opened its first Albany, Georgia, restaurant on July 21 at 2616 Dawson Road, the last of five new U.S. stores that month. Johnson City, Tennessee, and Jacksonville, North Carolina, got their first restaurants in that same stretch, and Los Angeles added a shop at 1008 Broxton Avenue.

Three remodeled restaurants also came back online in Edmond, Oklahoma, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Las Vegas. The mix is the bet: first stores in towns that never had one, plus late hours in cities that already know the menu.

Five New Stores and Three Remodels Opened in July

A June 29 company statement framed July as a run of firsts and refreshes, not a single ribbon cutting. “We’re excited to celebrate these milestones with our newest communities in Johnson City, Jacksonville and Albany,” the company said. All restaurants were closed on July 4 so crew could take the holiday.

The five new shops opened across 15 days, from July 6 in Schererville, Indiana, to July 21 in Albany. Three of those five were first-in-market. The other two filled in places the brand already knew, including a Westwood corner a short walk from UCLA.

THE JULY OPENING CALENDAR

Some existing restaurants also moved their hours earlier or later in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Nashville, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, the company said, in markets where late-night traffic is already part of the trade.

Dawson Road Drew a Line for Albany’s First Cane’s

A line ran down Dawson Road when the Albany doors opened on Tuesday, July 21. Visitors came from Leesburg and Cordele as well as the city itself. The shop sits at 2616 Dawson Road, across from the mall, and it was the chain’s 13th restaurant in Georgia at the time.

Jacob Watts, a Leesburg resident who first ate the food in Orlando, treated the opening like a long-delayed errand.

I have been a Caniac since I first had it. I had it in Orlando, and when I heard it was coming here, I was on my knees, thanking the Lord.

Jacob Watts, Leesburg resident, at the Albany opening

Patty Johnson, also from Leesburg, said the hire count would help the city and hoped the mall side of town would pick up business. Andy Boyd, visiting from Cordele, put it in pocketbook terms. “Anything that brings jobs helps people,” he said.

A Raising Cane’s press release said the Albany restaurant was filling about 130 crew jobs. Starting pay was listed at $15 an hour for cashiers, fry cooks, and customer service associates, with an extra $1 an hour after 10 p.m. and an extra $2 an hour in the first 12 months. Opening day included a Lucky 20 drawing for a year of free food, gifts for the first 200 combo buyers, a gift basket for the first customer, a DJ, and a $2,000 check to J-Lo’s Animal Rescue & Sanctuary.

Some neighbors still read it as one more chicken shop on a road that already has plenty. HomeGoods was going up nearby. Watts argued that chains handle speed and sameness, and that local places still have to hold the rest. The company did not answer that debate. It just opened the store and staffed it.

Johnson City and Jacksonville Hired 140 and 160 Crews

Johnson City’s first restaurant opened July 7 at 1904 N. Roan Street, across from The Mall of Johnson City. Restaurant Leader Griffin Sepanek said the crew had been waiting on the milestone and wanted the shop to become a regular stop, not a one-week curiosity. The East Tennessee location posted about 140 jobs, ran the same Lucky 20 drawing, and handed Washington County Animal Shelter a $2,000 check, with pets on site for adoption.

Hours there settled at 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. That is a step back from an earlier plan to run until 2 a.m., and it matches the Albany clock. Demand, not the press kit, set the close time.

Jacksonville, North Carolina, opened July 13 at 1106 Western Boulevard with a double-lane drive-thru and designs the company said were meant to fit the city. Restaurant Leader Jakob Steinberg said the crew wanted military families, service members, and civilian neighbors in the same line. Area Leader of Restaurants Bobbi Frye called the opening a chance to hire locally and build a crew that could keep the same meal consistent.

The Jacksonville shop listed 160 jobs at $13 an hour, plus the same $1 after 10 p.m. About 150 people stood in line on opening day. The first 200 in-restaurant combo buyers were offered a branded trucker hat and a Box Combo card, and the company presented $1,000 to Adoption First Animal Rescue. Schererville, which is not a new market, still used the same opening kit on July 6: about 130 jobs, a double-lane drive-thru, a Lucky 20 drawing, and a $1,000 gift to Highland Parks & Recreation. Area Leader Lidia Soto said the wait in northwest Indiana had been loud for months.

Add the posted crews in Albany, Johnson City, and Jacksonville and the three new-market restaurants were selling 430 jobs, not a handful of extra shifts. That is the local stake hiding under the ribbon.

The Westwood Store Runs Until 2 a.m.

The Los Angeles restaurant at 1008 Broxton Avenue opened the same day as Jacksonville, July 13, at Broxton and Weyburn in Westwood Village. Doors were listed at 10 a.m. after a morning ribbon cutting, a Lucky 20 drawing, a DJ, and the usual giveaways. The official location page lists hours of 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day.

That clock is the other half of the July wager. Albany and Johnson City close at midnight most nights. Westwood, sitting on a campus retail corner, stays open two hours later all week. The menu does not change. The hours do.

Late-night pay is how the model funds those extra hours. Crew in Albany and Jacksonville were offered $1 more after 10 p.m., which only matters if the dining room and the drive-thru actually stay busy. In a 70-seat box, a 130-person roster is a lot of overlapping shifts, including the ones after dark. The Westwood store is the cleanest test of that idea, because it never drops back to midnight.

What a New Cane’s Crew Earns

The July openings used one playbook and three different labor numbers. Albany advertised $15 an hour. Jacksonville advertised $13. Johnson City published a headcount, about 140, without a matching public starting wage in the opening recap. Schererville also hired about 130 people. The gap is local, not a national rate card.

THE JULY CREW TERMS

• Albany pay: About 130 jobs starting at $15 an hour, plus $1 after 10 p.m. and $2 more in the first 12 months.
• Jacksonville pay: 160 jobs starting at $13 an hour, plus $1 after 10 p.m.
• Johnson City jobs: About 140 crew positions at the North Roan Street shop.
• Schererville jobs: About 130 workers at the U.S. 41 restaurant, with a double-lane drive-thru.

RestaurantData’s company file says most restaurants are company-operated, with only a small share franchised, and that a typical dining room has about 70 seats in roughly 1,750 square feet. A 130-person crew in a room that size is a shift machine. It also explains why the $1 night bump shows up in the hiring flyers. The company is paying for the hours it wants to sell, not only for the new dots on the map.

First-in-Market Openings Continue Through October

Albany was not a one-off Georgia experiment. A Statesboro restaurant opened Aug. 24. The first Macon shop is scheduled for Oct. 19 at 4951 Riverside Drive, which would be the chain’s 15th restaurant in Georgia. The July first-in-town pattern is still the monthly script.

A company representative said the fall openings were a chance to meet guests in Wausau, Springfield, and Macon for the first time while adding stores in markets the brand already occupies. Seven restaurants are on the October list.

THE OCTOBER OPENING LIST

1. October 5: Wausau, Wisconsin, 226422 Rib Mountain Drive, first in the city.
2. October 12: San Francisco, 255 Winston Drive, and Goleta, California, 7000 Hollister Ave.
3. October 13: Springfield, Oregon, 2720 Gateway St., first in the city.
4. October 19: Macon, Georgia, 4951 Riverside Drive, first in the city.
5. October 22: Grandville, Michigan, 3980 Rivertown Mall Path.
6. October 27: Idaho Falls, Idaho, 2236 S. 25th E.

Wausau is set to open Oct. 5. Springfield follows on Oct. 13, and Macon on Oct. 19. The company has said it plans nearly 100 new restaurants in 2026, after opening about 100 in 2025 and 118 the year before. July’s five new stores were one month inside that pace, not a special burst.

Cane’s Now Counts More Than 1,000 Restaurants

Todd Graves opened the first Raising Cane’s in 1996 near Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In August, for the 30th year, he put a pop-up museum next to that original shop, the one the company calls the Mothership, and walked Caniacs from the first Box Combo to more than 1,000 restaurants worldwide. The display ran from Aug. 25 through Sept. 24.

ScrapeHero’s Sept. 22, 2026, tally counted 998 Raising Cane’s restaurants in the U.S., including 202 in Texas and 144 in California. The company also operates in Bahrain and Kuwait and has talked about Mexico this year and a London flagship in early 2027. By U.S. sales it ranks as the third-largest chicken chain, behind Chick-fil-A and Popeyes, after $5.1 billion in 2024 system sales.

THE SCALE BEHIND JULY

• Worldwide count: The company says it now has more than 1,000 restaurants.
• U.S. tally: 998 locations as of Sept. 22, 2026, per ScrapeHero.
• 2026 plan: Nearly 100 new restaurants in the calendar year.
• Chicken rank: Third in U.S. sales, behind Chick-fil-A and Popeyes.

From introducing Raising Cane’s to new communities to reinvesting in restaurants that have served customers for years, July reflects the many ways we’re continuing to grow across the country. Every opening and remodel is an opportunity to serve our ONE LOVE, Craveable Chicken Finger Meals, create jobs and strengthen local partnerships.

Raising Cane’s representative, July expansion statement

The meal is still the same short list: chicken fingers marinated 24 hours and cooked to order with no heat lamps, crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw, Texas toast, Cane’s Sauce, and lemonade. Graves’s wager is that this list can hold a first store on Dawson Road, a first store on Western Boulevard, and a 2 a.m. line in Westwood without adding a second entree.

The Wausau restaurant is scheduled to open Oct. 5 at 226422 Rib Mountain Drive. Macon follows on Oct. 19 at 4951 Riverside Drive, the next Georgia city to get its first shop after Albany and Statesboro.