Raising Cane's next big market

Author

Andy Moore
December 12, 2025

Hello!

A busy week in the restaurant world — from international expansion to meme-driven operations, including:

  • Raising Cane’s journey south of the border

  • Weird and wonderful McDonald’s locations

  • In-N-Out’s battle against the number 67

3 Numbers

4000

Number of Chipotle restaurants now open, with location 4000 opening this week in Manhattan, Kansas (aka the “Little Apple”). The fast-casual brand is now more than halfway to its goal of owning 7,000 units in the U.S. and Canada, and it expects to open another 350 to 370 restaurants next year.

20%

Increase in average USDA choice boneless steak prices over the past year, according to September data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The price increases have hit steakhouses especially hard, and short-term relief isn’t in sight — U.S. cattle inventory is at its lowest level since Ted Williams was an active-duty ballplayer/fighter pilot.

4.7%

Same-store sales decline from Cracker Barrel for its first quarter ending on Oct. 31, as the company continues to feel the effects from the logo backlash over the summer. CEO Julie Masino said the results were “below expectations,” but that Cracker Barrel has undertaken a plan focused on brand rebuilding and value positioning.

2 Big Stories

  1. Raising Cane’s is going to Mexico, via Nation’s Restaurant News:

Raising Cane’s plans to enter Mexico in the second half of 2026 after signing a development agreement this week with Alsea, S.A.B. de C.V.

Alsea is a leading restaurant operator in Latin America and Europe with a portfolio that also includes Domino’s Pizza, Starbucks, Burger King, Chili’s, P.F. Chang’s, The Cheesecake Factory, and more.

The agreement with Raising Cane’s includes plans to explore additional opportunities in the region following its debut next year. The chain currently operates more than 950 restaurants across 43 U.S. states and the Middle East and has also recently announced plans to expand into the United Kingdom next year.

I’m excited for the 2025 numbers to come in for Cane’s — its growth trajectory continues to be phenomenal. In 2024, it hit a 14% year-over-year increase in unit count and 32% year-over-year sales increase (meaning it continues to grow same-store-sales by double digits in a challenging environment).

2026 might be a banner year. In addition to entering the Mexico and U.K. markets, next year Cane’s will also move into a new 400,000-square foot restaurant support center in Plano, Texas, which will quadruple its office space, with capacity for “thousands” of office employees.

  1. McDonald’s is tightening the reins on value, per memos obtained by CNBC:

McDonald’s will soon assess its franchisees on how their prices deliver value as the company updates its franchising standards as part of a larger bid to win over cash-strapped diners.

“Effective January 1, 2026, we are enhancing our global franchising standards across all Segments to reinforce accountability for value leadership,” Andrew Gregory, McDonald’s senior vice president of global franchising, development and delivery, wrote in a memo issued Monday and obtained by CNBC. “With enhanced standards, we aim to provide greater clarity to the System to ensure every restaurant delivers consistent, reliable value across the full customer experience.”

Franchising standards are the policies that define how McDonald’s operators should run their restaurants. Continued noncompliance with those standards could result in penalties, like not being permitted to open another restaurant, or even the termination of the franchise.

Franchisees run about 95% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide and set their restaurants’ prices, with input from third-party pricing advisors. Under the new standard, the company will “holistically assess” pricing decisions for how well they offer value, Gregory wrote in the memo.

“This approach enables franchisees to bring local insight to how value is delivered in their restaurants,” he said.

The memo contained few details about how the pricing standards would be enforced. (Other than the crucial note that the company will be leaning on third-party pricing advisors — as a franchisor, it doesn’t want to dictate franchisee pricing decisions with too heavy a hand.)

But incorporating value into franchising standards does point to McDonald’s taking seriously consumer frustration with fast-food pricing.

Other Headlines

Name That Chain!

How well do you know your legacy celebrity-backed restaurant chains? You’ve got three guesses to name this week’s mystery chain:

  • This chain was one of the few national quick-service brands to successfully operate across three proteins: roast beef, burgers, and fried chicken.

  • It became famous for a self-serve toppings bar that let guests customize just about everything.

  • This chain once dominated highway exits and travel plazas across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It still operates today.

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

Power Moves

A few big seat changes this week across the industry:

What’s Happening at FS Supply

We’re in the midst of our end-of-year push and are starting production soon on new rounds of crystal-clear PET cups.

We’re currently manufacturing cups all the way from 9-oz to 24-oz, which all feature the same universal lid. (SKU consolidation = solved.) If you’re interested in joining the next production run, shoot me an email at [email protected].

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

NAME THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Roy Rogers

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