Raising Cane’s is set to open this winter on Hillsborough Street, taking over the site of the former Umami Asian Bistro. The restaurant will aim to preserve the history of the former building while incorporating new architectural elements, such as a rooftop patio for patrons.

In an email statement provided to Technician, a Raising Cane’s representative said the location is on track to open in the first quarter of 2026 and would preserve the signature marquee sign of the former restaurant, as well as several architectural elements.

“The design will showcase Cane’s culture and story, while thoughtfully incorporating touches that reflect the local community,” the statement reads.

Tim Peeler, Communication Strategist for NC State, said the building has held numerous tenants since its construction in 1921. Initially, the building began as a retail establishment before evolving into a movie theater. 

“So from 1941 until 1970, it showed second-run movies basically,” Peeler said. “And then in 1970, it went from showing sort of art house pictures to a combination of foreign art films in the evening and adult movies in the afternoons.”

The theater, initially called The Varsity before a name change to Studio One, closed in 1984. Peeler said the venue then transformed into a McDonald’s with a unique design for the fast food chain’s 30th anniversary, featuring a 1950s retro-style look, an advanced antique Jukebox and stainless steel features with a distinct menu.

“It had two, 7-foot-long movie screens that could be hooked into cable television. It’s one of the first places in and around Raleigh, or at least in and around NC State, where you could actually go and watch cable television at a public venue,” Peeler said. “I remember that students gathered there to watch the Challenger explosion and the Branch Davidian raid in Texas. So it’s kind of a place where people would go when there are big news events going on.”

The McDonald’s shut down in 1996 and sat vacant until 2002, Peeler said. Over the next two decades, the space housed a university textbook store followed by numerous restaurants, including Umami Asian Bistro, before sitting empty until Raising Cane’s sought to fill the spot.

Peeler pointed to issues with the placement on Hillsborough Street as a reason for continuous restaurant and store closures.

“It’s one of those places that you think would be in a great location for some sort of restaurant or retail, but as far as the McDonald’s goes, there was no drive-through, it was bad parking, no place for people to go,” Peeler said.

Businesses have often had trouble with profitability and remaining on Hillsborough Street for extended periods of time, Peeler said, pointing to Mitch’s Tavern as a prominent exception. However, Peeler pointed to changes made to Hillsborough Street over the past several years as reasons a business like Cane’s may not have as much trouble succeeding  — such as the inclusion of roundabouts to mitigate traffic and an increasing population of student housing.

“If you put a high-end restaurant there, you’re attracting people from off-campus. If you put a lesser, sort of a chain restaurant, you can attract students from campus,” Peeler said. “Now that there’s a lot more housing, apartments, non-residence halls that people live in … you might be able to better serve a chain restaurant.”

Jeff Murison, President and CEO of the Hillsborough Street Community Service Corporation, also known as Live It Up! Hillsborough Street, said the area has rapidly changed over the past several years, including additional housing in the area

“When we started 15 years ago, the city was just finishing up the first phase of the streetscape improvement. So that added parking, that added wider sidewalks, that slowed traffic, that made it a much safer pedestrian experience,” Murison said. “We now have multiple mixed-use market-rate residential properties, where folks of all ages are living year-round.”

Murison added that this increased population of housing helps to make businesses on the street more resilient outside of the academic year.

“It’s a major drop-off, it’s certainly slower in the summer, but Raleigh is an exceptionally vibrant community. Hillsborough Street’s a major corridor to get access to downtown, so it’s not as much impacted by the academic cycles in other communities,” Murison said. “1000s more students living right on our corridor, and 1000s more coming in the future. That just makes for a very attractive market.”

In the future, Murison hopes to increase accessibility further down Hillsborough Street for pedestrians as the third phase of the Hillsborough Street streetscape improvements gets underway.

“Not just all the way to the highway, but really connecting all the way out to the fairgrounds and finishing that connection all the way to the emerging hospitality district at the Lenovo Center and making that a safe pedestrian experience,” Murison said.

Murison said he’s heard that the Raising Cane’s in Chapel Hill has been highly successful, and he looks forward to its inclusion on Hillsborough Street.

“Having an establishment anchored there that is a destination, in kind of the middle of the block, that kind of thing is really good for surrounding businesses. It’s not ideal to have a vacant retail space,” Murison said.