Raising Cane’s is a popular fast food chicken fingers restaurant chain with locations across the United States. Their menu is simple, focused on high quality chicken fingers served with crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw, Texas toast, and Cane’s sauce. With such a streamlined menu, customers often wonder if Raising Cane’s offers any additional sauces or condiments like honey mustard.
Background on Raising Cane’s
Raising Cane’s was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1996 by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey. Graves came up with the concept for Raising Cane’s while attending business school and wrote the business plan as part of a class assignment. He was unable to launch the restaurant concept immediately after graduating. Instead, he started working in the oil industry but remained committed to his idea for a chicken fingers restaurant.
In the mid-1990s, Graves revisited his old business plan and partnered with former college classmate Craig Silvey to make the Raising Cane’s concept a reality. They opened the first Raising Cane’s restaurant near the Louisiana State University campus in August 1996.
The restaurant proved popular with college students and locals, leading Graves and Silvey to start franchising and expanding to new markets. In the early 2000s, Raising Cane’s began opening locations beyond Louisiana in places like Dallas, Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
Today, Raising Cane’s has grown to over 500 locations across 29 states and the Middle East. However, the core menu has remained unchanged – the focus is on serving high quality chicken fingers paired with the restaurant’s signature Cane’s sauce.
Raising Cane’s Menu and Sauces
The Raising Cane’s menu is intentionally simple and focused, with only the following main items:
– Chicken fingers – always fresh, never frozen breast meat chicken battered and fried to order
– Cane’s sauce – tangy, peppery signature sauce made with Worcestershire sauce, garlic, black pepper and other spices
– Crinkle-cut fries – freshly cut and fried to order potato fries
– Texas toast – thick sliced toasted bread
– Coleslaw – crunchy cabbage coleslaw
– Soft drinks
In addition to Cane’s sauce, the only other condiment options available at Raising Cane’s include ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Each customer receives a combination of Cane’s sauce, ketchup, mustard, and mayo with their meal.
Raising Cane’s does not offer any other unique specialty sauces like buffalo, bbq, ranch, honey mustard, etc. The simplicity of the menu and sauces is an intentional decision by founder Todd Graves. He wanted to keep the focus on serving high quality chicken fingers rather than having an extensive or confusing menu.
Why Raising Cane’s Does Not Have Honey Mustard
Raising Cane’s lacks honey mustard as a menu option for several key reasons:
Focus on Core Menu
As mentioned, Raising Cane’s likes to keep their menu simple and focused around chicken fingers as the star of the show. Adding honey mustard or other sauces would make the menu more complex, shift the focus away from the chicken fingers, and disrupt operations. Graves has stated he wants crew members to excel at cooking fresh chicken fingers and Cane’s sauce rather than having to prepare and manage numerous sauces.
Differentiates Them from Competitors
Major competitors like Zaxby’s, Guthrie’s, and Slim Chickens all offer honey mustard as a menu option. By not offering honey mustard, Raising Cane’s differentiates itself from competitors through its stripped down menu and sauce options. This unique positioning is part of their brand identity.
Focus on Cane’s Sauce
Raising Cane’s wants customers to enjoy and focus on their proprietary Cane’s sauce. Adding other specialty sauces like honey mustard could dilute the brand and make Cane’s sauce seem less unique or special. They prefer customers to get excited about Cane’s sauce rather than seeking out alternatives.
Operational Complexity
Carrying additional sauces like honey mustard adds more complexity for restaurant operations – additional inventory, storage, prep, training, etc. Graves has said this extra complexity can degrade the customer experience as crews struggle to manage too many sauces.
Food Cost Concerns
More sauces mean higher overall food costs. Raising Cane’s likely avoids honey mustard and other sauces to keep food costs in check while still offering competitive pricing to customers. More sauces could force them to raise prices, which Graves has said he doesn’t want to do.
Has Raising Cane’s Ever Offered Honey Mustard?
Raising Cane’s has never offered honey mustard as a regular everyday menu item in their restaurants. The core menu and sauce options have remained unchanged since the first location opened in 1996.
However, Raising Cane’s did briefly test honey mustard at certain locations back in 2009. This test was done to evaluate customer interest and response, not as a permanent menu addition.
The honey mustard test was conducted in only select markets like Austin, TX and Chicago, IL. It was not rolled out chainwide. This test lasted for parts of 2009 and 2010 before being discontinued. Customers could request honey mustard during this trial period at participating locations.
Since ending the honey mustard test over a decade ago, Raising Cane’s has not brought back this sauce. They found during the test that mustard and mayo were the most popular sauce choices beyond Cane’s sauce. Honey mustard did not have enough interest to justify becoming a permanent menu item.
Why Customers Want Honey Mustard at Raising Cane’s
Although founder Todd Graves has his reasons for not offering honey mustard, many customers continue to request this sauce be added at Raising Cane’s locations. There are some factors driving this customer interest:
Popularity of Honey Mustard at Other Chains
As mentioned, competitors like Zaxby’s and Guthrie’s offer honey mustard. Customers familiar with these brands may come to expect and desire honey mustard when visiting any chicken fingers chain, including Raising Cane’s. The popularity of honey mustard at rivals causes customer demand.
Enjoyment of Sweet and Tangy Flavors
Honey mustard combines the tangy flavor of mustard with sweet notes from honey. This is a popular flavor profile enjoyed across various cuisine types from sandwiches to chicken wings and tenders. Customers seek that sweet and tangy honey mustard flavor at Raising Cane’s.
Preference Over Ketchup or Mayo
While ketchup and mayo are the default sauces included in Raising Cane’s combos, some customers don’t love either of those options. Honey mustard gives customers an alterative sauce choice besides Cane’s sauce that they may prefer over ketchup or mayo.
Dipping Sauce Variety
Raising Cane’s only offers Cane’s sauce as a unique dipping sauce option. Customers, especially those dining in groups or families, may want more variety of dipping sauces beyond the core four (Cane’s, ketchup, mayo, mustard).
Kids and Chicken Fingers
Younger customers and kids tend to especially enjoy honey mustard with chicken fingers and fries. Parents visiting Raising Cane’s with their children may request honey mustard since they know their kids love that sauce combination.
The Future Possibility of Honey Mustard at Raising Cane’s
Given the continued customer requests, could Raising Cane’s eventually cave and add honey mustard to their menu? While unlikely in the short term, honey mustard at Raising Cane’s may someday become a reality.
Graves has gradually evolved on his sauce stance over the years. For instance, Raising Cane’s used to only offer Cane’s sauce. Mayo, mustard, and ketchup were later added as standard sauce options based on customer requests. As recently as 2015, Graves said they would never offer ranch dressing. But select locations started offering ranch for dipping sauces and salads during a 2018 test.
So Graves has shown some willingness to expand Raising Cane’s sauce options when there is enough consistent, prolonged customer demand. The same could potentially happen in the future with honey mustard.
However, Raising Cane’s would need to find a way to add honey mustard without sacrificing quality, complicating restaurant operations, or raising costs significantly. Getting this formula right would be essential for Graves to ever approve honey mustard.
For now, Raising Cane’s fans will have to be content with savoring the chain’s signature Cane’s sauce or mixing up their own honey mustard blend using mustard, mayo, and honey packets. But don’t be surprised if Raising Cane’s locations eventually start pumping out honey mustard sauce alongside their crinkle-cut fries and Texas toast.
Conclusion
Raising Cane’s currently does not offer honey mustard as one of their core dipping sauces. The restaurant chain has intentionally chosen to keep their menu simple and focused around fresh chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries, Texas toast, and Cane’s sauce. Adding honey mustard or other specialty sauces does not align with founder Todd Graves’ operational philosophy of simplicity and quality control.
However, some customers continue to request honey mustard based on enjoying the sweet and tangy flavor profile, the influence of competitors who offer it, and wanting more dipping sauce variety. Raising Cane’s briefly tested honey mustard back in 2009 but discontinued it due to lack of interest. While not on the horizon, it’s possible that honey mustard could eventually be added to the Raising Cane’s menu if the customer demand is strong enough in the future. For now, Raising Cane’s fans will have to mix their own mustard and honey or enjoy the chain’s signature Cane’s sauce.