CHICKEN SCRATCH

NO ONE WOULD FINANCE TODD GRAVES' IDEA FOR A RESTAURANT SERVING ONLY CHICKEN FINGERS. SO HE WORKED AS A BOILERMAKER AND SALMON FISHER TO FUND IT HIMSELF. NOW RAISING CANE'S IS ONE OF AMERICA'S HOTTEST FAST-FOOD CHAINS AND GRAVES IS THE COUNTRY'S RICHEST RESTAURATEUR, WORTH $22 BILLION.

-  CHASE PETERSON-WITHORN

TODD GRAVES is in tour-guide mode. He begins at a small restaurant a block from Louisiana State University. The summer sun is baking the blacktop as Graves marches through the drive-thru, heading for the menu board he personally erected 29 years ago. “I built this structure,” he says, naming the local lumberyard that sold him the wood. He points out the 20-foot mural he had painted on the side of the building. He showcases the neon “chicken fingers” light he designed at a Baton Rouge sign shop.

Inside the cramped eatery, we make stops at the portrait of his dog he hung on the wall, the disco ball he installed and the spot he carved his name into a table. “Let me show you the back,” he says, speeding through the kitchen to a closet-sized office where he built himself a small desk to keep the books. “I spent so much time in here counting the tills.”

Near the front door, a twentysomething customer pulls Graves aside to pitch an idea for a drive-thru dog treat chain. Graves suggests the man start smaller, with a trailer or maybe an event booth—exactly the sort of wise, cautious advice he would have flatly ignored at that age.

At 22, Todd Graves was 100% certain a spot serving only chicken fingers would be a hit with LSU students, even if the banks thought he was a dumb kid with a bad idea. He had a childish menu, no management experience, no money. “When you're an entrepreneur and you believe in something to your core, you use every no and every 'it's not going to work' as fuel,” he says, now a youthful 53 with a head of graying dark brown hair and a Louisiana bayou drawl. “It’s the best thing that can happen to you.”