ToNeTo Atlanta continues to be your number one source for updates on the Atlanta market entry of Raising Cane's, and we are pleased to report that another round of Raising Cane's openings is upon us.
In Kennesaw, Raising Cane's is opening at 845 Ernest Barrett Parkway (but will adopt 2094 Barrett Lakes Boulevard as its address), where it will be one of three new businesses to open on land previously home to AndThat! (Shake Shack and 7 Brew are also opening). Although it has looked done and ready to open for several weeks, sources close to the restaurant indicate it's not slated to open until January 27.
Also on the immediate horizon are:
5720 Whittlesey Boulevard in Columbus (Opening Jan. 13)
1198 N. St. Augustine Road in Valdosta (Opening Feb. 10)
1530 GA-138 in Conyers (Opening "Early Spring" 2026)
2616 Dawson Road in Albany (Opening Summer 2026)
170 Gateway Drive in Macon (Opening Late Summer / Early Fall 2026)
24087 US-80 in Statesboro (Opening Late Summer / Early Fall 2026)
Raising Cane's expanded from Athens to include a new unit in Dacula in March 2023. They later debuted their heavily delayed unit on Buford Drive near the Mall of Georgia, followed by a restaurant on Highway 92 in Woodstock. A new location on Scenic Highway in Snellville opened in October 2024. New locations opened this past February on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, where the chain replaced a former Steak 'n Shake, and on Jonesboro Road in McDonough this past March, where Raising Cane's replaced a former O'Charley's.
ToNeTo Atlanta has also reported in recent months on several locations closer to and within the City of Atlanta, including the following:
2579 Cobb Parkway in Smyrna (Pending city approval and permitting, opening Late Fall 2026)
626 14th Street in West Midtown (Pending city approval and permitting, opening Late Fall 2026)
3037 Piedmont Road in Buckhead (Pending city approval and permitting, opening Late 2026 / Early 2027)
(All vague opening timeframes were provided to ToNeTo Atlanta by a Raising Cane's Representative.)
The chicken chain had also hoped to open a new restaurant at 4570 Ashford Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody where it was to replace a former Wells Fargo bank, but its request for a drive-thru was panned by city officials.
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.
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 950 restaurants and will easily reach 1,000 units in 2026. In 2022, the company said it planned to open at least ten locations in Georgia in the coming years, a goal it will likely reach in 2026.
Rival fast food chain Whataburger, by comparison, which expanded in Georgia by both corporate and franchise locations, and was looking to have 50 locations open in Georgia by 2030, is already closing units in Georgia and around the southeast.
Are you excited about 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?
Please share your thoughts below.
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