Layne's Chicken Fingers held its grand opening at Texas State University on September 1, giving the College Station-born chicken chain a second San Marcos location inside The Yard at Jones food hall on campus. The restaurant serves up its signature tenders alongside crinkle-cut fries, Texas toast and a secret sauce that has built the brand's cult following since founder Mike Layne opened the original Layne's restaurant in College Station back in 1994.
The new campus store joins Layne's growing footprint just as Texas State's enrollment keeps climbing, according to MySA, which reported the opening in a piece by reporter Nicholas Hernandez. The university surpassed 40,000 students enrolled and reached 41,734 students as of March 2026, an 11% increase from the previous spring that added 4,135 students to campus, per the outlet's report. Texas State Hospitality shared photos from the grand opening on Instagram and said it looks forward to serving the university community throughout the semester.
A Menu Built Around Tenders, Sandwiches and Sides
Layne's menu centers on chicken fingers served in three-, four- and five-finger meal combinations, each paired with crinkle-cut fries, Texas toast and a 22-ounce drink. The chain also offers chicken sandwiches and club sandwiches for customers looking beyond the tenders, keeping its lineup narrow and focused in the same fast-casual mold that has defined the segment for three decades.
That mold traces back to a rivalry baked into the brand's DNA. Layne's was founded in College Station, Texas, in 1994 near Texas A&M University, predating its primary national rival, Raising Cane's, which opened two years later near LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both chains built their early identities around limited menus centered on chicken tenders and signature house sauces, a formula that has since scaled into a broader battle for college-town customers across the country.
From One Restaurant to a Fast-Growing Franchise
Layne's remained a single-location College Station restaurant for over two decades until CEO Garrett Reed and business partner Matthew O'Reilly acquired the chain in 2017 to launch franchising operations, a shift that had never happened in the brand's history before that deal. The transformation has been rapid: Layne's expanded to more than 50 active restaurants across nine states by July 2026, up from 40 locations at the end of 2025 and just 10 in 2023. Corporate leadership has set a target of reaching 300 operating restaurants nationwide by 2030, with more than 375 additional units already committed in development pipelines.
Much of that growth is landing close to home. Franchise group C5 Restaurants expanded its development agreement with Layne's in June 2026 to bring more than 55 total locations across South and West Texas, including San Antonio, and into Arkansas. Just up Interstate 35, Hoodline previously reported that Layne's plans on Loop 337 call for a $1.1 million, 2,430-square-foot ground-up store in New Braunfels, with construction scheduled between July and November 2026.
A Campus Dining Overhaul Sets the Stage
The Texas State opening lands amid a university-wide hospitality overhaul. Aramark Collegiate Hospitality assumed campus dining operations on June 1, 2026, under a 10-year contract that replaced Chartwells, which had run the university's food service for 28 years. Texas State's student body, spread across its San Marcos and Round Rock campuses, has grown to nearly 45,000 as the institution prepares for its move to the Pac-12 Conference, making its dining system one of Aramark's largest university partnerships in Texas.
The Yard at Jones food hall now gives students another option beyond established off-campus fast-food spots in San Marcos, though how Layne's performs against that entrenched local competition remains to be seen. Layne's expansion isn't stopping at the Texas border, either: the chain signed a 12-unit franchise deal in August 2026 to make its West Coast debut in California, targeting initial openings across Sacramento, Placer, Fresno and Monterey counties, a rollout Hoodline covered as the brand's California invasion plans took shape.
