By Mylee Dubin and Taylor Johnson
In the land of Chick-fil-A, it feels almost blasphemous to be writing about our adventure to the Raising Cane’s in Woodstock, Georgia. Sadly, there are only three Cane’s locations in our state. This restaurant has been wildly hyped up on social media via TikTok by creators filming mukbangs of them eating Cane’s.
It has always been a dream of ours to try Cane’s and see if it was worth the hype. When we learned one had been built 30 minutes away from us we had an extreme outburst. I (Taylor) got so excited, and I screamed so loud about it in newspaper class that Mr. Newman grew invested. He demanded (or maybe we convinced him) that we voyage to this restaurant and bring him some grub back to try (or maybe eat a delicious meal ourselves and try to bring him back some fries and sauce).
Mylee and I zoomed to Mr. Howell to get permission to leave school during lunch to do some newspaper fieldwork by eating Cane’s (rather than investigating pollution in the Chattahoochee or something insignificant like that). Mr. Howell and Ms. Gilmore approved our outing, praising the lord.
We can’t lie; that night we had dreams about the Cane’s that we were going to consume in less than 24 hours.
It was the morning of the day we were going to take our field trip to Cane’s. We were shaking with excitement all day. We had chapel that day and I found myself bowing my head and praying for some extra crispy chicken tenders that satisfied my hunger.
Finally, It was time to get our slips from Ms. Gilmore and make the pilgrimage. We had Olivia Janis whip us because neither Mylee nor I felt like we would get us there alive. On the car ride there we were listening to exciting music to get us pumped for our meal and distract us from the hunger we were feeling on this incredibly long and painful drive.
My eyes were shutting, wind was blowing in my hair, and all of a sudden the scent of some Cane’s chicken tenders filled the car. I shot up from my seat and broke my neck looking out the window to view the beautiful Cane’s restaurant. The parking lot was overflowing with hungry individuals. There was nowhere for Olivia to park.
We had to park across the street at McDonald’s (much more parking was available there…no offense to my guy Ronald). We then had a short workout to get to Cane’s. This was for the best considering all the calories we were about to consume.
As we neared the building, we were overwhelmed by the heavenly essence of the chicken fingers wafting to our nostrils, the crowd of Cane’s fans, and the fun and unique ambiance of the restaurant.
Of course, we had to stop in front of the building for a quick photo-op, but then it was time to enter the premises.
Upon walking in, I felt like I was in a club. There were 6 disco balls on the ceiling, music playing, and spunky decor. Taylor and I were ready to party.
Despite the overcrowded parking lot and the abundant crowd filling up the tables, there were no lines at the cashiers. I was unprepared. I made Olivia and Taylor go in front of me so that I could examine my options in peace. After much deliberate consideration, I ultimately decided on the Box Combo, a meal of 4 luscious tenders, french fries, a cup of coleslaw, and a thick piece of that signature Cane’s toast along with a regular-sized lemonade.
The workers started calling names when someone’s meal was ready. “Steve!” said one of the workers. I grew quite scared because I thought my father was in the restaurant, and he would be upset to find that I was breaking his bank account.
Finally, I heard the glorious glorious cry of one of the workers: “Mylee!”. God bless, my hot meal was ready. I rushed to the counter to collect my feast, and immediately felt my mouth water as I laid eyes on the crispy golden plate with just a ration of vegetables (coleslaw). I yearned to taste the meal we had been so patiently waiting for, but alas I did the responsible thing (my mama raised me well) of waiting to taste the goodness until Taylor received her food as well.
I had ordered a kids meal because I had to purchase so many other meals for people so this was all I could afford. Despite my kids’ meal being the smallest amount of food out of everyone, it was the last to be called. I was growing quite angry and anxious. I watched Olivia and Mylee grab their astronomical meals. The aroma of the chicken and sauce filled the air.
All I had was a 30oz cup of Cane’s sauce. I was about to start drinking it with a straw.
“Taylor!” said a worker. My body rose to Moses. I ascended. I zoomed over to the counter, picked up my meal, and ricocheted back to the table.
It was time for us to have a taste test and see if our excursion was worth the effort.
Taylor propped up her phone to film the historical moment of our first taste of Cane’s. We set up our meals strategically so that we could taste everything together in a specific order.
We began with the golden crinkle-cut french fries. We had been anticipating this moment for quite some time. As we dipped our french fries into our colossal cup of Cane’s sauce, my hand simply could not stop shaking. Emotions were high.
We’re ladies, so after our french fry dip, we had to ‘cheers,’ of course, before we devoured the food. We took a bite and the camera captured our eyes widening and our lives changing. Taylor immediately said, “Uh-huh” as I just nodded my head in agreement. Don’t get me wrong, the fry itself was yummy, though it could have been a tad crispier for our liking. But the real star of this show is Cane’s sauce.
We started to mentally process this magical creation Cane’s had invented. “The pure salt of it!” exclaimed Taylor. “It is so salty, you can just tell how unhealthy it is.” That was in fact a compliment. I continued to break down the power of the beautiful sauce. “The marriage of the flavors really speaks to my soul,” I said. “I can’t say I’ve had a sauce quite like this one.” This is true. In my book, Cane’s sauce puts Chick-fil-A sauce to shame.
We then tried the part I was most excited for: the famous chicken tender. Truth be told, I don’t know what I was expecting, but when Taylor and I took our first bite of the tenders, I saw stars. I now know why there are not many Cane’s locations in Georgia, because if there were more, they would put Chick-fil-A and Zaxby’s out of business.
We hadn’t even dipped the fingers in the sauce yet, and we were already blown away. I don’t know how they do it, but those tenders were cooked to absolute perfection. Crispy, flaky, tender, and juicy.
We then ventured to dip them in the sauce. For a moment, to everyone’s surprise, Taylor and I were speechless. After a few moments of silence for all of the other chicken restaurants that simply cannot compare, I spoke. “I’ve never had a chicken tender that’s so moist,” while Taylor added in, “It’s like flaky.” At this point, Taylor was rocking back and forth from happiness. “Also, the chicken is seasoned,” said Taylor, “like I taste spice.”
I can’t lie. I was falling out of my seat consuming this food. The table went silent. That is how you know the food is astronomical. It was time for me to try the Texas toast. Unfortunately, the kids meal did not come with any. Olivia was so kind as to split her toast into a ration to give to me. I took a bite of this toast and was flabbergasted. My body had a reaction to this piece of bread. Far better than Zaxby’s in my opinion. This was my favorite part of the meal.
Since Taylor did not get the coleslaw, I took the liberty of giving the official taste test. The presentation was definitely messy, as there was coleslaw juice all over the cup, but we don’t judge books by their covers here at the OnLion. I struggled to break my fork out of the plastic, but once I did, I scooped up a bite.
In contrast to the other otherworldly food, it was normal coleslaw, “nothing major”, so it was not as magical as the other parts of the meal were. However, it was solid coleslaw nonetheless, and I would eat it again.
All of a sudden we checked the time and we realized we had to zoom back to Lovett in order to get to the last period on time. Olivia came in clutch and got us back to school right before the bell rang for class. Mylee and I took a fat nap in the car on the way back. The food got to us.
I had a free period so I was able to walk slowly back to school as Olivia and Mylee ran. I ordered extra food for some of my friends. As soon as I entered the school with Cane’s in my hand, everyone in the hall began to have outbursts. I was bombarded with people screaming and asking me to have a ration. Everyone at the Lovett school was hungry, it was like they had never been fed at home. Somehow, I gave Mr. Newman’s fries and sauce to Chase Elsas. Mr. Newman expressed his disappointment the next day that he did not even get a single french fry. “I taught Chase last year,” he said, “and as much as I liked him as a student and person, he wasn’t the one who approved of your traveling to a chicken restaurant during class.”
From this excursion, we have concluded that Cane’s is in fact worth the hype. As immensely caloric as our meals were, the delicious sustenance was enough to overshadow the calorie number. Unfortunately, neither Taylor nor I are strong enough to make the trek back to Woodstock for this treat, but should they open one closer to home, best believe: we’re all over it.
