New Local Favorites

In all of our driving around and exploring these past months, there are a few places that have stayed on the mental back burner. Every time we would pass by and see the unfamiliar sign, we (usually I) would say "One day we've gotta check out that place."

We finally visited two such places recently, which in the end far exceeded our expectations.

The first is a cinema called Xscape Theatres. Based out of Indiana, this local chain of movie theaters excels by elevating and perfecting the movie-going experience. It feels like a frequent cinema-goer compiled a list over the years of things that irked him and things that could be better. Then he went and built this dream theater for others to enjoy.

All of the theaters at Xscape are equipped with serious stadium seating and leather electric recliners. It is unbelievably awesome. Even leaning back with our feet up, people could still pass by to get to their seats, and the heads in front of you don't even come close to obstructing your view of that big screen. We saw Dr. Strange and it really was the perfect movie-going experience. Unbelievably comfortable, perfectly crisp and power sound with booming bass but not painfully loud, a large and sharp image that makes you feel like you're really a bystander to whatever's happening in the movie.

Afterwards we climbed to the top of the theater to try and take it all in better. They really thought of all of the details. Like at the front edge of the floor on each aisle, just behind the chairs in the row ahead, there are small plastic barriers to prevent popcorn, candy and trash from falling down to the level below.

The drink stations are at a self-service bar, not behind a counter. Because if you pay five bucks for a drink, you really do deserve free refills.

We caught the matinee show, which means we paid $6.50 each for our favorite movie theater experience ever. If it had the sweet-but-not-too-sweet caramel popcorn like Korea, it really would be perfect.

Next up, our lunch destination. Driving all around Louisville and through Frankfort and Lexington, we've spotted numerous locations this fast food restaurant chain - Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers. Now we've seen many unfamiliar fast food signs since moving here that we have yet to try - Rally's, Moby Dick, Frisch's Big Boy. But this one has felt especially tantalizing to us because of its specialty, as stated so proudly on its signs: chicken fingers.

A brief (and maybe embarrassing) history of our fried chicken love: both the South and South Korea are legendary for their cooking and consumption of the stuff - with South Korea having more fried chicken restaurants than the entire world has McDonald's restaurants, and the South being the birthplace of every fried chicken restaurant chain worth mentioning - KFC, Bojangles', Church's, Chickfila, Zaxby's and now Raising Cane's. The past few years I've chosen Zaxby's as the destination for my family birthday dinner. The day little Emmett was born, the Moaks went through the Chick-fil-a drive-thru twice. I better stop now.

And so with "chicken fingers" in the title, it was inevitable that sooner or later we would have to try it. Now I'm just ashamed that we waited so long.

Raising Cane's has actually been around for a while. It was founded in 1996 by a LSU alum who didn't listen to the haters who told him that the fried chicken business was already too crowded. In the past 20 years, more and more stores have been popping up around the South and creeping ever outward. Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio and Missouri all have handfuls of Cane's. There are even four restaurants in South Carolina!

The restaurant menu is extremely specialized - chicken fingers, fries, toast and coleslaw. And that really is it. They make these few things so well, and don't have to provide anything extra to keep people coming. No salads, no wraps, just fried golden goodness.

Two bites in, I told Isaac, "You know, I think this is better than Zaxby's." It's an obvious comparison for the seasoned fried chicken lover, being the other major chain who is known for chicken fingers, texas toast and crinkle fries. The more we ate, the more we both realized this truth to be indisputable.

Just like the Xscape movie theater, we found this restaurant to be the ultimate form of its category. Each location we have visited is sparkling clean with great service and perfectly delicious food. Their chicken tenders have a lightly crunchy batter and are melt-in-your-mouth juicy inside. The fries are golden goodness, the bread crispy puffiness, the tea fresh (never gritty) and sweet that you have to mix in unsweet with it.

And just in case we weren't sold already, the restaurant is named after it's founder's best friend - a yellow lab named Cane. Labrador pictures decorate each restaurant, along with whatever sports team is most popular among the locals.

They also have a rewards program that gives you a free meal for signing up and then lets you acquire points to earn more free food.

Maybe this is starting to sound like a commercial - but we just appreciate well-run establishments. Good product, good price, good service, efforts to gain customer loyalty - all things we seek out when choosing where to spend our money. Also we just get really excited about fried chicken.

We enjoyed Xscape and Raising Cane's so much, two weekends in a row now we visited this duo of entertainment and deliciousness.

I find it inspiring that even these days, when there are so many big businesses and tough competition, if you do something and do it very well, you can still succeed. Movie theaters and fried chicken are both industries dominated by a few big name chains in most areas. Yet these two businesses have managed to break through and establish themselves in one town after another. They already have our loyalty and we look forward to sharing them with whoever else makes it up this way.