A proposed Raising Cane’s Chicken Tender fast food restaurant for Glassboro is moving forward with an October 3rd date set for a Planning Board hearing. They will be looking for town approval to develop.
42Freeway first brought news of the upcoming restaurant back in March when we discovered documents related to the project.
Update: Glassboro location was scheduled for Planning in October but they postponed it… they are expected in the November Planning Meeting. (Nov 8th I believe)
The proposed Glassboro location previously was home to a Rite-Aid pharmacy, and sits at the corner of Delsea Dr. and Donald Barger Blvd. There is a Wendy’s immediately next door, and across the street is the large Collegetown Shopping Center.
The Rite-Aid building is still standing and would be demolished as part of this project. An all new Raising Cane’s restaurant building would be developed, featuring a newer designed dual-lane drive-through.
Raising Cane’s is very busy in South Jersey as they are actively developing locations in Burlington, Evesham (Marlton), Cherry Hill, and Deptford.
They have also been approved for Washington Township on the Black Horse Pike (former Pep Boys) but that construction has not started yet.
In July I visited a stand-alone Raising Cane’s in Philadelphia, to share with readers what the restaurant and building is all about. They have a distinctive patio design, full two-lane drivethru lanes, and a fun dining room vibe that even has mirrored disco balls!
This is not the only recent fast-food restaurant news for Glassboro
Earlier this summer Glassboro approved a new Chick-fil-A restaurant also for Delsea Drive, which will be developed between the Matt Blatt Car Dealership and the former Save-A-Lot grocery (grocery building is set to become a Liscio’s Bakery and retail store)
The existing Burger King on Delsea Drive just reopened yesterday (9/22) after being closed several months for a full remodel inside and out, which also will included drive-thru upgrades.
What is Raising Cane’s?
With all of the new South Jersey Raising Cane’s locations in progress, 42Freeway has a LOT of coverage at the site.
I’ve even visited 2 locations in Philadelphia to share the experience with readers, and over the summer I wrote a full experience of my visit to the Island Ave location near the Philadelphia Airport.
For the most part Raising Cane’s features one product! Freshly made chicken tenders. Heck, even their chicken sandwich is just several of their chicken fingers placed on a bun.
And they also only offer one dipping sauce, Cane’s Sauce!
Of course there are sides that go along with the chicken tenders, but they keep those choices simple also by only offering french fries, coleslaw and Texas toast.
It seems when most people stop in for a meal at Raising Cane’s they are purchasing a box combo that features the chicken fingers, fries, coleslaw and Texas toast… basically the full menu in one meal.
Raising Cane’s is definitely following the mantra of “focus on a few things and do them exceptionally well”
The proof of that is in other parts of the country Raising Cane’s has a fanatical following. It’s a similar fanaticism that customers on the West Coast have with In-And-Out Burger.
At Raising Cane’s, customers have no problem waiting in line for their chicken fingers, and have even coined a name for themselves “Cainiacs”
While the menu is kept simple, I saw in my visit to a Philadelphia freestanding location that they are definitely thinking outside-the-box with their restaurant building design.
At the Island Ave location I saw that it had a really cool and distinctive indoor/outdoor patio area design which gives it a “dining area within a dining area”.
Basically there’s a core indoor segment to the restaurant with dining room, ordering counters, bathrooms. But then on two sides is an L-shaped patio area which is surrounded by windowed garage doors. Depending on the weather they can open or close up that outer patio area.
With construction further along at the Marlton and Cherry Hill locations, it appears those two will have that same distinctive patio setup, but I am not certain yet on Deptford, Washington Twp or the proposed Glassboro locations… which are a few hundred feet smaller.
I do not have the site plans for the proposed Glassboro location as the news for this Planning hearing came out on Friday and I did not have a chance to visit the Municipal Offices.
Raising Cane’s Glassboro
The proposed Raising Cane’s for Glassboro is set to be heard on October 3rd at 7:00 PM, in person at the Glassboro municipal building courtroom.
This all new construction is listed as 3,321 square feet and it’s several 100 feet smaller than the other locations being developed in South Jersey. Likely this is due to fitting the building into the lot size.
As an example both Cherry Hill and Evesham are 500 feet larger.
One aspect about the new Raising Cane’s buildings in South Jersey is they are being designed to better accommodate today’s drive-thru and delivery service world.
The drive-thrus at “Cane’s” are two lane all the way through even to the cash register and food delivery areas. They are putting employee doors facing the drive-thru, so that the employees can come out to your car in that outer lane, to collect money or deliver food.
Chick-Fil-A is in the process of upgrading many of their existing restaurants to offer a similar drive-thru configuration.
Raising Cane’s also develops a large overhead canopy at the menu area and the final food delivery area, to protect cars and employees from the elements.
For the Glassboro location the development of a fast food restaurant is a conditional use for the property, but there are some requested variances related to signage on the building and property.
To be clear almost every new development in South Jersey has variances related to signage as it seems towns intentionally put the criteria very low in the zoning code so that developers are required to present their plans in a hearing.
It’s way too early in the process to have any indications of when the Glassboro Raising Cane’s would be open.
I can tell you that the very first one approved in South Jersey was Evesham Twp, and it’s been about 13 months since their approval… and it looks like they could open before the end of the year based on current construction.
The Deptford location is also under development with the steel frame just starting to go up, and that hasn’t even been a year since they first went to the different plan
Links and Locations
Raising Cane’s Glassboro (heading to planning hearing)
695 North Delsea Drive
Glassboro, NJ 08028
Raising Cane’s Philadelphia Area Stand-Alone Location Opened. I Visited