Raising Cane’s is showing no signs of slowing down in San Diego, recently approved to open a new location in Lemon Grove at 7559 Broadway.
The national chicken chain was unanimously approved by the Lemon Grove Planning Commission late last month to open a new location in East County, according to a notice of public hearing. The 3,481-square-foot restaurant will feature indoor and outdoor seating and drive-through window stations. Next to Raising Cane’s will be a new Quick Quack Car Wash location. The two new businesses will take up ten parcels of land, about an acre each along Broadway, and are expected to open in late 2025.
Raising Cane’s recently announced that it was also opening a new location in San Diego’s Midway/ Sports Arena neighborhood at 3704 Camino del Rio W., in the former home of Denny’s on the corner of Camino Del Rio and Hancock Street, previously reported by What Now Media Group. Since first debuting in Santee in 2018, Raising Cane’s has opened seven locations within San Diego County, plus another location planned for Poway.
As California continues to see a minimum wage raise, Raising Cane’s has responded by increasing the pay by an average of two dollars above the minimum. Now that it’s $20 per hour, the brand will seek $22, $23, or $24. Co-CEO and COO AJ Kumaran understands that it’s an industry with razor-thin margins, but he emphasizes that the company is happy when employees can make more money. The chain took a 7.5 percent price increase in response to the fast-food wage law. The price hike took effect on April 1, the same day the law began.
“We did it only on the exact day of when things had to change. I’ve seen people who do it preemptively and kind of build-up,” Kumaran tells QSR Magazine. “We’re not any of that. We’re probably in the middle to the bottom end of the prices that we’ve taken in California. It doesn’t protect all of our margins. It cuts it close enough, but we believe that the customers totally understand. We’ve not seen any issues at all in the last almost month of operating in that climate.”
