200 gather for grand opening of Raising Cane’s restaurant in Chubbuck
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CHUBBUCK — A crowd of about 200 people celebrated the opening of a popular chicken restaurant franchise in the Portneuf Valley — and 20 of them won free chicken for a whole year.
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, which has over 900 locations in 44 states, as well as two in the District of Columbia and one in Guam, held the grand opening of its new restaurant on Tuesday morning. This is the fourth Raising Cane’s restaurant to open in Idaho.
“I’m super excited to be here, super excited to serve you guys for a long time, and let’s get ready to drop some chicken,” Restaurant leader Gavin Allen told the crowd prior to opening.
People who came to the restaurant at 4310 Yellowstone Ave. to take part in the celebration were greeted by the sight of an Idaho Coffee Company truck, a spin-the-wheel booth, a photo wall, a DJ booth and Benny the Bengal walking amongst the crowd, taking pictures.
But many of the attendees were already there before the celebration activities were even set up, arriving Monday night to camp out and be among the first in line. Many of the people EastIdahoNews.com spoke to were excited to enter the restaurant’s Lucky 20 drawing, where 20 people who’s name were drawn would get free chicken for an entire year.
Andrea Saldana, a 20-year-old Idaho State University student, arrived at the restaurant with her friend at 8 p.m. Monday. They spent the night talking to each other and others, listening to music that people were playing, and taking turns warming up in the car.
“It felt a little weird (at first),” Saldana said. “Like, I’ve never done this before. …But I just told my friend, ‘Hey, we’re only young once.’ … And so, it was actually a pretty good experience.”
Saldana has been a fan of Raising Cane’s since she first tried it years ago with her family in Utah. She was excited to enter the Lucky 20 drawing, but even if she didn’t win, she was still happy she came for the experience.
Two others EastIdahoNews.com interviewed, Zach Hansen and Logan Mortensen, came to the grand opening after completing a 12-hour shift at Lamb Weston. Rather than go home and get some sleep, they came here for “the opportunity to earn free Cane’s for a year,” Mortensen said.
“Not gonna miss that opportunity,” Hansen affirmed.
Brandy Henry, who is originally from Micronesia and moved to the area four years ago, said he went to the grand opening with his friends from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Henry also camped out overnight and said more than 100 people did the same, as he was number 102 in line.
Henry, also an ISU student, said he thought people were excited about a new food option in the area, and he agreed that Raising Cane’s community outreach played a role in attracting so many people to the grand opening.
“It’s a new thing,” Henry said, “so a good opportunity for Pocatello.”
At one point, representatives of Raising Cane’s presented a $1,000 check for the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25 to Courtney Fisher, a spokesperson for the district and director of the district’s Education Foundation.
“We’re super excited to partner with you guys, and we can’t wait to work with our local community here,” the representative said.
“We rely on our educational partners to really raise up our district families, our staff, our children in our schools. And so, this money goes a long way into supporting what happens in School District 25 classrooms,” Fisher said.
At the end of the opening celebration, the crowd formed a spirit tunnel, which the winners of the Lucky 20 drawing ran through after their names were called.
One of the winners, 20-year-old Braxton Andrew, said he was excited to win, but acted casual.
“I was pretty nonchalant about it. I was aura farming,” Andrew said.
He said his free Cane’s card will allow him to visit the restaurant three times in the month for free, and he plans to utilize “all of it, every bit of it I can.”
As the restaurant opened for the first time, and cars began to pull into the drive-thru, Jomel Prado, the area leader of marketing, said, “Chubbuck really showed out. I’m so glad to see the community out here, and we’re just so happy to open in Chubbuck and serve that craveable chicken finger meal they’ve been craving.”
