A Raising Cane’s restaurant in Boston is taking its landlord to court over alleged fowl play, claiming its Back Bay location faced wrongful eviction threats over the “smell of chicken fingers” in what the restaurant says is really a larger lease dispute. In the complaint, Raising Cane’s alleges that the eviction threat is part of an extortion scheme, using complaints about chicken smells to pressure the restaurant into giving up its exclusive operating rights. The Louisiana‑based restaurant says landlord 755 Boylston LLC served a notice of termination and notice to quit in January, claiming the restaurant’s cooking odors — particularly the scent of its signature chicken fingers — constituted “offensive and/or nuisance odors.” Raising Cane’s argues that the smell was never defined as a lease violation and that it has worked extensively to mitigate odors. The lease, signed in 2021 and later amended, allows Raising Cane’s to prepare and sell its fried chicken meals, but requires reasonable efforts to minimize smells. The restaurant says it has spent more than $200,000 on exhaust system inspections, charcoal odor‑control filters and sealing vents in an effort to comply. A consultant found that odors were exacerbated by negative air pressure drawing air into an office space above the restaurant and that the landlord's own build-out of the second-floor office space was poorly executed.
