The newest Connecticut location of the wildly popular Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant chain opened Oct. 28 in Manchester with a ribbon-cutting, a speech by the mayor, awards, and a raffle where 20 lucky participants won free chicken meals for a year.
One of those winners was Glenn McCrystal, who had won the free Cane’s prize four times before Tuesday. That total is now five. McCrystal, of Vernon, credited his “lucky” chicken suit.
“I bought this and then we went to the Enfield [opening] and there was a snowstorm,” said McCrystal, who attended the Manchester opening with his son, Cameron. “So they postponed the opening till the next day and … I ended up winning the Cane’s for a year, and Cameron said it was our lucky suit.”
The duo revealed they’ve been to several Raising Cane’s openings.
“We’ve been to a bunch of different ones in different states. We went to New Hampshire, went to Rhode Island and a few different Connecticut ones,” Cameron McCrystal, a student at CT State Community College Manchester, said.
Raising Cane’s is a chicken-finger-based chain restaurant founded in 1996 by the current CEO Todd Graves. Since then, more than 860 locations have opened across the U.S., with Manchester becoming its fifth location in Connecticut, in addition to Enfield, Simsbury, Wethersfield and Milford.
The restaurant chain is known for its raucous grand openings, with a donation to a local program or charity – CAST Children’s Theater of Manchester received $1,000 donation from the company – and the free-for-a-year raffle a company standard for new locations.
The raffle drew several motivated participants.
“We’ve been here since 5:15 a.m.,” said My-Ngan Lai-Huyen, who was there with her partner, James Crahen.
“We were the third people here,” he said. “I like the anticipation, it’s definitely worth the wait.”
Manchester Mayor Jay Moran also made an appearance at the grand opening and gave a lighthearted speech before the ribbon-cutting.
“Well, 38 years ago I met my love, my one love in Manchester… The Manchester Road Race,” he said with a laugh. “No, I’m joking, I love my wife, my wife Patty, if she’s listening. I’ve been here for almost 40 years. It’s great to welcome Cane’s here to Manchester, where chicken fingers and french fries fly like there’s no tomorrow.”
After the speech, Moran cut the ribbon. Customers flooded into the restaurant, and the team behind the counter cranked out chicken fingers at a rapid pace.
Raising Cane’s is at 75 Buckland St. and is open from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. during the week and closes an hour later at 2 a.m. weekends. For more information about the company or its menu visit https://raisingcanes.com/home/.
