Raising Cane’s fans can now ‘Live Free or Fry’ on South Willow Street

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Over a hundred chicken finger aficionados congregated on South Willow Street as the long-awaited Raising Cane’s location opened for business Tuesday morning.

Located at the former site of Cactus Jack’s in between Popeye’s Louisiana Chicken and CVS, local officials, hardcore fans of the restaurant and curiosity-seekers interested in what the big deal was all about gathered for festivities related to the grand opening.

As part of the chain’s eclectic traditions, the opening ceremony included the company leaders giving store managers a hardhat (to commemorate the time spent by Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves working at an oil refinery to obtain startup capital for the business) and a cricket statue (commemorating the insects at the chain’s first location that actually turned into a good luck charm) as well as the store’s official name, revealed by store manager Tim Spano (“Live Free or Fry”).

The culture that has grown up around the restaurant, which opened in 1996 selling only chicken fingers, and has risen to almost 900 locations, has attracted a core of diehard followers such as Glenn McCrystal of Vernon, Connecticut. McCrystal, who attended the opening dressed in a chicken suit and said he has been to store openings in Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut in the past, said that the Manchester opening was the largest he had seen.

“Raising Cane’s is just a great place to be, and that’s why we go around to all the openings,” he said. “It’s just a fun atmosphere and good food.”

The opening also attracted those unfamiliar with the restaurant such as Sam Ventura of Hooksett. Given the buzz he had heard, Ventura figured there would be even more people at the opening than he saw, but was eager to see what all the buzz was about as customers waited for the doors to open for the first time.

“I’ve never been to a Raising Cane’s before. I don’t know what it’s all about, so I am dying to try it,” he said.

Raising Cane’s Area Leader of Marketing Carly Ciarletta said that part of the atmosphere present on Tuesday morning came from the novelty of the chain’s expansion into the northeast, spreading out from its original location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“This is our first restaurant here in New Hampshire, so in addition to our regular customers travelling here, new customers are just so excited because they’ve heard about Raising Cane’s before and now they have the chance to experience it for themselves,” she said.

The chain also participated in an official ribbon cutting with local elected and business leaders that saw $1,000 donations from the company to the New Hampshire Food Bank and Manchester Proud.

Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais felt that the excitement surrounding the opening was indicative of the city’s business climate, which he says seems to have a new business opening almost every week.

And despite Manchester’s claim to fame as the birthplace of the chicken tender, Ruais was confident that local connoisseurs will come to enjoy this different type of fried breaded chicken coming into the Queen City.

“It think that (the business openings) are a sign of things to come, that we’re really progressing as a city and growing,” he said. “This city is filled with promise and potential, so we can definitely hold tenders and fingers at the same time.”