Raising Cane’s Is Building Their Kapolei Location
The Kapolei location will be at the intersection of Kapolei Parkway and Ft. Barrette Rd. A building permit for the $1.7 million restaurant was filed in July. Construction equipment started arriving this week, and the company has put up a “coming soon” sign at the future site of the restaurant.
The Louisiana-based restaurant chain opened their first Hawaiʻi location in December 2018, at the intersection of University and King near UH-Mānoa. That location set a one-day sales record on opening day. They also opened Hawaiʻi Kai and Mililani locations in June 2020.
If you want to get a preview, you can stop by the Town Center of Mililani Raising Cane’s that opened on Sunday, June 14.
Well, you can try to stop by. On a Tuesday afternoon the week they opened, the line for the drive thru was so long, it looped past a nearby Taco Bell and around the parking lot. The line for pickup was out the door, 20 people deep. With a newborn in the car and an uncertain wait time, we decided to head back to Kapolei and satisfy our chicken craving at Jollibee.
The franchise is owned by California-based Panda Restaurant Group, which as you can probably guess also owns Panda Express. With an estimated $3.5 billion in annual revenue, Panda Restaurant Group is the 133rd largest privately-owned company in the US, according to Forbes magazine.
With construction just starting on the site, a 2020 opening seems unlikely, but look out for our own Raising Cane’s traffic jam in early 2021.
