The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 28 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Graves: Company-owned restaurant chains achieve far higher valuations than franchise models
“Another advantage of having your own restaurants, company restaurants, is that your valuations are way higher, right? So your sales, your profitability, your EBITDA that goes through as you grow company restaurants, just the company's worth so much more, man.”
Graves: Most quick-service restaurant franchisees operate at 65 to 70 percent efficiency
“Our franchisees were about an 85, which is exceptional in the franchise world, because most of them, in quick service food, run at about a 65, 70.”
Graves: Early Cane's Scaled on 15% Subordinated Debt to Protect Equity
“So what I had was angel investors that I would do a 15% interest rate, subordinated debt. Okay. It was a one pager and I personally endorse these. I mean, if I personally signed onto it, so they knew anything I had in the world, which is all just tied up the b…”
Graves: Limited-time menu offers degrade restaurant customer service and consistency
“I've certainly saved menu for 29 years now, almost 30 years. If I had LTOs, which might spike business for a tiny bit, right, something new at Cain's, my managers would have to, like, then be putting up point of purchase materials, getting training everybody o…”
Graves: About 95% of Raising Cane's locations are company-owned
“Yeah, by me, I'm at like 90, I would say 95%.”
Graves: Adding healthy items complicates operations without driving fast-food sales
“And if we add healthy items, people aren't going to order that anyway, and it's just going to complicate our system, meaning lettuce is produce. Produce goes bad quickly. That's going to complicate what we're trying to do, and it's not going to equate to sales…”
Graves: Raising Cane's $4 million AUV is second-highest in fast food
“We have, we're the second highest average unit volume in all of quick service.”
Graves: Raising Cane's refuses to introduce spicy chicken options
“Bankers would be like, well, are you considering a spicy alternative? I'm like, no, we're not considering a spicy alternative, because our concept is quality food, quality, craveable food served with fast food, speed, and convenience.”
Todd Graves: Raising Cane's Will Remain a Generational, Company-Owned Business
“And so for me is I'm not selling the business. I love the business. I want it to be a generational business and to keep rolling. And the best way to have something I'd be proud of for me personally was to own them company restaurants.”
Raz: Raising Cane's surpassed KFC as third-largest US chicken chain
“This past summer of 2025, Cane's surpassed Kentucky Fried Chicken as the third largest chicken quick service restaurant in the U.S.”
Graves: Single fast-food locations cannot build wealth without multi-unit scale
“Quick service restaurants make tiny margins on large volumes. It's just what it is. And look, you can have a whole family working in a restaurant, and I know a lot of great Family restaurants that do that, so you lower your labor cost, and everybody kind of li…”
Graves: Raising Cane's Projects $3 Billion in Sales This Year
“Our projections this year, we'll do about three billion dollars in sales, right? And opening another hundred, hundred restaurants.”
Graves: Community banks treated Raising Cane's subordinated debt as equity
“Craig would then take it to the bank, and we go to these community banks, and basically, that subordinated debt was considered equity.”
Graves: Operational friction multiplies exponentially when opening a second restaurant
“I think that's what happens when people grow one to two. Yeah. You know, it's not like their problems double. It, like, it multiplies, you know, exponentially.”
Graves: Cane's sauce avoided Cajun flavoring to prevent regional pigeonholing
“I wanted a flavorful sauce, but I didn't want a Cajun sauce, right? I didn't want this to be a regional Cajun thing.”
Todd Graves: Raising Cane's operates only three social media accounts
“We only have, it's three. One is Raising Cane's corporate account. One is mine, right? The founder and one is my dog, Cain three, right? Our mascot, but we collab constantly and we reach sports fans.”
Todd Graves: Raising Cane's Has 1,000 Locations and Plans 1,000 More
“And now I got a thousand brick and mortars and we're planning on the next thousand, you know what I mean? But if I tried to get into retail line, you know, the grocery stores want canes frozen in the grocery stores retail, they want our sauce bottle. They want…”
Graves funded the first Raising Cane's with boilermakers, realtors, and a bookie
“Two of my investors were bowler makers that I had worked with. They live, these are like, 10,000 dollar investors, 5000 dollar investors. One was Mr. Red Reynolds, our realtor. Another one was a high school friend that actually worked bullermaking with me out …”
Graves: Raising Cane's made $30 in profit during its first month
“I mean, look, our first month we made 30 bucks.”
Graves: Raising Cane's menu modeled Guthrie's late-1960s chicken finger combo
“You know, I mean, if you look at it, our menu is like what Guthrie's originally came back up with, like in the late sixties, you know, it was that chicken finger meal with the sauce and the fries and the coleslaw and the Texas toast.”
Graves: Raising Cane's struggled heavily during 2004-2005 Texas expansion
“My first expansion, you know, out of the state of Louisiana was around 2004, 2005... Dallas and Houston, and this is eight, eight, nine years into it, and we got our butt kicked.”
Graves: Pull-Apart Dough Makes Texas Toast Moister and Denser Than Sliced Bread
“Well, we can put dough balls together and put them together, small dough balls. It'll bake together as a loaf, but it's pull apart bread versus slice, which means it stays more moist and it's more dense, right?”
Graves: Chicken Sandwich Wars Lifted Raising Cane's Sales 10% to 15%
“We're not known for our chicken sandwich, but our sales went up 10 and 15% because people were talking about chicken sandwiches, and they were coming and buying our chicken tenders.”
Todd Graves: Raising Cane's business plan received the lowest grade in class
“And then, you know, a couple days later, we got the grade back, and it was actually the worst grade in the class, but it was only a B minus, right?”
Graves: Hurricane Katrina shut down 21 of 28 Raising Cane's locations
“When Hurricane Katrina hit, and we had 21 of 28 locations go down in the area, and that cash flow stopped.”
Graves secured a 50-year lease option for Cane's original LSU location
“Yeah, this location was ideal, and cheap rent, I think it was like 1500 bucks a month, and I ended up getting like, after options, like 50 years on the deal, it even had a billboard on the location, it was just ideal.”