Woodrow Wilson High School Class of 2025 graduate Zane Lopez loves Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. On May 20, the restaurant threw some love back at Zane with a celebration in his honor. Photo courtesy of Raising Cane’s.
The name “Zane” isn’t super common these days, but a Woodrow Wilson High School Class of 2025 graduate has used his moniker to its full potential.
WWHS seniors have the chance to get a parking spot at the school for a year and can paint it in a style of their choice. When brainstorming ideas of what he wanted his parking spot to look like, Zane Lopez decided on a design that played off his name and his favorite fast food restaurant.
“We didn’t really have any ideas, and so my sister was kind of just helping me jot down some ideas,” Zane said. “And we were kind of thinking of things that rhyme with my name, and my first thought was food. I just came across that my name rhymed with Cane’s.”
Once said and done, Zane’s spot read, “Raising Zane’s,” in the style of the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers logo. Zane’s sister, Malena, designed the parking spot, and the whole family came out to help paint it.
Zane Lopez and his family came together to create his parking spot at Woodrow Wilson High School this school year. Photo by Britt Lopez.
“It turned out pretty good; it was definitely liked,” Zane said. “I saw it on a Facebook page, like one of the moms in the Lakewood area got an aerial view of all the spots. And mine was the one that kind of stood out, and people were talking about it online.”
Zane started eating Raising Cane’s chicken when he was a young child, and like many of us experiencing a kind of fast food for the first time, he was hooked.
“When he was about 8 years old, we went to a birthday party (for) a friend, and they had these Cane’s strips, but the mom had cut them into small pieces,” Zane’s mother, Britt Lopez, said. “I remember he ate them, and he was like, ‘What is this? This is so good.’ I had asked the mom what this was from, and that’s kind of when Cane’s sort of first moved into the area.”
After trying it once, Zane wanted Raising Cane’s every day, and Britt had to set a limit. So she told him that he could only have Cane’s once a week, and the regular pilgrimage became known as “Zane’s Weekly Cane’s.”
Little did Britt know, Zane was also getting his dad to buy him Cane’s every week as well.
“At that time, he was switching houses between his dad and I because we’ve been divorced basically since he was a toddler,” Britt said. “So we worked it out every week that one of the days he was with me, we would have Cane’s. Well, unbeknownst to me, he also got this deal done with his dad, so he was having Cane’s twice a week. He didn’t tell either of his parents, so it was Zane’s Weekly Cane’s, but it was twice a week. He’s been a big Cane’s fan literally since it first came to Dallas.”
Zane’s patronage of Raising Cane’s continued as he became a teenager.
“I go there a lot,” he said.
Britt reached out to Raising Cane’s, among other restaurants, about feeding Zane’s varsity baseball teammates before games during the season. When she first met the manager at Raising Cane’s in Lakewood, Britt mentioned how much Zane loves Cane’s. From their interactions, Raising Cane’s offered to fundraise for Woodrow Wilson High School’s baseball program and supplied the team and fans with swag. The news about Zane’s love of Cane’s traveled to the fast food business’ marketing team, which decided to do something special for him for graduation.
Days before graduation, Zane thought he was going to Raising Cane’s for some sort of photoshoot, but instead, he was surprised by the staff with a celebration in his honor. The restaurant chain gave him a gift basket full of Raising Cane’s swag, including a painted graduation cap, and had his name on the marquee.
Zane Lopez was gifted a custom Raising Cane’s graduation cap among other goodies. Photo courtesy of Raising Cane’s.
“I had no clue about it,” Zane said after the event. “I thought it was a photo shoot, and then I just ended up walking in, and it was like a whole surprise event. Everything was set up, and people were clapping, and it got me by surprise.”
Britt had known that Raising Cane’s wanted to celebrate Zane since February and was tasked with transporting him to the event. But even she didn’t realize how much was being planned.
“I didn’t know they were doing this whole big thing either, though,” Britt said. “That was way more than I thought they were going to do.”
After graduation, Zane will head west to Cowtown’s Texas Christian University where he plans to study finance at the Neeley School of Business. He’s not sure what career he wants to pursue, but he has time to figure that out.
By the way, Zane’s go-to Cane’s order is The Box Combo, which comes with four chicken fingers, fries, Cane’s Sauce, Texas toast, coleslaw and a drink, according to the Raising Cane’s menu online. He customizes this order by nixing the coleslaw, asking for extra sauce, opting for a Dr. Pepper to drink and, importantly, ordering extra “BOB” (butter on both sides of the bread) toast. Zane said the BOB toast is crispier, and it’s an off-menu item that you need to ask for to get. So if you didn’t know about that before, now you know. Thanks, Zane!
Zane Lopez takes a picture with his parents at Raising Cane’s. Photo courtesy of Raising Cane’s.
