A Raising Cane’s chicken finger restaurant is planned for Cherry Hill NJ in the Market Place section of the wildly popular Garden State Park development at Route 70 and Haddonfield Road.
This would be a new building construction with drive-thru, and we believe it still has to go through town Planning approvals. That being said they are targeting a 2023 opening.
The upcoming new building location is expected to be along the front of the Route 70 side of the property, in a parking area gap between two of the front buildings… basically in front of Wegman’s parking.
Raising Cane’s is also planning locations in Burlington and Marlton, and we hear rumors that Gloucester County is in their radar also.
For the Cherry Hill Garden State Park location, this is planned to be a swap out of “The Kings of Chicken” as the existing Chick-Fil-A will be relocating to the Garden State Pavilions, and Raising Cane’s is coming in.
Being the ultimate investigative reporter, 42Freeway’s Mark took a ride over this morning to the area’s first Raising Cane’s in Philadelphia to experience the fervor surrounding their tasty and tender chicken fingers. Photos and commentary on that experience are throughout this post.
Another hat-tip to good 42Freeway friend Neil from “A View From Evesham“. He covered the Marlton store over at his Facebook page and let us know about a Cherry Hill store in the works but wasn’t aware of location.
Then 42Freeway went into Detective Mode to pinpoint the specific Cherry Hill location… which we then confirmed with the center’s management. Keep scrolling for details, experience and photos!!
Raising Cane’s Background and “Caniacs”
Raising Cane’s is a premium chicken breast “finger” which is always made to order… and their chicken is hand-breaded and never frozen.
Chicken fingers are a fast-food and diner staple, but at Raising Cane’s they are made in super premium high quality way.
And you won’t find a variety of sauces for your chicken fingers either as they carry their own special recipe sauce called Cane’s Sauce. Based on internet lore and copy-cat recipes, the sauce appears to be based on; mayonnaise, ketchup, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper.
The Cane’s sauce recipe really is a secret though. It’s made fresh in the store but that responsibility is left with the store General Managers!
There are a few USA based fast-food chains that we just don’t get in in the Philadelphia area.
In-and-Out Burgers may be the most well known fast-food place that we don’t have in our area. Bojangles chicken is another.
Raising Cane’s is up there near the top of cult-like foodie follower places.. that we just didn’t have up our way. Very possible that most have not even heard of them in the Delaware Valley until recently.
But it seems once you’ve tried their chicken tenders you’ll be hooked… and run the risk of becoming a Caniac!
I say “up our way” because Raising Cane’s was started down in Baton Rouge, La, back in 1996.
Todd Graves and an earlier partner started the restaurant when he was attending Louisiana State University.
According to their website “About Us” page… the original idea for the restaurant was written as a business plan for a college class, and the professor told him it would never work. The banks did too.
With no money or investors Todd was left with little choice… to earn the start-up cash on his own.
Todd took a job working 90 hours a week at a refinery to raise his own capital. High-paying and hard work. He even tried commercial fishing in Alaska.
Once he had saved enough to start his first restaurant, he chose the front of the LSU entrance as his location.
During renovations they uncovered a mural on the wall… which inspired the original logo.
Todd wanted it to be a late-night hangout… and that first day they were so wildly successful they were open until 3:30 am
From that first store they now have over 700 locations, and have started an aggressive expansion plan!
For 2022 they plan on adding 100-110 locations in 10 US markets with about 20 slated in the Philadelphia/South Jersey markets.
They are looking at sales of about $3 Billion this year… and founder Tom Graves is only 50 years old.
With a delicious product and a simple menu. Raising Cane’s has been able to convert millions to fans of their chicken tenders… and they proudly call their fans “Caniacs”
The Menu
It seems Raising Cane’s is following the old Unix business adage of “Do one thing, and do it well”
Simply for the main entrée… Raising Cane’s makes chicken fingers. Fresh, delicious, cooked-to-order chicken wings. That’s it.
Sure you can get a variety of combos or a sandwich… but it’s all chicken tenders as the star of the show.
Even the sandwich is made up of three chicken tenders.
Well they do offer sides; Crinkle-Cut fries, Coleslaw and Texas Toast… and of course Cane’s Sauce.
If it’s your first time visiting, consider trying the Box Combo that has all of these items in the basket. But be warned.. it’s a LOT of food!
Don’t get me wrong, those sides are a very strong supporting cast, loved by Raising Cane’s fans as much as the tenders are.
And the freshness theme carries through to the sides.
The coleslaw is made daily in each store. The fries are Grade A potatoes. And the Texas Toast starts with a pull-apart sesame seed bread that they add butter and garlic blend too, and toast on the flat-top griddle.
Philadelphia Visit
As mentioned, today I visited the University City location in Philadelphia and enjoyed what they call their most popular combo.
4 chicken fingers, a huge pile of crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw, Texas toast and a coke.. for about $10.50.
It was a BIG platter… a lot of food that for many would feed them AND a friend.
And true to the hype, it was a damn good chicken finger.
I was served in a few minutes yet everything was incredibly fresh.
While their was a good texture to the chicken finger, it was very soft. Like chicken from a perfectly cooked fried chicken breast. Moist, tender with a noticeable but mild seasoning.
I quickly became a fan of the Cane’s Sauce. Sure it has some roots in Thousand Island dressing but the extra flavors and seasonings give it a distinct flavor tanginess.
The french fries were plentiful and just straight up potatoes from our great earth.. no batter or sugar coatings. Just the way they were meant to be.
Coleslaw was perfect and not too sweet.
Texas Toast… soft on the inside, crisp on the outside.
It really was too much food. Well doesn’t help that it was 10:30am when I made my visit! ha!
Cherry Hill Location
The three announced locations of Cherry Hill, Burlington and Marlton first became public in Raising Cane’s own Social Media posts (Facebook comments and twitter).
As mentioned, A View From Evesham did a Facebook post on Marlton but I don’t believe Neil has pinpointed the location. He is reporting the Evesham location is coming to Zoning Board in July.
For Cherry Hill it seems Raising Cane’s is also eager to get things rolling there as they already have posted a job listing for the General Manager.
I’d imagine they want to lock in the General Manager early so that they can get early training, help with the local details of building out the restaurant, and then of course hiring.
So in that job listing they very clearly offer an address of: Route 70 and Haddonfield (Road).
That location is a busy Cherry Hill intersection which at one corner has the wildly popular Garden State Park shopping center (Wegmans). Along the Route 70 side is the segment called Market Place at GSP.
While we see it as one large development, the owners break it out into different name sections; Market Place, Towne Place, Commerce Center, The Shoppes at GSP.
So thinking that Raising Cane’s would target this shopping center.. I scanned all of the online information.
I looked at all of the text. All of the nicely done property site plans. And I just couldn’t find a mention of Raising Cane’s.
But then I noticed something odd… in those front stores along Route 70 where a larger parking lot area is currently located… is a new unlabeled building!
And that currently empty lot portion is directly next to the current Chick-Fil-A!
While this new “ghost” building was not labeled on the site plan, you could clearly make out details of the new building’s outline.
So wanting to further confirm.. I started “googling” for other town’s where Raising Cane’s had been to planning board approvals, and while there werent 100% cookie-cutter matches, it was clear the telltale aspects of a new Raising Cane’s were presented in the Cherry Hill GSP Market Place site plan.
The general shape of the building and the roofed outdoor patio area, for one.
So I was ready to write the post as… “Raising Cane’s is coming to Cherry Hill and we think…”
But then I did something simple and reached out to the property’s leasing group. Ater hearing my story “Can you confirm Raising Cane’s is planning to come into a new building to be built next to the existing Chick-Fil-A store?”
I got a quick “That is correct” response.
We mentioned the Philadelphia location is the only one currently opened in our area.. a part of the reasoning for that quick opening is it was developed in an already developed office tower, so it was more of internal store build-out with signage.
The Cherry Hill store will probably see some extra steps in the approval process, as it’s an all new building.
We’ll watch closely to see what Delaware Valley town gets the first free-standing Raising Cane’s store!
Mike Klein at the Inquirer listed last month 3 other Pennsylvania locations in the works:
One at Pennsylvania State University (228 E. College Ave., State College) is planned for June. Next will be Temple University (1717 N. 12th St.) this summer, followed by locations in Fairless Hills (640 Commerce Blvd.) and Trevose (3617 Horizon Blvd.).
Mike Klein – Inquirer
Burlington and Gloucester County
The Burlington location also has a General Manager job listing posted also, and gives an address of; Mount Holly & Bromley. There is a Target Shopping Center in that area and other commercial properties, but we haven’t confirmed exactly where Raising Cane’s would be located.
Regarding Gloucester County… industry insiders have shared with 42Freeway that Raising Cane’s has chatted with at least one of our core 42Freeway towns, but we have no confirmation of anything be signed.
Links and Locations
Raising Cane’s Cherry Hill – (Planned, Not Open)
Market Place at GSP
Rt 70 and Haddonfield Rd
Cherry Hill NJ
Raising Cane’s Corp Website
Raising Cane’s Corp Facebook
Raising Cane’s Philadelphia Walnut St (Open!)
3925 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
445-223-5133
Raising Cane’s Philadelphia Walnut Facebook