When the new fast food restaurant opened outside Denver a few months ago, lines to the drive-through window wrapped around the parking lot serpentine style, then clogged traffic as cars tried to enter the line from the main road.

This was Raising Cane‘s. We mean the name of the restaurant, not what the occupants of the cars did to each other.

Specializing in chicken fingers, Raising Cane’s was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey in 1996. It was to be named, “Sockeye’s Chicken Fingers” after the Sockeye salmon Graves caught in Alaska to raise money to start the business.  And then came an intervention. A friend convinced him to name the first restaurant after his Yellow Labrador Retriever, “Raising Cane,” or “Cane” for short

It was logical. The first “Raising Cane” used to hang around the building site and loved everyone. Sadly, the dog passed away from old age, but for following Christmas, Graves was surprised by his wife with a second yellow Lab puppy who became Raising Cane II. She has become a very popular dog who visits “her” restaurants, hangs out at the Restaurant Support Office, and as a certified pet therapy dog, does weekly visits to children’s hospitals and nursing homes.

Reminiscent of the John Belushi “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger” and “No Coke, Pepsi!” skit on Saturday Night Live, Raising Cane offers a limited menu of fried chicken fingers, french fries, Texas toast, and coleslaw. It is, however, some of the best chicken you’ll ever eat.

It is also a community minded restaurant. When a gunman killed Douglas County Deputy Zach Parrish and wounded four other officers and and three civilians on the last day of 2017, Raising Cane donated a massive amount of food to the Parrish’s department located just down the street. No wonder that Raising Cane received the National Restaurant Association’s Good Neighbor Award in 2006, and many other awards have since followed.  Graves has also made significant investments to six dog parks in Louisiana, including four Raising Cane’s Dog Parks to the Greater Baton Rouge area.