Baton Rouge, La. – Raising Cane’s kicked off its 30th birthday celebration Tuesday by heading back to its beginnings and opening a pop-up museum next to The Mothership near LSU that shines a light on everything its owner and founder, Todd Graves, went through to launch the original restaurant.

The museum details the company’s journey from a college business plan that earned Graves the lowest grade in his class to an enterprise with more than 1,000 restaurants around the world and 100,000 crew members.

Graves led a tour through The Mothership, the original Raising Cane’s restaurant, which retains many of the design elements that helped shape the brand’s identity. Graves also showed off his restored apartment, which was recreated to resemble how it looked while Raising Cane’s was getting started.

Included in the museum are Graves’ original business plan, refinery hard hat, Alaskan fishing tent, briefcase and the restaurant’s original cash register.

“I’m really proud of our organization and everybody that’s involved with Raising Cane’s to end up where we are here today,” Graves said. “I really feel like we’re just getting warmed up.”

Graves opened The Mothership on Aug. 28, 1996, after 9 p.m. When the restaurant processed its first $20 order, Graves didn’t frame the money because he said the restaurant couldn’t afford to miss a dollar.

“I literally put it into the bag and made the deposit that night,” Graves said. “People ask me now, ‘Did you frame that 20 bucks?’ I said, ‘No, we needed that money.’”

Graves said the restaurant made about $30 in its first month after paying expenses, including his crew, vendors and rent. That little profit was enough to convince him it could be a successful business.

“The first night, it was like it had been open forever,” Graves said. “It was like an LSU tradition.”

Raising Cane’s started as a chicken finger restaurant concept Graves called Folly’s Fingers of LSU for a college business plan class. He earned a B-minus, which was the lowest grade in his class.

His professor believed Graves’ business projections were good, but he told Graves he didn’t think a restaurant that served only chicken fingers would work in South Louisiana.

Graves thought otherwise, saying customers would come to a restaurant dedicated to doing one thing really well.

“People go to restaurants to get the things that they love,” Graves said. “You can focus on one thing and do it better than anybody else. Something craveable and good, served by friendly people, will always win.”

He approached banks to help finance the concept, but was turned down over and over again. Graves took a job as a boilermaker working in Los Angeles-area refineries. He logged more than 90 hours a week at times trying to save up money to open the restaurant.

A co-worker encouraged Graves to try commercial fishing in Alaska. Graves traveled to Naknek and slept in a tent searching for work before finally joining a fishing boat as a greenhorn. He worked 20 hours a day during peak season catching sockeye salmon.

The fishing boat Graves worked on, the Margaret Mae, was tracked down and purchased for the anniversary exhibit.

“I had this chicken finger dream,” Graves said. “It was this dream in my business plan, and then it became a passion and the passion turned into fanaticism.”

Graves thought about naming the restaurant Sockeyes after the salmon he caught in Alaska. That idea got nixed by a friend who suggested he use the name of Graves’ dog, Cane, who was already a neighborhood celebrity.

When Graves returned home to Baton Rouge, he opened near LSU’s north gates and did much of the construction himself. He scraped away layers of paneling to expose old brick and uncovered a historic mural from Wolf’s Bakery that later influenced the Raising Cane’s logo and restaurant design.

Graves also wanted the restaurant to feel culturally different. Crew members wore Cane’s T-shirts, jeans or shorts. They listened to music and were allowed to just be themselves while concentrating on preparing food and serving customers.

“I appreciate the customers coming in and the community supporting me,” Graves said. “Our culture came all built off of appreciation.”

Graves’ apartment also has been recreated with tube televisions, chunky computer monitors and fax machines. Graves could watch his restaurant’s drive-thru from his apartment window to gauge how fast he was serving customers.

The apartment pays homage not only to the company’s history but also to Todd Graves’ family. Graves asked his now-wife, Gwen, out on a date two weeks before the restaurant was set to open but informed her he didn’t have time to go out with her. The couple has been married for 25 years, and their children, Sophia and Charlie, work for the company.

The anniversary celebration featured a custom cake designed by Duff Goldman and the team at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. The cake took 50 to 55 hours to build before being driven down to Baton Rouge.

The cake featured chicken fingers, an Alaskan salmon, Graves’ briefcase and a replica of his refinery hard hat.

“It’s got so much history,” Goldman said of the hard hat. “It’s got so much wear to it. It’s got so much love and just time.”

Food critic and content creator Keith Lee also attended the anniversary event. Lee believes Raising Cane’s success can be attributed to consistency and forming an identity that customers recognize when they walk into any of the chain’s locations.

“It’s one thing to have a great product, but it’s another thing to be able to mass produce that product and be able to fit in all markets,” Lee said. “When you have something that you’re really passionate about and you’re able to be consistent about it, then I think that equals success.”

Lee said visiting The Mothership was like stepping back in time and commended Raising Cane’s for keeping the original restaurant’s appearance intact.

“Nowadays, everything has lost color and identity and everything kind of looks the same,” Lee said. “If you take a picture here, you’re going to know exactly where somebody is.”

Graves also signaled Raising Cane’s international growth as another avenue for the brand as it starts a new chapter. The chicken finger chain is planning to open its first restaurant in the United Kingdom at 22 Coventry St. near London’s Piccadilly Circus in early 2027.

The brand is also preparing to launch in Mexico, where its first restaurants are expected to begin operating during the second half of 2026.

Graves said Raising Cane’s has donated more than $165 million to charitable causes during its first 30 years.

Raising Cane’s and Graves also announced a combined $50 million commitment to animal welfare and conservation. The company will donate $30 million to pet welfare organizations over the next decade, while Graves is personally pledging $20 million to Re:wild.

Visitors will be able to tour the museum through Sept. 24 and see items that trace the company’s history back to its beginnings.

Graves said he hopes to make Raising Cane’s a top-10 restaurant brand by the end of the decade. He added that he would also like the company to eventually give back billions of dollars to communities and remain family-run. He said he hopes the exhibit will inspire others to chase their dreams, even if others doubt them.

“All I want to do is inspire people to say, ‘Go for your dreams,’” Graves said.

Standing in the middle of The Mothership, he added, “Look how small this restaurant is and look what it created.”