Raising Cane's in the Highlands

Well, I'm not thrilled to see this. The Mid-City Mall DQ that closed a few weeks ago is going to become a Raising Cane's. From the CJ:

A fast food, Louisiana-style chicken restaurant plans to open on the Bardstown Road side of Mid City Mall where a Dairy Queen recently closed.

A Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is planned at 1250 Bardstown Road, according to documents filed Monday with the Metro Department of Planning & Design Services.

The Raising Cane company lists three existing Louisville stores at 10490 Westport Road, 6811 Bardstown Road and 5212 Dixie Highway.

Its website said it was founded by Todd Graves and named for his yellow Labrador, Raising Cane. The rapidly growing chain has more than 220 restaurants in 18 states, with multiple new restaurants under construction.

The plan for the new restaurant comes as the owner of Mid City Mall plans a $500,000 renovation of one of the city's oldest shopping centers, including a major makeover of the entryway off Bardstown Road.

The mall opened in 1962 and over the years has undergone several changes in ownership, a bad fire and a bankruptcy. Current tenants include a library branch, several restaurants, a cinemas complex, a large grocery and a comedy club.

The mall has nearly 150,000 square feet of space and sits on almost 10 acres. The land is assessed by the property valuation office at $5.7 million. The owner is Bardstown Road Investment Co., headed by real estate executive Sandra Metts Snowden.

With no DQ and no KFC 11, the Highlands clearly needed a place to get fried chicken bits in a drive-through fashion. Now if only they could add hookahs to their menu, it'd be worth visiting.

Not a fan of chains, generally, but RC has a pretty huge following, and business out the door; it may actually help some of the other businesses around there through visibility.

Don't be too enthused about Raising Cane's. We've tried the one out by us on Westport Road a couple of times and certainly won't be going back again. KFC makes better chicken than they do and I would certainly rather go to Dairy Queen. The coating on the chicken isn't crispy, it's rather soggy and greasy. All they have on the menu is chicken fingers, fries and drinks so you don't have many choices and they only have one sauce to dip your chicken fingers in. It's their own style sauce and isn't anything to write home about.

I'm not sure why everybody is so enthused about the place but I guess some people have different tastes.

The Raisin' Canes in Fern Creek certainly does a whopping business. The fries are kind of lame but the fingers, cole slaw and Texas toast are pretty decent. We get lunch from there about once every two weeks or so. It will likely drive traffic to Mid City Mall.

The coating on the chicken isn't crispy, it's rather soggy and greasy.

I can't vouch for what they're doing at Westport Road, but this description is totally opposite of my experience at the Fern Creek location. I'm usually in their drive-through lane at least once a week. I agree that the french fries are unimpressive. I think the styrofoam containers cause that problem, and I think it's high time they ditch those. I've never had a greasy strip, and I do happen to like the rather pedestrian pink sauce. It's a chicken strip joint, for Pete's sake, not haute cuisine. And yes, judging by the stream of cars through the drive-through, they stay busy.

As for KFC, the number of times the location in Fern Creek has left me with digestive problems speaks for itself.

If I had to choose a favorite chicken strip place, I'd go with Zaxby's first. They have a much more varied menu, and the fries are definitely more substantial. I'm not big on DQ because their strips are pretty generic. I can get similar quality in the freezer aisle of any grocery. And talk about greasy! I give Chester's a B or B- (I've found these vary from batch to batch). Famous Recipe gets a yes on occasion when I'm in that area. And I usually give an A- to the chicken strips served at the Outer Loop Valu Market.

I think Cane's will probably do some decent business in that location. And yes, I am a chicken strip aficionado. That tradition started back in my broke college days.

I ditto Terri. I've only eaten at the Westport Road one a couple of times, but I thought their chicken tenders were outstanding. (note: for fried food which I'm not a huge fan of). Ours were perfectly crisp, not greasy, and whole white chicken breast. My son and husband has similar results.
Deb

The wife and I are addicted to Canes. Used to go to the FC location but now that the Dixie one is open it's our spot. Seriously hot (temp) juicy chicken strips, perfectly seasoned/salted. Now they do need a major upgrade on the fries but that chicken hits the spot. We also love the Popeyes out here and the Wing Stop. To each his own as we say.

My preference would have been demolition and then a nicely landscaped green space.

But since that's not happening, it's hard to descend lower than a chicken wire and spackle-built fastfood joint in such an ecclectic neihborhood. RC builds mainly with brick so we'll at the very least gain a building upgrade. As for the fiood---neither one is going to raise the bar in the area.

If I had to choose a favorite chicken strip place, I'd go with Zaxby's first. They have a much more varied menu, and the fries are definitely more substantial. I'm not big on DQ because their strips are pretty generic. I can get similar quality in the freezer aisle of any grocery. And talk about greasy!

I certainly agree about Zaxby's, that's definitely our go to place for chicken fingers and if you said they have quite a variety on the menu including some very good salads. I also like the variety of sauces they have available. I'm not big on the DQ strips either for the same reasons but for a fast hamburger they are pretty good.

Sounds and looks like we are onto a new generation of chains. The old standbys are all struggling in hip urban areas. They are rapidly being replaced by newer chain concepts. Mellow mushroom, blaze pizza, chick fil a and raising canes are fancier takes on pizza and chicken nuggets.

[Robin Garr]

Sounds and looks like we are onto a new generation of chains. The old standbys are all struggling in hip urban areas. They are rapidly being replaced by newer chain concepts. Mellow mushroom, blaze pizza, chick fil a and raising canes are fancier takes on pizza and chicken nuggets.

Aha ... I think that's a very sharp observation. <filefilefile>