Although not quite in what many readers would call "Atlanta," another new Raising Cane's is coming to town. A new Raising Cane's is planned for Pleasant Hill Road, just off I-85, in front of Gwinnett Place Mall in Gwinnett County. The new 4,200 square foot restaurant would be constructed from the ground up at 2110 Pleasant Hill Road, on the site of a former Steak 'n Shake in Duluth.
According to Gwinnett County records, Steak 'n Shake opened on the roughly one acre parcel in 1996 in place of what had previously been a Chevron. Steak 'n Shake, which has been struggling as a brand for several years, closed its Pleasant Hill restaurant this past July.
Several former Steak 'n Shake restaurants in metro Atlanta have already seen redevelopment interest including the former Buckhead outpost on Northside Parkway which became a Chase Bank and another on Woodstock Road in Roswell which is slated to become a new Whataburger. (ToNeTo Atlanta reported August 29 that Whataburger is also opening on Pleasant Hill Road where it will replace a TGI Friday's.)
Current Steak 'n Shake restaurants along Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw, at Toco Hills in Atlanta and along Cobb Parkway near Truist Park, among others, could all be attractive redevelopment sites if the chain continues to reduce its presence in the market.
If all goes as planned, the new Cane's would be at least the fifth restaurant in greater metro Atlanta for the Baton Rouge-based chain. The new Raising Cane's joins existing Atlanta area locations in Dacula and Buford near the Mall of Georgia, which debuted August 22. The company also operates a restaurant in Athens and has additional Atlanta area locations planned for Highway 92 in Woodstock and Scenic Highway in Snellville. The new Duluth restaurant would mark the fourth for the chain in Gwinnett County.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A operates one of the last remaining "Dwarf House" restaurants a little over a mile away from the planned Raising Cane's. Ranked by Average Unit Volume (AUV), Raising Cane's is typically second, just behind Chick-fil-A.
For those unfamiliar - aka non "Caniacs" - of which there don't seem to be many, Raising Cane's features a very simple menu with a focus on fried chicken tenders. Menu offerings also include a fried chicken sandwich, crinkle cut fries, Texas Toast, and coleslaw, an item famously eliminated from the menu at rival Chick-fil-A in early 2016.
ToNeTo Atlanta is tracking several additional Raising Cane's restaurants in metro Atlanta including one that could be the first to be located ITP (Inside The Perimeter).
University of Georgia graduate Todd Graves, along with his business partner Craig Silvey, opened the first Raising Cane's in Baton Rouge near the LSU campus in 1996. Graves, who worked for Guthrie's (which proudly claims to be "America's Original Chicken Finger Restaurant") while in school in Athens, would later return to the Classic City in 2006 when he opened a new Raising Cane's on land that had been home to Guthrie's from 1984 until its closure in 2004.
Earlier this year, the company surpassed 700 Raising Cane's restaurants across 37 states. In 2022, the company said it planned to open at least ten locations in Georgia in the coming years.
While we were aware of this development for about a week, an out of state writer with What Now Atlanta was first to publish, but as they're out of state and served a less than complete report, we felt the need to deliver our own.
Are you excited for the opening of Raising Cane's in metro Atlanta? Who do you think makes the best chicken tenders? Where else in metro Atlanta would you like to see Raising Cane's open?
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