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Boston Raising Cane’s faces eviction over chicken finger odor, lawsuit says
The chicken finger chain claims they're being extorted by their landlord over building and lease issues.
A restaurant known for its chicken fingers allegedly smells too much like chicken fingers, according to a lawsuit between Raising Cane’s and a Boston landlord.
The Louisiana-based chicken chain filed a lawsuit against 755 Boylston, LLC, the restaurant’s landlord at its Back Bay location, in the Suffolk Superior Court last month. Raising Cane’s alleged that they’re being forced to give up their right to be the exclusive chicken restaurant at the Back Bay location, terms that were agreed upon in a lease signed back in 2021.
The landlord wants to bring in a Panda Express next door despite the lease, and the plaintiff claimed that the defendant is using the threat of eviction to get their way by complaining that the restaurant “smells like chicken fingers.”
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It isn’t immediately clear when the landlord first lodged complaints against Raising Cane’s — the Back Bay location open since 2023 — over odors, but the lawsuit showed that the two parties were in communication over the issue for much of 2025.
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The restaurant claimed to have spent more than $200,000 on mitigating odor issues that included inspecting exhaust systems, sealing window vents, paying for deep cleaning, and retaining multiple consultants, including Sevan Consulting, who noted that the odor problem is actually a result of building issues outside of Raising Cane’s leased area.
The odor complaint arose around the same time the landlord turned the second floor into office space, the lawsuit alleged, and that the landlord has been “desperate to secure new tenants.”
“In reality, it appears that Defendant has come to the realization that its own build-out of the second-floor office space was poorly executed,” the lawsuit said.
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Also in this timeframe, the landlord has been engaged in conversations with Panda Express to take over the space that formerly housed a Starbucks, next door to Raising Cane’s. The plaintiff found out about the landlord’s letter of intent with Panda Express in August of last year.
Panda Express, an American Chinese fast food chain, doesn’t focus on chicken dishes in the way that Raising Cane’s does, but the lawsuit stated that Panda Express’ business of the “cooking, serving, and selling of de-boned chicken” goes against the lease with Raising Cane’s.
By Jan. 8 of this year, the team at Raising Cane’s told the landlord they would no longer yield to “unreasonable demands” over the odor issue. A week later, the landlord sent the restaurant an eviction notice.
Raising Cane’s is suing for a declaratory judgement that states Raising Cane’s is not in breach of its lease, that the smell of chicken fingers is not an “offensive odor,” and that the restaurant has engaged in reasonable efforts to address odor issues. The restaurant also seeks monetary damages.
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Boston.com reached out to Heath Properties, the company name associated with 755 Boylston, LLC, for a statement, and received a “no comment” response.
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