TV • PAGE 21
THE BULLETIN • APRIL 15 - 21, 2021
tastytv
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Philanthropist comes to the aid of pandemic-
stricken eateries on ‘Restaurant Recovery’
Todd Graves is a big believer in the American
dream.
As founder and CEO of Raising Cane’s Chicken
Fingers, he’s built a $2 billion business with more
than 530 restaurants and 35,000 employees across the
United States and more than reaped the rewards of
entrepreneurship. So when the pandemic struck and
he watched family-owned and -operated restaurants
struggle and fail, he knew he had to help. And thus
“Restaurant Recovery” was born.
Currently streaming on discovery+, the 10-episode
series follows Graves and his Raising Cane team as
they work directly with owners struggling to hang on,
offering creative ideas and common sense renovations
designed to maximize resources, bring revenues back
up to their previous levels and keep these eateries in
business.
“They couldn’t prepare for this ...,” Graves says
of the restaurateurs, “You make small margins on
large volumes in restaurants. You just don’t make
a ton of money off of them and you couldn’t save
enough money. It’s just one of these things and all
of a sudden your sales drop and you still have to pay
your rent and you still have to pay your utilities and
you still have to pay your crew. You have all those
expenses going out and the dollars don’t come in. I
mean, these people’s businesses went down – I was
shocked at some who were 50 percent and then some
of them were 75 percent and it broke my heart what
was going on with the industry.”
Graves and his crew went to eateries in locales
such as Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Baton
Rouge, La., and offered up ideas such as converting
their service to outdoor dining, takeout and delivery
and even bottling and selling homemade creations
like barbecue sauce. He also made suggestions on
COVID-19 safety, gave direct financial relief to
owners drowning in debt and even enlisted celebrity
friends such as rappers Snoop Dogg and Nelly, actor
Rob Schneider, NFL star Archie Manning and NBA
great Shaquille O’Neal to give their support.
“I’d known Shaq from back in Baton Rouge days,”
Graves says of O’Neal, who attended college in that
city at Louisiana State University, “so I called him
and told him what we were doing and he said, ‘Man,
I’m happy to help.’ And with him, you can imagine
the spirits lifted when he walked in the room. And
Snoop and I are friends. He came out and he was
like, ‘These are family-owned restaurants. This is
what we should be helping.’ ...
“But this was the easiest ask I’d ever had for
anybody, celebrity contact or friend that I know,” he
continues. “They all jumped on it. I didn’t have one
person that didn’t want to help.”
Todd Graves