Todd Graves has a simple order at Raising Cane's: a Box Combo with no coleslaw, extra toast and extra sauce. The chain's founder said he does not like coleslaw and would rather swap it out whenever he can.

That detail is drawing attention now because Graves said it plainly in an Instagram interview with Joe Bonham, putting his own menu habit on the record at a time when Raising Cane's has spent 30 years keeping its lineup tight. He said, “I don't like coleslaw, man,” and added, “that's why you can trade it out!”

For Graves, the trade is more than a preference. He said, “Every once in a while, I get somebody that likes it, but I'm not crazy about coleslaw, so trade it out for toast.” That makes his go-to order more telling than a casual food choice: he is steering customers toward the same swap he makes himself.

Raising Cane's was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1996, and coleslaw was built into the menu as the vegetable-based side alongside chicken, toast and french fries. The choice fit the chain's southern roots, and the company has kept its menu unchanged as part of a broader promise of consistency.

That is the wrinkle in Graves' admission. He may dislike coleslaw, but the side is still there, and the chain has refused to add or remove items from its menu. Graves called adding more food options to the national menu “blasphemous” in a 2021 exclusive interview with Mashed, a line that helps explain why the disliked side dish remains in place even as the founder routinely passes on it.

So the immediate takeaway is not that coleslaw is going away. It is that Graves' own order puts a spotlight on one of Raising Cane's most unusual constants: a menu item its founder does not eat, but has shown no sign of removing.