Raising Cane’s, a fast-food chicken finger chain, is planning to open its first Delaware location in April.
Raising Cane’s is being built in The Grove at Newark, the redeveloped College Square shopping center between Library Avenue and Marrows Road west of the University of Delaware campus. It will be a standalone restaurant with a drive-thru near the WSFS building on the south end of The Grove.
Russell Ford, senior vice president of marketing for Champion Management, a public relations firm that represents Raising Cane’s, said the Newark location will open in mid-to-late April.
Raising Cane’s is a Louisiana-based chain that is rapidly expanding across the country. Ten years ago, the chain had about 125 locations. Entering last year, it was up to 600 restaurants.
The chain essentially makes one item: chicken fingers.
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Most of the menu items are different-sized combo meals with fingers, crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw and the company’s signature Cane’s sauce. The only deviation is the chicken sandwich, which is three chicken fingers on a bun. The tenders are hand-dipped to order.
Raising Cane’s is one of the early additions to The Grove at Newark, a project announced in 2018 that aimed to convert the aged College Square shopping center into a mixed-use center with apartments, new restaurants and shops.
Compass at The Grove, the center’s 300-unit apartment complex, welcomed its first residents last fall. Jersey Mike’s and Bonchon, a Korean fried chicken chain, moved into the existing northern strip of the shopping center.
Other announced tenants that have yet to open include First Watch, a Florida-based breakfast chain, and Del Pez, a Mexican restaurant from Delaware’s Hakuna Hospitality Group. The group previously had a Del Pez location on Main Street and is currently located at the Wilmington Riverfront. Open space and park-style elements throughout the shopping center are also under construction.
The shopping center owner has agreements with a fast-casual Mexican restaurant and a fast-casual Middle Eastern restaurant that it has not yet announced.
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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
