Todd Graves, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded Raising Cane’s, the fastest-growing chicken chain in the country, couldn’t believe what he had been asked before Super Bowl LIX.
The city of New Orleans, where he was born, asked him to be parade king on the day before the Super Bowl at Caesars Superdome.
“I thought it was a great honor, but when they asked me to do it, at first, I was like, ‘Get one of the Mannings. Get somebody famous,'” he told Fox Business Digital at the Louisiana Legacy Gala Wednesday night.
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Graves’ entrepreneurial journey was rooted in Louisiana. “The Mothership,” his first Raising Cane’s storefront, was opened in August 1996 near the LSU campus. Years later, Raising Cane’s employs over 50,000 and operates in 33 states.
And if you ask Graves, he’ll tell you Cane’s is just getting started.
But seeing the commitment to his community in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the entire state of Louisiana led to him being named parade king.
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Graves may not have gotten why they wanted him to be up on that king float, but then it clicked.
“They said, ‘We really want to hit on the side of business. You’ve been a business success story here.’ Then, it made sense to me, right? It was like, ‘OK, [New Orleans] is a great place to do business,'” Graves said.
“I grew my business here. I grew my family here, and we have a multibillion-dollar enterprise, and we’re just getting warmed up. We’re worldwide now and growing everywhere. It’s some of that, the business component of it. I want people to watch that parade and just watch it on TV and say, ‘You know what? I haven’t been back to New Orleans with my company conferences in 10 years.’ We need that to come back up. So, representing that, I think, is an honor.”
The Super Bowl is a hub not just for entertainment and football every year, but for business as well. Every big name brand is represented in some capacity, whether it’s having athletes showcasing their products and name on Radio Row or throwing parties throughout the city.
And New Orleans is the perfect place to have a party.
But helping the community, especially one with such a rich history, is what Graves was a part of on Wednesday night at the Louisiana Legacy Gala, which honored one of football’s greatest, the Mannings.
It was announced that Children’s Hospital New Orleans would be renamed Manning Family Children’s in tribute to the family’s longstanding commitment to serving children in the community.
And it was announced that Graves donated $1 million to Walker’s Imaginarium, which will be a first-of-its-kind interactive children’s museum within the hospital named after Walker Beery, who fought terminal brain cancer before his death.
Graves called Archie Manning his idol and someone he always wanted to emulate in the community and spoke about the hospital’s mission.
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“They gave great care for 600,000 kids this year, and they don’t stop at that,” Graves said. “They keep building every year, taking care of more and more children regardless of whether you can afford it or not. For us, and for me living here in the states and one day, God willing, I’m going to have grandkids and great-grandkids, having this world-class care in our backyard is invaluable.”
Graves and former New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister, who is on the hospital’s board, discussed how the $1 million donation originated.
It was at an arm wrestling competition with Eli Manning, the two-time Super Bowl MVP with the New York Giants, at Rao’s in New York City. Manning eventually beat Graves, and as a man of his word, the donation came in.
Lou Fragoso, president and CEO of Manning Family Children’s, explained how people like Graves represent what is so important about New Orleans.
“We can’t do the work that we do without the support of the community and support of people like Todd and Raising Cane’s. For seven years, we’ve served every child, every time [saying] yes to a child regardless of their ability to afford pay.
“That is our mission, but we can’t do it without the support of the community and the things that we’re doing there and what we’ve built over the last 70 years – the medical and surgical side – and then the things we’re doing out in the community. That’s a game changer.
“It makes me feel privileged to do it,” Graves said. “I work hard at what we do, and the great people in serving great chicken finger meals every day. With that, we’ve done well, and we make income. It’s a privilege to take some of the money that you make and give back to great organizations like Lou leads here. It’s so prideful.”
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