Acai bowls soon to be served in Butler’s Esports Park. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
MOLLY DURM | STAFF REPORTER | mdurm@butler.edu
Chimba Bowls, an açaí-bowl restaurant founded by junior software engineering major Felipe Reyes, is set to open in Butler’s Esports Park. This new dining option will be completely student-run and will accept Flex Dollars.
Chimba Bowls plans to officially open for business on April 13. The restaurant will be open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Recognizing a lack of healthy food options on campus and limited meal plan choices, Reyes developed a business idea to address the need for more variety. He shared what inspired him to turn his idea into a reality.
“It’s a solution to a campus problem,” Reyes said. “I thought there were not enough healthy alternatives, and not enough places where I could spend my Flex Dollars. When I realized I was not the only person with that problem, I thought maybe we could figure out a solution.”
Katie Kult, a senior entrepreneurship and innovation and French double major, is looking forward to the new dining option.
Kult anticipates it will bring a refreshing change to the campus food scene.
“I’m excited to have a very different dining option compared to what’s out there,” Kult said. “I know this year they changed a lot of the dining hours and that threw people off, so I think having an option that’s open during those off hours, especially on weekends, will be a great addition to campus.”
Reyes not only created Chimba Bowls to be a healthy food alternative and contribute to a variety of campus dining options, but also to supply more on-campus job opportunities for students.
“A big part for me when starting the business was also being able to provide more student jobs,” Reyes said. “Every single employee — from founder to manager to cashier — it’s all going to be just students.”
Student workers will be paid an hourly rate, but standing out from other campus jobs, Reyes plans to implement a profit-sharing model where a portion of profits will be split into bonuses for the employees at the end of the semester. Reyes also hopes to eventually fund internship positions to involve students in different aspects of the company.
Reyes was able to evolve his idea with support from Butler’s Innovation Lab — a resource within the Lacy School of Business that helps turn student concepts into reality.
Director of Butler Entrepreneurship Nick Smarrelli served as a mentor to Reyes throughout the business development process.
Smarrelli highlighted the key aspects of Chimba Bowls that convinced him it had strong potential for success.
“We had a good problem to be solved, and we had a founder that had the energy and the vision to help solve that problem,” Smarrelli said. “So if you have those two things, that makes it an easy choice to say, ‘This is somebody that I want to put resources towards and put my name next to.’”
While Reyes collaborated with Bon Appétit to direct him to quality vendors and provide insight on Butler dining, Chimba Bowls operates independently from the company. With full control over his business, Reyes plans to rely on student feedback to help Chimba Bowls reach its full potential.
“I think the benefit of me being a student founder is that I don’t know it all, but I know a good amount of things that students want,” Reyes said. “Because we’re student-founded, we’re going to have a good amount of decision-making over it. We can make things happen with no need for many filters. We want to represent students creating solutions for students, and also student power to make sure we run it and it’s successful.”
With opening day on the horizon, Reyes outlined both short-term and long-term goals for Chimba Bowls, emphasizing his priority to achieve excellence on Butler’s campus.
“Right now, all my energy is set at Butler,” Reyes said. “I want to make sure we have an excellent product and an excellent place here first, because I’m solving the Butler problem first. It’s a problem where I know the place, I’m informed, I know the market, I know the people. But, I’m not opposed to growing it in the long term.”
