BATON ROUGE – Raising Cane’s turns 30 on Aug. 28, and the Restaurant Brand is celebrating right where the party started. In honor of 30 Years of ONE LOVE® – Craveable Chicken Finger Meals® – Cane’s opened a one-of-a-kind pop-up museum Aug. 25 next to the original Raising Cane’s Restaurant in Baton Rouge, best known as “The Mothership.” The admission-free museum invites Caniacs inside owner and founder Todd Graves’ unlikely journey from a Chicken Finger business plan everyone questioned to more than 1,000 restaurants around the world.
Thirty years and more than 1,000 restaurants later, Graves is still leading the Brand he started in Baton Rouge, making Cane’s one of just four of the 46 restaurant businesses with 1,000+ locations still led by its original Founder. Today, Cane’s has 95,000+ Crew, with more than 1.1 million Crewmembers hired and 30,000 promotions throughout its history, and Graves was recently recognized as one of Glassdoor’s Top CEOs for 2026.
Located at 132 E. State St., less than 100 steps from “The Mothership,” the 30th Birthday Pop-Up Museum brings that journey to life through historic photos, memorabilia and actual artifacts from Graves’ earliest days, including his original business plan and briefcase, the hard hat he wore working 90-hour weeks as a boilermaker and original blueprints from “The Mothership.” Also on display is a Cane III statue, 3D modeled off of Cane III’s exact body and stature and the original disco ball Graves hung inside “The Mothership” to cover a skylight, a decorating decision that became a signature design element still found in Cane’s restaurants today. Outside, Caniacs can get an up-close look at The Margaret Mae, the actual 1979 boat Graves worked aboard fishing sockeye salmon in Alaska to help earn the money he needed to fund his restaurant dream.
Upstairs, Caniacs can step even further back in time with a guided tour of Graves’ restored Apartment No. 4, the small second-floor apartment overlooking “The Mothership” where he lived and Cane’s earliest Restaurant Support Office operated. Graves even moved his bed into the living room so he could see the restaurant and its Drive-Thru from his window and jump in alongside his Crew whenever things got busy. After purchasing the building years later, Graves recreated the apartment down to the smallest ’90s details, from the brown paisley comforter and VHS tapes to the old-school computer, cereal boxes sitting on top of the refrigerator and even the bathroom scale.
Beginning Aug. 25, Caniacs can visit the museum admission-free from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 24, with pre-arranged group tours available through RaisingCanes.com/30thBirthdayMuseum. The downstairs museum will be open for self-guided exploration, while Graves’ upstairs apartment will be available through guided tours.
Cane’s isn’t only celebrating by looking back. In honor of its 30th birthday, Cane’s is committing $30 million over the next 10 years to pet welfare organizations, supporting pets and the Communities that love them. Graves is taking that commitment even further through the Todd Graves Family Foundation with a personal $20 million pledge to Re:wild, the wildlife conservation and preservation organization founded by his good friend Leonardo DiCaprio. Together, the commitments total $50 million in support of pet welfare, wildlife and animals, giving Cane’s 30th birthday an impact designed to last well beyond the celebration.
That commitment builds on Cane’s longstanding connection to pet welfare, which started with the yellow Lab who gave the restaurant its name. Over the years, Cane’s has partnered with more than 1,000 pet organizations and donated more than $10 million to causes supporting Community rescues, shelters, dog parks and more. For the first time, the museum brings the entire Plush Puppy pack together in one place, with all 46 Plush Puppies spanning more than two decades of Cane’s history, from the original Cane Plush Puppy to Holiday, Birthday, Flagship and limited-edition pups.
And for Cane’s biggest birthday yet, there’s a new pup joining the pack. Beginning Aug. 27, Caniacs can get their paws on the limited-edition 30th Birthday Plush Puppy, a head-to-paw throwback to 1996 decked out in a backward red cap, red striped shirt and light-wash denim, complete with headphones and its own old-school boombox. Available for $12.99 plus tax at participating restaurants and online at RaisingCanesGear.com through Sept. 22 while supplies last, net proceeds from every 30th Birthday Plush Puppy sold at participating restaurants will benefit local pet welfare organizations in the Communities Cane’s serves.
Caniacs can throw it back to 1996 in style, too. Launching Aug. 25 exclusively at RaisingCanesGear.com, Cane’s six-piece 30th Birthday retail collection digs into the Brand’s archives to revive early logos, graphics and designs across vintage-inspired T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats. From the yellow Lab namesake and an early Cane’s menu to retro Brand marks straight out of Cane’s earliest days, the limited-edition collection gives Caniacs a chance to wear a piece of Cane’s past while celebrating 30 Years of ONE LOVE®.
And while plenty has changed since Graves opened “The Mothership” on Aug. 28, 1996, the idea at the heart of Cane’s hasn’t. Thirty years and more than 1,000 restaurants later, Cane’s remains fanatically focused on the same ONE LOVE® – Craveable Chicken Finger Meals®, with premium chicken marinated for at least 24 hours, hand-battered and cooked-to-order alongside freshly-made Cane’s Sauce, buttery Cane’s Toast, coleslaw, premium crinkle-cut fries, freshly-squeezed lemonade and freshly-brewed iced tea. The simple Chicken Finger concept professors and bankers once questioned ultimately became one of Cane’s greatest strengths, and as Cane’s officially turns 30 on Aug. 28, the Brand is celebrating 30 Years of ONE LOVE® right where it all began, looking back at the dream that started it all while raising a Chicken Finger to everything still to come.