View this email as a web page

Good morning, Minnesota! Apologies to La Jefa because this crusty old millennial just subscribed to Paramount+ and I'm gonna watch every Nicktoon holiday special I can get my hands on. 🎄 On to the news. 📢

Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Today I learned the first Raising Cane's in Minnesota opened in Apple Valley in 2007. That's per the latest dispatch from intern Leo Pomerenke, who did a deep dive into one of the most popular chain restaurants in the Twin Cities.

I've never made it to the original location, but I don't think I've ever visited the outpost on Lake Street in Minneapolis without running into a long line at the drive-thru. Good thing Raising Cane's simple menu — they make only chicken strips and serve them either on their own or on a bun — makes the service so speedy.

Here are four more things Pomerenke taught me about Raising Cane's this morning:

It takes about 150 seconds to make the average order

That's according to Gig McGrath, who oversees several Raising Cane's locations in Minnesota. What'd I tell ya? These folks are efficient.

It's a favorite among teens

Raising Cane's ranked as the fifth most popular restaurant chain in a 2023 survey of teenagers. It doesn't hurt that the company partners with influencers to perform pop-up "shifts" at its locations and who then post photos and videos to social media.

Travis Kelce worked one of those shifts

The Kansas City tight end may be the most famous person to work a one-off shift at Raising Cane's. The chain also supports Kelce's Eighty-Seven and Running Foundation — Raising Cane's donated $100,000 to the foundation earlier this year. As we all know, Kelce is most famous for his three Super Bowl appearances with Kansas City in 2020, 2023 and 2024.

Raising Cane's has the third-highest average sales per location of any restaurant chain in the U.S.

Raising Cane's sits behind Chick-fil-A and Portillo's and beats out a particularly overrated California-based burger chain. (You'll never guess which one.)

Want to learn more about Raising Cane's? Read Pomerenke's full story at the link here.

Do you enjoy Essential Minnesota? Encourage your friends and family to sign up. You also can share it using the links below.

Meredith Deeds/For The Minnesota Star Tribune

How full is your social calendar right now? Cocktail parties, family gatherings, holiday shopping and wrapping up year-end tasks both at work and home can take a toll. And if you’re entertaining, add cleaning and menu planning to that list. We tapped our experts to help ease the burden, with appetizer ideas you can make ahead and festive beer pairings that complement whatever’s on your holiday table. (You’re on your own for cleaning.)

The Taste team is also busy wrapping up our year-end restaurant coverage, discussing, debating and finally celebrating the 2024 Restaurant of the Year. Sorry, you’ll have to wait until Sunday to learn who that is. What we can say is that it was a banner year for restaurants.

Reporter Sharyn Jackson did the final tally: More than 180 restaurants opened this year in the Twin Cities — so far — which is incredible. It’s been fun to revisit the year, and we’ll be sharing our observations in the coming weeks. Meantime, go ahead and try a new (or new-to-you) restaurant. There are plenty.

--Nicole Hvidsten, Taste editor

@governorwalz via Bluesky

My fellow Minnesotans: We had the opportunity to do the funniest thing imaginable this week and we blew it.

Gov. Tim Walz officially joined Bluesky on Tuesday, and his first post was a riff on the tried-and-true inaugural screed, "Is this thing on?" He asked if there were any Minnesotans on the service, and we could have ignored him and made him really wonder whether any of us were posting on the Twitter alternative. Then, we could have coordinated a campaign to virtually shout "gotcha!" and revealed our presence days, maybe even weeks, later.

Y'all have zero chill.

Eder Campuzano, reporter

David Taintor, editor