Photos: Shorewood's Raising Cane's May Open This Month

SHOREWOOD, IL — One of the biggest Joliet area grand opening celebrations for a new restaurant happened March 8 near the Louis Joliet Mall property — Raising Cane's chicken fingers opened its new double-drive thru along Plainfield Road and 4,000 people were anticipated to show up that day.

Apparently, one Raising Cane's in the Joliet area was not enough for the rapidly expanding fast-food franchise that specializes in making one thing: chicken fingers.

Last November, Patch reported the Raising Cane's was tentatively set to open Aug. 23 in Shorewood. It's being built across from the Buffalo Wild Wings along the busy Route 59.

On Friday, Joliet Patch visited the property and contractors said the new Raising Cane's should be ready to open before the end of September.

"It's been a good build," remarked a representative of MAPP, commercial general contractor for the Shorewood Raising Cane's construction project. "They are recruiting and have their signs up."

The inside of the new Raising Cane's for Shorewood includes wall portraits of several Will County celebrities including Minooka native Nick Offerman as well as Janina Gavankar, actress and musician who graduated from Joliet West during the late 1990s.

Todd Graves is the founder and CEO of Raising Cane's, opening his first restaurant in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after obtaining a small business loan from a bank.

"With this loan and a handful of investors, some of whom included his former refinery coworkers, he was able to begin the next step toward his dream. Todd found the perfect location, a very old run-down building at the entrance to Louisiana State University.

"Armed with a jackhammer, Todd and his crew worked day and night to restore the old wood paneling, put in a parking lot, a drive-thru window and counters to create the first Raising Cane's," one of the new signs inside the Shorewood Raising Cane's proclaims.