There’s A Cute Dog Behind The Name Of America’s Favorite Chicken Finger Chain

Given its recent growth and soaring popularity, it’s hard to imagine that

Raising Cane’s

was ever anything other than a success. But, if you can believe it, the first time founder Todd Graves pitched the idea of a chicken finger-centric restaurant—for a class project at Louisiana State University—he received the lowest grade in the class. According to


Mashed


, his professor thought the concept was too “niche” and therefore “unlikely to succeed.”

Fortunately, Graves was undeterred. He spent his first months out of college working hard to raise money for a brick and mortar restaurant. After working as a boilermaker in Los Angeles and a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska, the Louisiana native

returned to Baton Rouge ready to build his poultry empire

.

Around the same time he purchased the first location, Graves happened to adopt a yellow Labrador Retriever, who he named Raising Cane, a play on the old phrase « raising Cain, » which means to cause trouble.

“When coming up with the name for his restaurant in 1996, Todd originally planned to call it ‘Sockeye’s’ after the salmon he fished in Alaska,”

the Raising Cane’s website explains

. “Luckily, a friend suggested he name it after his yellow Labrador Retriever, Raising Cane, who was always with Todd at the construction site.”

Graves told

Mashed

that he decided to name the restaurant Raising Cane’s as a tribute to his “loyal, loving dog” as well as the “lively, rebellious restaurant atmosphere” he cultivated. To this day, a photo of Cane I (wearing sunglasses, no less) can be found outside most Raising Cane’s restaurants.

A new yellow Labrador, fittingly named Cane II, took over the role as mascot in 1999. A certified pet therapy dog, she regularly visited hospital patients until she died in 2016 at the age of 16. Her successor, Cane III, was born in 2017. You can follow her on

Instagram

as she too visits hospitals and Raising Cane’s restaurants around the country.

« I didn’t realize then, too, that [my dog] would become a mascot, and we’re on the third Raising Cane now, [and] she’s keeping the legacy going, » Graves told

Mashed

.

Raising Cane’s opened its 828th location last month. It is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the U.S., thanks in large part, to its tail-wagging roots.