How three students started a business that changed the way intoxicated UMW students snack.
By: Arlene Santiago and Kelsey Welsh
It was October 19, 2017, a Thursday. The dim streetlamps provided just enough light to illuminate the façade of the white brick building adorned with unsightly moss-colored awnings. A sign beside the main entrance bared the words “Brock’s Riverside Grill” in loopy script the same color as the awnings. A muffled tune came from the back deck of the bar where a live musician, hired to entertain the hoard of college students that regularly take advantage of Brock’s weekly “dollar beer night”, strummed the chords of some 80’s rock anthem. The three students who had been staring, impatiently, at the building for quite some time, tapped their feet to the beat in an attempt to distract themselves from the chilly air that they had not anticipated. The sweet smell of cinnamon emanated from the open trunk of the parked car they leaned against that doubled as their storefront. They were hopeful, yet nervous, as it had been the “grand opening” of their brand-new bun business, Blackout Buns. As the night went on, drunk students filed out of the bar in waves. Upon hearing any mention of food, the more ravenous students were eager to stumble their way to the open trunk to get a handful of what would soon become UMW’s newest craze.
There is a reason why so many fast food joints and 24-hour eateries are popping up all over the world; and it’s not just that McDonald’s fries are so addicting. A recent study published in the Nature Communications online journal suggests that alcohol activates hunger-promoting brain-cells known as Agrp neurons. The food industry capitalized on the rising popularity and normalization of the drinking culture and adjusted menus and hours of operation to cater to a booze-infused crowd looking for a late-night fix. Drunk food has become such a trend throughout the years. These range from the Philly cheesesteak to the New York Slice to chain businesses like McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Blackout Buns is quickly becoming UMW students’ answer to the question, “I’m drunk, and I’m hungry, so what can I find to eat?” It is interesting to acknowledge that drunk foods tend to be weird and greasy; cinnamon buns don’t seem like a natural addition to the drunk food scene. Plus, the Blackout Buns team was competing with local well-known big guys. Yet, students’ are eager to get their hands on those buns and sales are skyrocketing. We wanted to know why, and how, Blackout Buns has become the campus drunk food of choice.
The Blackout Buns founders met us at the University Center around 7:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night in mid-November to tell us about how the business came to be. (The three students responsible for Blackout Buns requested to remain anonymous so we will be referring to them as Sabrina, Elizabeth, and Douglas in order to honor their request.) It all began on Elizabeth’s birthday. “We were just talking about waiting on corners for drunk people [so that we could] give them food,” Sabrina recalled. “It was a total imaginative thing. We were like, ‘Oh my gosh let’s just, like, sell what? Buns, because ‘Warm Your Buns’.” Laughter erupted from our corner of the lobby. “It was getting cold out there,” Douglas added. The trio was inspired to transform their theoretical conversation into a real-life business. It took them about a month to prepare for the launch of Blackout Buns. The team met at a coffee shop for a brainstorm session to discuss their business model and come up with a name for the project. “We knew we were going to cater to the drunk crowd,” Douglas said. “We [had decided on]selling buns and people get blackout when they drink sometimes. So, it’s Blackout Buns.” Sabrina and Elizabeth scoured the internet in search of recipes and utilized their love of baking to develop prototypes until they finally settled on the perfect bun. They wanted to lure as many customers as possible so they prepared two types of buns for their first night: an original cinnamon bun to satisfy sugar cravings and a pizza bun for those who prefer savory over sweet. In the days leading up to the first sale, they created an Instagram account called blackoutbunz and followed a bunch of UMW students. They posted a couple of photos with humorous captions to accumulate some attention. Finally, launch day had arrived. The batch of buns were baked and loaded. It was go time.
Blackout Buns is just the latest in drunk snacking trends. After-midnight snacks are becoming more and more accessible to those who wish to indulge in a late-night bingefest. An article published in TIME magazine addressed a recent marketing strategy imposed by Jack-in-the-Box that is directed to draw in a crowd of “drinkers, stoners, and insomniacs”. The fast-food chain has introduced the Munchie Meal, a $6 combo meal offered to patrons after 9:00 p.m. The author of the TIME article, Brad Tuttle, wrote that the meal consists of “a regular (20 oz.) soda, ‘halfsie’ fries (mix of curly and regular fries), and a choice of mad-scientist, over-the-top entrees including the Exploding Cheesy Chicken Sandwich (made with mozzarella cheese sticks and ‘gooey white cheese sauce’), the Brunch Burger (a fried egg and hash brown patty on top of the meat, described as perfect ‘when it’s so late you don’t know whether it’s dinner or breakfast’), and another burger capped with a grilled cheese sandwich.” Munchie Meals were developed to appeal to a specific sect of millenials, particularly those of an “altered state of mind”. Jack-in-the-Box is not the only chain in the industry targeting inebriated young adults. Denny’s has been offering an “All Nighter” menu for years that features a wide selection of inexpensive fatty indulgences. Both White Castle and McDonalds have added an after-midnight breakfast options and Taco Bell is continuing to advertise their controversial “fourth meal” campaign, which has been linked to promoting obesity in American society. Fast-food chains have begun offering discounted menu items after designated times to encourage potential patrons to choose their food over that of their competitors.
Businesses that are opened past midnight do not typically cater to a person with a sweet tooth. Places like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, or even Domino’s do have desserts, but they do not focus mainly on sweet vs. savory food. These businesses are known to have the greasiest food possible, which is able to sober up a person. But what if someone wants sweet and savory? As Timal Brooks, a Walmart employee said, “Ihop is the place to go!” Without Blackout Buns, many would go to Ihop for the combination of the two. Not only do they have savory meals, but they also have the sweetest that you can find that is open 24/7. After interviewing a few students around campus, we were able to gather information of the types of food they would get when they are drunk. A huge amount stated they would go to Benny’s or any fast food place. Michelle Goff, a UMW student said, “I like eating Taco Bell even though I have a gluten allergy; drunk me doesn’t care.” The Blackout Buns team explained to us that they are currently experimenting with allergy friendly dough, giving those with dietary limitations the opportunity to engage in a snaking experience their bodies won’t punish them for once they sober up. We conducted a school-wide survey to find out the average UMW student’s drunk food of choice. The survey told us that most students choose to find a way to Cookout in Central park or opt for the shorter journey to the McDonald’s in College Heights. The greasy and fatty food would sober a person up in a matter of seconds. It’s a classic place for the drunk to go to when they’re in need of food, but is that the best alternative? Does everyone enjoy a Big Mac and fries when they want to make sure they don’t get a hangover in the morning? That’s a simple question to answer. There will always be those types of people who want the greasiest food they can get a hold of. That could be fast food, or simply a big slice of pizza. Others would rather make their own snack and make it as fattening or as healthy as they would want it to be. And some would choose to try new things and to support up and coming businesses like Blackout Buns.
Like any other business, Blackout Buns’ success wasn’t immediate. Most of the customers that first night were friends of the founders. Sabrina, Elizabeth, and Douglas tried to appeal to the masses, but unfortunately, either the Ubers were already en route or people weren’t quite drunk enough to rationalize buying food out of the trunk of a stranger’s car. The Blackout Buns team realized that standing and waiting was an ineffective business model. They were brand-new and unknown and trying to compete with popular drunk food powerhouses like Benny’s Pizza and Cookout. One of the founders decided to go into Brock’s and start talking about the delicious buns that were being sold outside. Momentum picked up but only by a bit, not enough for their first night to be deemed an outright success. They knew they needed a different approach; one that wouldn’t result in them “[freezing] [their] buns off”, as Sabrina had put it, only to leave with minimal sales and a trunk full of buns. They asked themselves, “How do we get our buns into as many drunk hands as possible?” The answer was clear: delivery. Offering a delivery service would set them apart from all of the other late-night drunk food options in the Fredericksburg area.
The paths from bars to student housing are often lit by the fluorescent glow of the neon “open” signs displayed in the windows of every other storefront. In a small city such as Fredericksburg, students’ food options are limited by how far they are willing to walk or Uber for an after-midnight snack. In 2003, while studying investment banking at the University of Pennsylvania, Seth Berkowitz faced a similar dilemma. Berkowitz had a thing for late-night sweets but didn’t want to brace the wind chill of Philadelphia in order to satisfy his sweet tooth. He came up with the idea of baking cookies and delivering them to students like himself. The cookies became a huge hit and Berkowitz has since opened over 100 locations of the business he started in his dorm room that is now known as Insomnia Cookies. What set Insomnia Cookies apart from its competitors was its accessibility to college students. Students, whether they are drunk or sober, do not want to have to walk or pay for transportation in order to buy food.
Blackout Buns has become a local Insomnia Cookies. They offer the students of UMW an option to make the snacking experience more enjoyable and accessible. The business’ popularity grew exponentially over the course of just a few weeks. Their instagram amassed over 200 followers in under a month, which is impressive considering this target market consists of a fraction of the 5,000 undergraduates at UMW. They have begun to accumulate a multitude of regular customers. Grace Leytham, a junior at UMW, is a huge fan of the buns. “I’ve ordered Blackout Buns 3 times this semester and they are the tastiest treats around town,” Leytham gushed. “[There are] so many different varieties to choose from, they have sweet buns and savory buns, there’s something for everyone. My personal favorite is the s’mores bun but honestly they’re all amazing. The best part is that they deliver them right to your door!” Blackout Buns not only caters to the drunk crowd; they are also a huge hit among late night studies and underclassmen who do not want to walk or have a car to take themselves to purchase food. The revenue they have been collecting has allowed the three entrepreneurs to continue to share their delicious buns while also giving them some money to spend on their own blackout experiences.
We asked Sabrina, Elizabeth, and Douglas about what they have planned for Blackout Buns’ future. The friends looked at one another, a bit caught off guard by the question, before answering. “Honestly, we never thought it would become this big,” Sabrina remarked. They never expected a spur of the moment decision to create a small business that caters to the drunken crowd could be spread around campus in just a month. Sabrina toyed with the idea of going to look into recruiting people who would be interested in keeping the business going. Elizabeth and Douglas are already seniors and the time is getting closer and closer as the semester ends to figure out where the business is heading. Sabrina wants to continue the business and even joked that “they [Elizabeth and Douglas] just won’t get jobs” so they all can continue growing the hobby into a bigger business.