Fine Dining - Raising Cane's: Named After a Dog, Assumed to Fail, and Post Malone

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

🐔🎣 Raising Cane's: The Dog Behind the Name, Post Malone, and Velvet Elvis 🎣🐔 This week, D'Angelo Reyes (@dangelo1260) joins me to explore the history of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a restaurant built around one simple idea that almost everyone thought would fail. From disco balls in every dining room to naming the entire company after his beloved dog, Raising Cane's proves that sometimes sticking to your vision is the best business strategy of all. 🐶 Why There Have Been THREE Raising Cane Namesake Dogs (It's Sad) 🎣 Working on a Salmon Boat and an Oil Rig to Fund the Dream 🐔 The Chicken Finger Got Laughed at by the Founder's College Professor 🖼️ Why Every Raising Cane's Has Velvet Elvis Artwork 🎤 Post Malone Somehow Has TWO Raising Cane's Locations 🏰 ...Including One with a Medieval-Themed Bathroom 🔥 Hot Take: Themed Restaurants Are Better Than Michelin Star Restaurants 🔪 A Yelper Wants to Destroy Whoever Designed the Parking Lot 💬 COMMENT BELOW: If you could build a restaurant around just ONE menu item, what would it be? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: D'Angelo Reyes | IG: @dangelo1260 Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, Travis Langley, Jewell Hermann, & Michelle Elmer Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Renae Michael, Crystal C., NiZ, Science Broe, & Jahid Ahmed 👉 NEXT WEEK: We head to Raising Cane's to review the food and put it to the Chili's Test. 🐔🏆

Is a fast food restaurant like Raising Cain's crazy or brilliant for only having four things on the menu? In a world where chain restaurants have gone so far over the top with the idea that more is more, Raising Cain's was originally laughed out of the room for believing that less could in fact be more. It's not the size of the menu that counts. It's how you use it. Am I right, ladies? Perhaps the smartest thing leading to Cain's early success wasn't actually the simplicity of their menu, so much as their decision to open their first location next to Hungary, potentially under the influence college students, near a major university campus. If White Castle, Jack in the Box, and Taco Bell have taught us anything, it's that you don't have to be very good to be massively successful if you target the right demographic.

Which isn't to say that Raising Cains isn't good, just that they don't have to be. This week on the show, I'll spread my butter of knowledge across your toast of curiosity so that you two may know every day. I've learned about raising canes, then we'll direct our attention to the people of Yelp to see what they're saying about the very raising canes we dined at. This is the fine dining podcast. Your table's ready. Take your seat. The flavor of the day is mediocre to try. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says good luck. Odu brings your business together on a single platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and Marketing. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's ODOO.O.com. I didn't know it was targeted specifically at a college when it first opened. Yeah, yeah. The very first one was near the LSU campus. I'll get into that a little bit later when I cover the more in-depth history. But genuinely brilliant move. Yeah, it's perfect. And like you said, they will eat anything. And I stand by that fact a little bit. A college student, low bar. Yeah. I ate anything at that age. Yeah.

Hello, and welcome to the fine dining podcast, the quest to compare all restaurants to Chili's. I am your host, Michael Ornellis, and this is the podcast where we dive deep into the history of your favorite restaurants and then thoroughly review them one week later by comparing them to chilies. This week, we're covering a chain that has been on the come-up with me personally, raising canes, and joining me is a friend, improviser, performer at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. And if you asked me who I think should win the L.A. mayoral race this November, I'd say him, It's DeAngelo Reyes. Hey, hey, hey, thanks for having me, Michael. Of course. I'm excited to be here.

Thanks for doing this. This was the result of we had finished a show. And you were like, I got to leave. And like, everyone was like socializing for like an hour and a half, two hours. And you were like, I have to leave. I need to get something before it closes. What's still open? Yeah.

And I just went, I think I'm going to hit Raising Cains on the way home. and you're like, I'm going to get raising canes on the way home. Kindred spirit. It was a beautiful, it was a beautiful bonding moment between the two of us, Michael, and I really appreciated it. And then I sent you a selfie of, not a selfie, but I sent you a picture of the drive-through. And then you did not reciprocate, which is kind of like.

I was too tired and looked at it and went, nice. I proceeded to keep eating. Then I kept eating my own because I was at the Burmack location. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is your personal history with raising canes? Yeah, absolutely. My personal history with it is relatively new. I wasn't introduced to Keynes until about 2022 or 2023.

And an old ex of mine took me there for the first time. And it was a delightful experience. I didn't try it with the sauce. And I was very engrossed in how good the chicken was. Much to my surprise, because I thought, okay, it's unseasoned, whatever. But having that in a car with a good friend, good vibes all around. And I've been going back ever since. It's very comfort food.

I do feel like there are places that I associate with people. And that makes me more fond of them because it's like, oh, that's me and so-and-so's place. Or that's a place that so-and-so. My friend Gabe, who I went to high school with, one of my best friends. from growing up is the one who introduced me to Keynes. I didn't have the same opinion of liking it the first time because I had it without the sauce. And I think it needs the sauce. Absolutely.

Sources in general scare me or scared me used to scare me. I don't know what's in it. It's just kind of like a mystery potion of a bunch of things. You're speaking my language. And so I was averse to sauces. So I went to Keynes and I had it without cane sauce. And I thought it was mid. Me as well.

I had the exact same experience. Yeah. And so I was just like, what's the hype on this? And he's like, you got to have it with the sauce. And I was like, I just don't think I'm brave enough. And then, you know, partially through doing this podcast, which has been four years, something like that. Yeah, it's been a while. I just started being like, well, I'm just going to eat more sauces and stuff.

And part of it is like looking into like what's in sauce. My main aversion is cheese. and I just assume cheese is in everything. And a sauce being kind of like a liquid and cheese being like a melty thing, my brain would put those together. Sauce has a bodily fluid. Don't say bodily fluid. Oh my gosh.

Well, I'm not a sauce guy. It truly does freak me out. And like especially paired with how strong smelling sauces can be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like I get the aversion. Yeah. I truly understand. Yeah.

I then tried it honestly, probably only like. a year ago again and maybe a little longer. And I was like, Dave's Hot Chicken is so much better because they season their chicken. And I prefer seasonings to sauces. And then Dave's Hot Chicken sold to Subway. I do feel like I've seen a slight decline in their quality. And Keynes is now the closest restaurant to me. And so when it's like late at night and I'm like, I haven't eaten in like eight hours,

Keynes just has become a spot that I get, and I'm all about that sauce. Yeah, yeah, me too. I'm all about it. It's changed my life. It's changed your life. And you're going to be mayor now. I am. I have a little helping of Kane's boxes to all my electorate.

Yeah. That would win. That would win. Amazing. So that's my history with Keynes. It's your history with Keynes. Do you want to hear the history of Keynes? Oh, I love a history lesson, Michael.

Please tell me. We're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. Eatery details. Raising Cains was founded by Todd Graves in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1996 after his plan for a chicken finger-only restaurant reportedly got the worst grade in a college business class and was rejected by banks. To fund it, Graves worked dangerous jobs in an oil refinery and on an Alaskan salmon boat before opening the first location near LSU. with original partner Craig Silvie. You really liked that. I don't know why that was making me laugh.

That's America. That is America right there. What? Just being laughed out of a bank loan? Lacked out of a bank loan working at an oil refinery and a salmon fishing boat to get your money together. Oh, God. That made me laugh.

I don't know why it's so funny. What's also funny is he went for like immediately high paying because they're dangerous job. It's about to change. I'm going to put my life at risk to bring chicken fingers to the masses. That just makes me laugh when you're ready. Yeah. But no, like the idea of a restaurant that was like it's just chicken fingers, his business professors, yeah, okay, let's get real.

It will never work. And then he had the banks in his pocket too and was like, laugh at him. Laff at him now, boys. Are you high? I'm not. I'm not. I know you're not. Jaydena, maybe laughed so much.

I don't know. Raising canes was almost originally called sock eyes, a nod to the salmon job that helped fund it, but a friend pushed founder Todd Graves to name it after his yellow lab, Raising Kane. The original Raising Kane used to wear people's sunglasses, but as is the life of a pet owner, Kane I passed in 1998. Kane, too, was a therapy dog who would be taken to hospitals to offer comfort to patients and lived along 17 years. The current mascot, Kane 3, was born in 2017 and still enjoys getting her belly

rubbed at Kane's restaurant openings all over. Oh, women's CEO. Yeah. Shout out. Yeah. Also, Raising Kane is the full name of the dog. Oh, the full name is raising. Raising Kane is the name of the dog.

Wow. Not just Kane. Wow. Which I find weird. Yeah, that's a little weird because everyone thinks it's the biblical connotation. Yeah. it's not and they're like oh dog great yeah which like great i love that yeah name a restaurant after your dog i'm totally happy with that putting an active verb in your dog's name i do have a problem with

that yeah a gerrind yeah it's a little frightening i know jerrynd is a noun that is from a verb like the raising of cane would be a jane yeah not a jarring let's let's move on no no no no grammar is important Grammar is so important, and especially when you're eating and you start to lose your grammar because of how much chicken you're digesting it. It's important to ground yourself. And honestly, I just love dogs too. Yeah. And anything, I'm trying to think, even though I've never really been a Taco Bell guy when they had gadget the Yo Kiro Taco Bell little dog. Yeah, they made a dog their mascot and it was just like it took over America for like two years.

That's amazing. and then they got rid of the dog and it was a big misstep. Yeah, I think a dog is a, while safe mascot choice, reliable. It's all-American and reliable. Yeah. And it's cute. It's cute and I wouldn't want to eat there more than, say, Buffalo Wild Wings. Buffalo's are freaky.

Just go dog. Everyone, go dog. Go dog. That's what I say is mayor. Go dog. Mayor of America. Oh, you're running for America. I'm running for American mayor.

And every mascot should be a dog. Great. While renovating the first Raising Canes restaurant, founder Todd Graves chipped away at a stucco wall and found an old painted bakery mural underneath. He took it as a good omen and that discovery inspired the logo aesthetic for Raising Cains. Additionally, an accidental hole in the wall was covered up with an Elvis painting, leading to the tradition of each location featuring a unique piece of velvet Elvis art. Okay, can I have something to say about this? Yeah, because I, uh, I, uh, I, I, uh, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, working a lot of theater and set design. And it's so, and like theme park work, it's so interesting

to me to see the evolution of something that actually exists get made into like a running decor bit. Yeah. If that makes sense. Because it's like, oh, the Elvis picture's there. The like cracked wall is painted on the wall with the logg, the cane's logo, at least at the Burbank location, or at any other location, they're like, oh, that's a fun choice. But then it's actually because it was real and was like a weird quirk of the original, which is so, that's fun. And you don't get that in any other version. I like that when it's a thing where it's like, this is what all of the restaurants have to look like now to honor this idea. Absolutely. I mean, it's not the same. I don't know the origins of Dave's Hot Chicken using graffiti, but like every, every Dave's restaurant has

like original graffiti art made for it. I mean, I'm sure that that's probably something that sounds to the original location. And my, my reference to this is also, um, of the original Margaritaville that's in like, um, Key West has a very specific look that now all of them kind of copy to varying degrees of kind of explosiveness and size, but they're still all pulling from the same original kind of design book that was never designed to look like that. Right. It just looked like that. And the original Margaritaville famously had a, uh, a smoking section, a non-smoking section, and a swingers section. Yes, of course.

As we know, Martin does do crazy things. Yeah. So the cane stuff is interesting and I wonder, I would not be opposed to making a trek out to the original location

as I've done for a few things in my life. The original Raising Cains? Yeah, it's, where is it? Louisiana you said? Yeah. Okay. I'll get to it.

There's probably a more interesting specific location of Cains to get to. Ooh, I love a specific location. Yeah. The whole concept of raising Cains is chicken fingers fries, toast, slaw, and cane sauce. And that narrow focus became their advantage. Keynes grew from one LSU adjacent shop to 230-plus U.S. restaurants by 2015, nearly 700 by

2022, opened 118 restaurants in 2024 alone, and hit its 1,000th location in Hollywood in 26. Wow. Wow. Give it up. Give it up. American dream. It took three. Generations of dog. Wow. That is honestly so crazy how fast that grows. So 30 years, a thousand locations. Yeah. Very few restaurants have hit that pace.

Yeah. I mean, very few restaurants hit a thousand locations. Like chilies, applebees, they've got a thousand locations. A lot of the fast food, dominoes, McDonald's, Burger King. But like, yeah, it's not easy. Not easy at all. And, well, I grew up in Northern California, and they, I think they might only have one or two there still. So they have a whole market up in the northern part of California.

And I just am now, I now associated it with Southern California, but even that is still so new in its grand scheme of being around. But this is where they chose to put their 1,000th location. Yeah. So I mean, clearly this market matters to the company as well. Very much. Yeah. The Times Square global flagship is the biggest documented canes at over 8,000 square feet inside the Paramount building with massive signage, murals, a cane three statue of Liberty, and general tourist trap vibes. The 1,000th location on Hollywood Boulevard is more of a milestone trophy store with walk of fame theming, LED heavy decor and a giant cane three statue.

But as far as square footage goes, Times Square reigns supreme. New York, New York. It's like, it's the place to get the biggest version of everything, kind of. Yeah, and it's walking by it is the brightest. And this is in Times Square. It is the brightest thing. And they have like a statue of like a tender with sauce oozing. Like like a statue of this.

And it's so like kind of off putting. It's off putting but in a beautiful 90s way. And I am so into it. Yeah. It's it's American. You weren't alive in the 90s. How are you allowed to reference it? Hey, culture is so important and I need to be well versed in my decades.

I mean, that is fair. That is fair. What's like, give me five things that you most associate with the 90s. Five, oh, God, this is, okay, five things I associate with the 90s. Fantastic music, popular music, not pop music in general, but any type of music. Yeah. A themed restaurants. Yes, kitsy restaurants specifically, I think. Yeah. My instinct is to say the Clinton administration. Look, I mean, it was there for. eight-tenths of the decade. Yeah. Oh, some fabulous fabulous, fabulous blockbuster movies. The Spielberg 90s era is pretty iconic. I am of the opinion that Jurassic Park is the

movieest movie of all time. Of course. And if someone was frozen from childhood and was thought out at 30 but wasn't like developmentally behind. Yeah. And you were like, hey, here's what a movie is. Jurassic Park is my first pick. Absolutely. Absolutely agree with that. It is a, Most of the 90s, especially the latter half, mid-90s and onwards, that's some pretty iconic movies. And in a cool spot advancement-wise in technology, where everything just kind of meshed well together. And it was cool.

It was very cool. Yeah. The 90s was cool from my fake knowledge pop from Thubach Gulte. As someone who was there. Of course. That's somebody who may or may not have been there. And fifth one, ooh, it was tough. I would probably say,

I love that we have banger music. The Clintons. The Clintons. Fifth one, I keep swap. This is a little bit of a cop-out. I have kind of a half answer for number five. Either, either like fun, crazy, like, theme park experiences or crazy fashion. I don't want to pick between the two.

Crazy fashion. Well, crazy fashion and like, well, 90s fashion has been in for a few years now. Yeah, yeah. They've been back in. That's what we remember, at least within that, like, 30-year time gap. Fair. All right. Happy 90s.

All right. Post Malone is probably the raising Kane's loudest celebrity fan. Keynes gave him a pink tattoo-covered custom restaurant in Utah about 13 minutes from his home, and later a Dallas Cowboys-Las-Post-Malone-themed location in Texas. The Utah location's interior features display cases of the artist's personal memorabilia, Grammy outfits, and framed guitars. It also includes medieval-themed restrooms. a ping pong ball track system that just like blows throughout the thing and an exclusive merch vending machine.

See, that's what I'm talking about. If we're going to bring back whimsy into the world and we damn well better do it. To give Post Malone his own Raising Canes restaurant. At this point, it's less even a restaurant in a fortress. It sounds like a fortune. A medieval themed bathroom for no reason. Yeah, no reason. God forbid I need to.

He just wanted it. I want to just crap out all of the chicken I just ate. in style, like the royalty of the past. And damn it, I'm doing it with Post Malone blasting on the speaker. It's actually an outhouse. You have to go outside. You have to dig your own hole like the peasants used to do. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that is so interesting to me. The Dallas one, I now have a memory of driving past and being like, what's that? And I looked up a video of it online. And I was like, that was the raising canes. And it's like this giant Dallas Cowboys star as like an awning that you go through. My God. For the drive-through. I do appreciate it.

I appreciate Keynes' ostentatiousness. Is that the right word? Yeah. Ostentatious? It's very, they go big. They're going big. They go big. In the right way.

It's very, it's Super Bowl. Yeah. I mean, I think they very much market their stuff as like Super Bowl catering. Yeah. And it's, I appreciate the. I mean, LSU is a big football campus. So to be right next to there, I'm sure they got a lot of extra traffic on game days. Absolutely.

They seem like the type of company that would have done like a, oh, did LSU is at the Tigers? I'm not the guy to ask for them. Did LSU win the football game today? Great. You get a free chicken finger or whatever. And that sounds so good, especially because they, I think they have like huge catering plates for like tailgates. Yeah. And that I will say, as someone who doesn't go to football much and even when I was in college, I didn't really enjoy football,

the thought of eating a bunch of that chicken sounds so good, especially if you're running around all day. It's like a carbillode. I'd pretend to like sports to eat canes. Yeah, I really do. I go to the sports events for the food and the music. Yeah. And not for the sports. I do like basketball and baseball, though.

So let it be done. All right. Earlier this year, a Boston area raising cane sued its landlord for eviction threats, citing the smell of chicken fingers as offensive. They argue the landlord's real motive is tied to an exclusivity clause in the lease that bars other restaurants from selling deboned chicken without their consent. The lawsuit alleges the landlord. alleges the landlord's company has been in talks to lease adjacent space to Panda Express and pressured Raised Raising Cain's to waive its exclusive rights.

Raising Cains refused and soon after was hit with the eviction notice according to the complaint. Dang, why are you dragging Panda Express into this? Leave her out of it. Your other mistress. Leave her out of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's crazy to be like, the smell of your chicken is the grounds on which we're trying to evict you. Yeah, if you use that ruling for many, many things, that many things wouldn't get done.

Yeah. Or so many other things wouldn't work. But that does make me laugh, non-consensual chicken smell. And I have unfortunately been in that spot before with certain people. I need you to elaborate on that. No, like strangers where you just pass by and you're like, oh. They smell like chicken? They do.

Yeah. And that's bad? It's a little weird. And I'm just like, what are we doing? Especially because they don't have chicken with them. They're like, that's the weird part. There's no chicken there. They just smell like chicken.

I'm like, where have you been? I mean, maybe they work it at a canes or something. I don't want it. Yeah. The company did put $200,000 into ventilation on that location and got like a charcoal, like scented thing to like offset the chicken. Chicken. Cute.

But apparently it was like specifically the way the air was like ventilating upward into office spaces overhead of the raising cage. Which space was this again? This is in Boston. The Boston. Okay. Boston location. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's tough too when you're stacked in like a city. And I mean, but also you're in a city. Like, you're going to smell worse than chicken. Also, all of Boston smells like barnacles anyways. Like that's just the smell of Boston. Barnacles and chicken, a winning combination. I mean, for Long John Silver's. stinks and they're trash.

Oh. And that'll do it. For this week's Eat Deets. DiAngelo, I don't think I can claim that you were actually on this podcast until I allow you to be your full, unfiltered, controversial self. Just try to keep those slurs you're so fond of to a minimum in our next segment, the heat lamp. Of course.

So hot right now. DeAngelo, put it all out there. What is your restaurant hot take? All right. For America and the kids at home. Is this my camera? That is. My restaurant hot take is that kitchy themed restaurants are much better than any

Michelin Star. I have a hard time disagreeing with that. As someone, I mean, look, I've got this board here that is a love letter to the kind of chochification of restaurant walls that you. got in like the 90s. It's beautiful. Rainforest Cafe, very high up here. To be fair, I mean, Portillo's has a very kitschy interior. Absolutely.

Every Portillo's location is themed after the 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s. Oh, that's incredible. I would have ever gone to one of those, and that's really up my alley. Oh, it's so good. Bubba Gump, very, very kitsy. I count the Cheesecake Factory a little bit. Cheesecake Factory is not kitsy. Cheesecake Factory is literally a cheese.

chain restaurant trying to pass itself off is not kitsch. Which I think then comes off this kitschie because it's so, I could talk about this for hours I'm not going to, but cheesecake factory is themed to something called like 1920s Egyptian revival meets 90s Tuscany. So it's a mix of like 1920s movie theater and your mom's kitchen. Yeah. So I think it's beautifully kitsch. Um, okay.

I, I don't agree, but I'll yield. Hey, that's fine. That's fine. You're the host. So you're up to you. Joe's Crab Shack, very catchy, but very delicious. Yeah. Outback.

I mean, you'll find a boomerang on the wall. Yeah. It's decreased in recent years, which is kind of a shame. That and a cracker barrel as well. That was a big controversy on Twitter and online. I feel like they're actively, I mean, a lot of it is like places that have sold the private equity, but they're literally sucking the soul out of it. Absolutely.

I remember going into like McDonald's or Taco Bell. And it was like those like PVC recreations of the mascots, like life size are there. Yeah. And like probably full of materials that like give you cancer and stuff. But like it looks cool. But it looks fun. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm very on board with that. Honestly, one of my favorite restaurant experiences in the history of the podcast, Casa Bonita. Yeah. And you want to talk about kitsch. To be fair. my 10 out of 10 is a nice restaurant. I don't know if it has a Michelin star, but it's like it's in that genre.

Yeah. But I love Kitch. I love themed. Yeah. And I'm right here with you. Yeah. There is, again, I love to say repeatedly, life should be whimsical and joyous.

Yeah. And why can't the environment that I go grab a meal in reflect that? I want to shake your hand and let you know you've got my vote. And that's why I'm running for mayor of the world. And I think every restaurant should be beautifully themed to whatever kind of thing they are selling. You want to sell airline food, put it in a plane. But it's like a little plane box. It's not a real plane.

But you're in a fake plane. No, every time I've had airline food was in a plane. a real plane. That is actually factual. That was a weird poll. But like, you know, like I love, I love a theme park, obviously, this we know. And they have some of the coolest restaurants out there at, say, like, Disneyland. Disney World has a restaurant next to the Jungle Cruise, which I really want them to bring to California called the Skippers Canteen.

And you go inside and it's literally themed to, it's like, the Jungle Cruises across the street. This restaurant slash bar is where the Skippers, in story, hang out after their shifts. taking people around the waters and the animals. Yeah. And it has like a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling and cargo crates. And there's a little, there's a bookshelf you can open up. And it's like, oh, the Society of Explores and Adventures, little den where they have all their like discoveries.

And that ties into other attractions around the world. Anyways, there's a fun way that when you're eating somewhere, the environment can like story tell. And that's fun. And I think that can apply to someone that's not a theme park. Yeah. Like, especially Rainforest Cafe. And it can make up for mediocre food.

Exactly. That's Rainforest Cafe. Yeah. I don't want the food there, but it's so cool to just go and get screamed out by animals every like 30 minutes. It's more frequent than that. Yeah. So like Raisin Cains potentially could even be like a like a Cowboys theme or like if they really settle with the original location. It's like you're in a gas station.

You're in an old bakery. I mean, here's the thing. It is very kitsy. It just doesn't have a uniting theme. Yeah. It's like disco ball isn't that. Disco ball and neon light isn't that? Like, go further.

Like, doghouse. Not the restaurant dog house, but literally the restaurant is a dog house. It should be shaped like a dog house. Yeah. You should be in a dog. You can only go if you're, like, in trouble with your spouse. Yeah. They're in the dog house.

Put, theme raisin canes to a dog house and make it all dog themes. Serve your food in a bowl. Yeah. You have to eat out of a bowl. And it also like, lick it like no utensils. Yeah. No hands. There's a bar and bird.

Burbank or North Hollywood called Idaho. I think it might be Yeah, it's right down the street. This is a barn in North Hollywood called Idaho while and there's a big dog in the backyard that has a pipe and you can be inside of the dog because it's like a building. Whoa. Okay, hold on. Controversial. Hold on.

This is why you're here. You answer through the front of the dog and it's like a big building as air conditioned and it's seating. It's like a big table. And I went for a friend's birthday and imagine that as a race and canes. Also burying the lead, Idle wild is a building shaped like a barrel.

Exactly. You are just walking into a barrel. Yeah. So why don't we take some design inspiration from that and for the next raising cane somewhere? I think of it like the old pizza huts. They were all such a specific shape that you knew a pizza hut. It makes it harder to evict that business. Yeah, absolutely.

You know, if you're a blacksmith and your building is shaped like an an anvil, you're going to be around for a while. Because no one else will want the space. Further pitch, giant. giant chicken strip building. Kind of like the old hot dog built like stands or the old ice cream stands. Structurally dangerous. But pretty great. But pretty great.

Amazing. Thank you for your hot take. Of course. I hope you don't get canceled. You know, you never know what people think nowadays. You can't say anything anymore. Okay. It's time to turn our attention to other people and hear what they thought about the raising

canes that we visited in this week's Yelp from strangers. A little yelp from strangers. All right, two star, three star, four or five, y'all. So get a little yelp. A little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. A little yelp, a little yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally want. All right, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite.

One, two, three, three, four, and four. Five star Yelp reviews of the very raising canes that we went to. Do you mind if I start with the first one? Yes, please. All right. Two star review. This is a two star review from Alexandra S from Burbank, California on December 28, 2023. So saddened to come home and eat my food only to find out there is a hair in my chicken tender.

Wish I would have saw it sooner before I almost ate the entire thing. Gross. What if it was your hair? Enough. Their next sentence addresses that. I thought it might have been mine, but as I looked closer, I noticed this hair had literally been battered and fried in with the chicken. That's crazy. That's crazy.

And then they just write sad, which is very Trump. What if this is Donald Trump? Alexander S. I don't think his pseudonym would be a name as long as Alexandra. You never know. It's like I had gains and I found a hair in my gains. Sad. Sad.

Very sad. It's a good. I found I having a hair in my canes and it wasn't blonde. All right. We had a discussion yesterday about hair in food. We did. And I think I literally said if it's not fried in or like cooked into it. Like if it doesn't end up in my mouth, I don't care.

I'm not going to send it back. they wear hairnets. Yeah, I'll pick it up and I'll set it to, like, I've eaten worse things in my life. Let's just say that. Name five. From the 90s. From the 90s.

Bill Clinton. I'm not going to keep going with that. Okay, great. You don't want to hear that. Yeah. Yeah, it's just I don't, it doesn't gross me out to the extent. Now, if it's like really long. And it's like wrapped around food.

I went to a restaurant that's near Cains. I won't say the name of it, but it's a popular place in Burbank. Went there for the first time with my girlfriend and her sister. And her sister found a very long hair, like wrapped around one of the things in her food. Like it got caught and like twirled. Oh, that's awful. And that was a thing where like I picked it out and it just kept going. Oh, that's so bad.

And then like a bus boy came by. And I was like, you saw that, right? And he was like, yeah. I was like, can we get a new one? And they were like, yeah. Yeah, you can. Yeah. The person with the longest hair walks by in the kitchen.

Oh, sorry. I had to let my hair down for a moment. That is disgusting. That is actually disgusting. Because if it's like one little thing, like, who knows? Again, who, who? That is foul. Four star review.

We have another review from Haley M from La Quinta. Wow. Four stars from March 5th, 2026. Wow. It's a pretty recent. excellent food and service but when I get my hands on the architect if he can even call himself that

that designed and made this lot dot dot dot even more so the people who approved it it's genuinely so disheartening shame sad sad very sad what

sorry I'm trying to understand basically I would murder the person who made this parking lot is the takeoff the lot Yeah. Yeah. This is all about Burbank. These are all from the Burbank location that we went to.

Oh, yes. That parking lot is a nightmare. Yeah. It is a parking lot meets kind of a backroom's Eldridge horror of a drive-thru. And so all of the rest of the Yelp reviews are about the parking. No way. And one of my favorite things to note when I'm looking at a restaurant's Yelp score is the shape of the Yelp reviews. because it's like five on top, four, three, two.

And you can see the distribution. And this one, way more one stars than anything else. That's so funny. And the vast majority are about the parking lot. This parking lot in and of itself has not ruined this business because it's doing okay, but like have really taken an axe to its reputation. Also, if I remember correctly, I remember going on next door.

Oh, wow. And seeing people were review bombing that Keynes, who lived in the neighborhood that were mad at the increased traffic. Oh, can I say something about that? Yeah. So they finally blocked off that, or not, I don't know, finally, but at least since I've been going. They like barricaded the street. They fully barricaded that street.

So now. Which is, if I'm a resident, isn't the fix I want. Yeah. It's a weird, it's like you can't access the neighborhood from that area anymore, but I get why they did it and I like I understand it. It's a little annoying when I, if I'm going to that drive-tham, when I'm coming down, like, the south direction of Olive, I think is, it's the street. Yeah. And I got a whip a U-turn, which isn't technically illegal on that street, but I do it anyway and I get into that drive-thru anyway. And if the residents are unhappy, they can do that.

But also Burbank residents are unhappy about a lot of things. That's true. They only finally brought back their hours to midnight. which has been great. Brought back. Oh, the canes? The canes in Burbank closed, used to close at 10. That's not a cane.

It's not a cane. That's not a real cane. So they finally reverted back to midnight. And that's the normal time now. At very least, close at two or three. Yeah. Hey there, it's me, Michael. And now that we're in season four, I'm adding more content to my Patreon.

Not only can you hear the extended Yelp from Stranger's segment with three more reviews. And not only can you get in. exclusive full episode covering an extra chain restaurant on the last day of each month, but I've added an extra chat with my guests where we discussed their go-to fast food and chain restaurants and talk about why they love them so much. I hope you'll come check it out and you can get your first week completely free of charge. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast. I appreciate and love you all.

Back to the episode. And that is part one. Tune in next week as we tell you what we thought about. our meal at Raising Canes. DeAngelo, thank you so much for being here. Tell people where they can follow you on socials. You can find me on Instagram at DeAngelo 1260 or around Los Angeles. I'm pretty easy to find.

But thank you for having me, Michael. It's like a real estate agent laugh. Well, I am. Here's the thing. My last duty is mayor of the world. Okay. Is that everybody gets a house with a Raisin Cains in front of it. Everyone gets to be post Malone.

Everyone. Thank you so much for having me, Michael. Of course. And you can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. You can join my Discord and come chat with me about restaurant opinions, about you can post your pet photos. You can talk about board games. You can do anything you want except for trying to sell everyone your used MacBook Pro. We know it's a scam.

I have a Patreon. If you want exclusive content, the extended full Yelp from Strangers segment, an exclusive episode that drops on the last day of every month, covering a whole new restaurant that you don't hear on the main feed, interviews with my guests about their recurring restaurant rotations, all that good stuff. In the meantime, we're just going to be sitting here for one week, waiting on our table. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next week.

Have a fine day. Table waiting on our table. The step is done and we had some fun. Now we're waiting on our table. Next time we're stuck in line. Waiting you are served for mediocrity. You know,