Drive-through eatery specializing in chicken fingers wants to come to Loudon Road

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

Published: 08-08-2024 11:43 AM

Modified: 08-08-2024 2:26 PM


A fast-food restaurant that specializes in chicken fingers served via drive-through wants to come to Concord, next to the Aldi supermarket on Loudon Road.

Raising Cane’s, founded in 1996 in Louisiana, has about 750 restaurants around the country. It is expanding in New England, with several sites open around Boston. Its first Granite State site has been approved for Manchester.

The chain began by selling nothing but chicken fingers, which constitute the bulk of its menu.

As presented Thursday to the Zoning Board, the Raising Cane’s would be built in the parking lot of the Aldi, across Loudon Road from the closed Regal Theater. It would be 3,300 square feet with a 500-square-foot patio, and have dual drive-through portals.

At least three quarters of the restaurant’s business comes via drive-through, according to the presentation.

The proposal received a variance from the zoning board to have 17 fewer parking spaces than required because of the dependence on drive-through business.  It still needs a conditional use permit from the city planning board for the double drive-through, rather than a single drive-through previously approved.

The property is owned by developer Rick D’Amante, who told the zoning board that the site has been subdivided for a third small retail building, although no tenant for the third site is currently planned.

The site is across Loudon Road from the proposed mixed-use development with some 600 apartments that would replace Steeplegate Mall and Regal Theater.

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