One of my last memories before leaving CA last year was going by a "Raising Cane's" that had a drive-thru line wrapped around it several times over and down the block. WHY?

It's the sauce

People don't know how to mix ketchup, mayo, salt and pepper and some pickle brine together

I've seen the same thing here in the midwest, it just seems incomprehensible to me. I don't think any fast food could be worth an hour's wait

I like to think that they're getting us addicted to fast food chicken in preparation for the inevitable collapse of beef markets.

treats, amirite?

I think they’re primarily south-eastern regionally, so it’s easy hype generation putting one on the west coast and blasting social media.

They’re mid for sure. Just another overhyped drive thru treat shop

The sauce is pretty good but the chicken is just okay. Most people haven't had a good chicken sauce before Raising Canes. Plus they have some pretty good sponsors like the Cowboys and Post Malone so it covers a wide range of demographics.

somewhat related, but my roomie showed me the drive thru at the local in n out (I'm from out of state and just never bothered to go there all these years). it was all the way down the street for almost a mile. I couldn't possibly fathom why. I've had only vegetarian offerings from there, but from what I had it wasn't special. The fries weren't even great, I don't think I'd ever even go back. So when I saw that extremely long line, I was flabbergasted. my city is currently constructing a canes too... can't wait to see how bad that one gets.

Novelty mostly. You gotta go there once to see whether its worth adding to the rotation, but everybody else is gonna to go do the same thing. Itll level off after a few months usually.

Popeye's is better

I've seen a similar phenomenon on the West Coast too with Cane's. When i lived in Texas i never saw anything like that. Their food was fine and had normal lines. My guess is it's like when they open an In-N-Out anywhere outside the west coast and it gets massive lines.

Chick-fil-A would have long lines in Texas but that's because it was the chicken place

because they just opened one probably.. dunno.. its a pretty uncommon chain here in the bay but they're all over the damn place in ohio

californians: "we have the best food in the country"

also californians: mid-tier, southern-based fast food chicken place in my neighborhood,

...

anyway, canes is ok. their angle has always been to have an extremely simplified menu. there's chicken tendies, there's fries, there's little cups of coleslaw and "texas toast". that's it. they make an in-house condiment that is like a 5-ingredient remoulade. there are like 6 combinations of those things, so in-house it's just breading/frying chicken breasts, frying pre-cut french fries, or mixing the sauce. when they've got it working, their drive through line hauls ass even compared to a fully staffed mcdonalds, which is the gold standard for the market segment. that all translates into a fast-moving, simplified inventory. also, unlike mcdonalds, canes isn't reconstituting mechanically separated chicken with starches, sodium and binders in some industrial plant in Missouri to make an endless stream of 2 cent frozen and bagged "mcnuggets" flowing all over the nation and charging people 25 cents a bite.

so i can see why maybe people who are kind of over mcdonalds might be real excited about a canes. but i don't care how fast the line moves, no chance am i sitting in my car in a line for an hour to get fast food anything. like maybe that's something the real carbrains do, because sitting in their little air conditioned petroleum chariot while listening to a Prager U lecture or a fash-adjacent country song about being a Real Man is preferable to the alternative of parking, getting up, walking, and standing in line.