Showing up for the 8 a.m. grand opening of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in Ceres yesterday paid off for 20 persons who won free food for a year as well as the first 100 customers who received free T-shirts.
A gathering of eager folks showed up at the 3,267-square-foot Raising Cain’s restaurant built in the former Kmart parking lot at 1331 E. Hatch Road and were pumped up by an energetic emcee and loud music. Prizes were doled out by drawing, one of them an excited Mike Corsaut, a Ceres teacher and coach. He was among the group of winners given gift cards redeemable for three box dinners each month for the next 13 months.
On hand were members of the Ceres City Council and city staff as well as the Ceres Chamber of Commerce which conducted a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“We’re so excited to be here,” said Chris Esteban, area leader of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurants. “We opened up a restaurant right down the street (Pelendale in Modesto) and we are back right here in Ceres.”
He explained that a group of experienced team leaders were flown in to help launch the new store.
“We fly in a bunch of people to make sure that your experience from Day One is fantastic,” Esteban told the crowd.
He shared the origins of the chain and how Baton Rouge, Louisiana college student Todd Graves came up with his business plan in 1996. To come up with capital, Graves went to Southern California to work as a boiler maker and later to Alaska to work on a fishing boat. Esteban then presented a crew member signed hard hat for display as a symbol of Graves’ hard work getting Raising Cane’s off the ground. When Graves returned to Baton Rouge to open the first restaurant, within a week the team was stunned by a flood of crickets on the property. One college friend of Grave’s noted that Chinese mythology suggests that crickets are a sign of good fortune and prosperity.
He presented a small plastic cricket that will preside inside.
“So we left the crickets and here we are 27 years later in Ceres, California growing this brand very well.”
Raising Cane’s has expanded to more than 600 restaurants in the United States and Middle East.
Restaurant leader Flora Castillas introduced her squad.
Chamber President Brandy Meyer said she had her first Raising Cane’s experience Monday evening and told the crew “you guys have now a permanent customer because I’m going to be back for lunch and probably dinner again next week because the chicken is so, so good.”
Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez showed up to welcome the new business and wish “prosperity for many years to come.”
The Ceres store features an extended dining room concept with plenty of room for customers – the restaurant fondly calls them “Caniacs” – for lunch or a late-night bite. A large covered dining patio was constructed on the north side of the building next to the main entrance.
In preparation for its grand opening, Raising Cane’s hired 125 new employees ranging from crew to management-level.
The new eatery occupies a 1.38-acre parcel with a drive-thru operation and 83 parking spaces. It was part of a reuse plan approved by the city in October 2021for the former Kmart store property. While the former Kmart building is being remodeled for use as a Public Storage self-storage facility, the expansive parking lot was split up for development of the Raising Cane’s, a Dutch Bros Coffee Shop and a Quik Stop convenience store and gas station at the northeast corner of Hatch and Herndon.
