Statesboro City Council approved a setback variance Tuesday evening to allow a Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant – the first in this area – to be built on the lot currently occupied by the former Applebee’s on Highway 80 East.
Cody Rogers of EMC Engineering Services, who was listed as representative in making the request on behalf of Raising Cane’s Restaurants LLC, didn’t say much when he appeared before the mayor and council. But one thing he did say may clear up confusion among people who – commenting on an earlier online version of this story but apparently missing a key point mentioned in its second paragraph – assumed that Raising Cane’s would somehow reuse the Applebee’s building.
“The Applebee’s will be completely demolished,” Rogers said, noting that the developer intends to build “a brand-new building.”
The city’s appointed Planning Commission, by a 6-0 vote Sept. 2, had recommended approval of the variance, Planning and Development Director Justin Williams affirmed. But as with other zoning variances, the elected City Council had the final say.
The site’s existing zoning classification is MX, or mixed use, and of course this area of Northside Drive East, or U.S. Highway 80 East, is already heavily commercially developed. So, if it were just a question of one restaurant replacing another, no zoning decision would have been needed.
As the “history” segment of the city staff report notes: “The property and the surrounding area were developed into commercial/retail spaces in the late 1990s. It has been a restaurant since about 1998.”
Double drive-thru
But as stated in the next paragraph of the report, a variance had to be requested because MX zoning ordinarily requires a maximum 25-foot building setback.
The MX, “mixed use,” zoning classification is a relatively new one, created with the Unified Development Code that consultants and city planning staff drafted and the council enacted two years ago, in September 2023. As Williams noted during his presentation Tuesday, the original version of the MX zoning rules allowed only a 10-foot setback, but this was soon amended to 25 feet for most projects.
A 75-foot setback
However, the proposed Raising Cane’s project calls “for a new building, with a 75-foot building setback, to allow vehicle queuing and a double drive thru on site,” as stated in the the “request” section of the staff report.
In fact, the overhead-view site sketch outlines two drive-thru lanes filled with cars passing between the suggested new Raising Cane’s building and the property line that runs alongside Ole Times Country Buffet. Currently, there’s hardly room for an alley between the former Applebee’s building and Ole Times, let alone two rows of cars, ordering kiosks and additional space.
But within the sketch of the 1.53-acre lot, the square representing the proposed new building is placed closer to the corner of Bernard Lane and the highway. The square is labeled with the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers logo and a building area of 2,683 square feet. In the Bulloch County Board of Tax Assessors’ public database, the existing former Applebee’s building is listed as a 4,321-square-foot commercial improvement.
So, the Raising Cane’s proposal calls for a smaller building but dedicates a larger portion of the lot to space for vehicles. This includes the parking lot, with a few mobile-order pickup spaces and handicapped spaces closer to the building, in addition to the double drive-thru drawn with two corner turns to pass around three sides of the building.
City Council approved the variance by a 4-0 vote with one member, Ginny Hendley, absent.
Raising a billionaire
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers was founded in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey. Only Graves is mentioned on the corporate website as still involved with the company. The business magazine Forbes this year listed Graves 46th among the Forbes 400 richest Americans and as the wealthiest resident of Louisiana, with an estimated $17.2 billion “net worth.”
The brief profile at www.forbes.com/profile/todd-graves/ also reports that Raising Cane’s has about 900 locations in 42 states.
The Statesboro Herald’s call last week to a Raising Cane’s “customer support staff” number, requesting information about a new location in Statesboro, was put through to the voicemail of someone said to be involved with “real estate for Georgia” but has not resulted in a reply.
Applebee’s to Cosmic Que
Statesboro’s only Applebee’s restaurant closed in early April 2017 after about 18 years in business.
Cosmic Que LLC purchased the property at 24087 Hwy. 80 East, including the 1.53 acres as well as the building, from Apple of Statesboro LLC for $1.6 million on May 15, 2023, according to the Board of Assessors’ page.
The 2025 tax valuation was $1.79 million, with the land alone appraised by the county at $1.21 million, or about $790,000 an acre.
Cosmic Que LLC is based in Statesboro with Jason T. Franklin, one of the partners of the Bull and Barrel restaurant, as its registered agent. They launched Cosmic Cowboy Barbecue, which operated in a food trailer on the former Applebee’s parking lot from spring 2024 until early summer 2025.
But the food trailer is gone now, and messages at the Cosmic Cowboy phone number and Instagram page recently stated that the business is “currently closed as we search for a new restaurant space.”