Student entrepreneurs launching unique restaurant concepts

When you picture a launchpad for success, do you envision rockets taking off for space? Or do you think pasta and birthday cake?

If you said pasta and cake, you’ll want to head to the Incubator, a 180-square-foot food concept space at Hey Day Market where students in the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management gain real-world experience in a hands-on setting.

While you can still get your custom spaghetti order, Pasta Bari has expanded its offerings to include desserts from Sophie Sweets.

Sophie Sweets offers a range of flavors, including chocolate peppermint, tiramisu, almond, funfetti and strawberry.

Sophie Sweets will soon offer personalized birthday cakes delivered to a refrigerated locker in the Rane Culinary Science Center.

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Eric Rivera, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Human Sciences and the Incubator’s culinary manager, describes it as “a mentorship program for students to launch their ideas” — as well as a truly unique concept.

“A lot of universities have restaurants where they train students, but I don’t know of another institution that is doing anything like this,” he said. “Essentially, they’re running their own restaurant 20 hours a week.” 

Rivera kickstarted the Incubator this past fall with the introduction of Pasta Bari, which offers made-from-scratch pasta customized with different sauces and served up by students. Once that was up and running, students competed in a pitch competition that determined the lineup for the first year of entrepreneurs.

So, what fun food offerings should you look out for in 2026?

First up this spring: Let them eat cake

While you can still get your custom spaghetti order, Pasta Bari has expanded its offerings to include desserts from Sophie Snyder, a senior culinary science major who already owns the successful wedding cake business Sophie_Cheffy. Snyder’s new spin-off, known as Sophie Sweets, currently sells cake cups at Pasta Bari and will soon offer personalized birthday cakes delivered to a refrigerated locker in the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center.

“The idea is that you can get them as efficiently as any grocery store, but they’re gourmet and in trendy styles,” Snyder said. “Students can use their dining dollars to order them through Grubhub, but parents can do it just as easily from anywhere across the country.”

The cake locker should be up and running by February, giving Snyder, whose wedding cakes are already in wildly popular in the Auburn community, a head start on balancing the demand for cake cups at Pasta Bari with orders for personalized cakes.

“It’s going to be a lot of strategizing and scheduling,” Snyder said. “After graduation, I plan to continue my cake business, so this will be an amazing opportunity to see my concept come to life and see how well it really works.”

Coming this fall: A chicken-and-waffles partnership

When the spring semester wraps up, Snyder and Pasta Bari will move out of the Incubator, and students Cayden Peacock and Sophie Salinger will move in to launch their chicken-and-waffles business. Although Peacock and Salinger entered the pitch competition separately, the faculty noticed their concepts were similar, so they paired them up to develop a joint menu and brand identity — which Peacock calls “chicken and waffles with a twist.”

Having worked as a restaurant manager for the past five years, Peacock already has one foot in the industry. But as someone who dreams of owning her own business, she’s excited the Incubator will give her a head start.

Student entrepreneurs at the Incubator have the support of faculty members like Chef Eric Rivera, right, to help them develop business plans and menus.

“I started college as a nursing major, but after working in a restaurant, I knew that was exactly what made my soul light on fire,” she said. “The faculty have really listened to my life goals and business concepts, and I am lucky to have them supporting me.”

Football season: Breakfast biscuits to go

After the chicken-and-waffles concept opens, the Incubator will launch its first mobile operation, a breakfast biscuit concept developed by junior Jack Burke. He will begin pop-up operations in the Rane Culinary Science Center, but will eventually move around campus, especially on football gamedays.

Burke is chock full of ideas for flavors he hopes to offer, and he plans to prepare every ingredient in-house.

“Think fried chicken, hot honey and pimento cheese on a biscuit, or even a simpler option like a maple-sage sausage, egg and cheese biscuit with crispy, fluffy and salty hash browns,” he said.

While the logistics and menu are still in development, Burke is already a believer in what the Incubator can do for student entrepreneurs.

“The best part of this program is not just the fact that I learn how to start and operate a business while being fully funded, but also that I am surrounded by like-minded hospitality professionals who want to support me,” he said.

Support and encouragement

Like any real business owner, the entrepreneurs will have periodic benchmarks to review how their concepts are performing. Rivera said the program is ready to support them if a pivot is necessary.

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Where innovation meets passion

An exciting student-driven concept where student innovation meets culinary passion is hitting the Hey Day Market as the multi-concept food hall prepares to welcome The Incubator — a launchpad for future chefs, entrepreneurs and hospitality leaders set to open Monday, Aug. 18 coinciding with the start of the fall semester.

“We’ll ask them if this is the right concept and if we need to make adjustments to the menu,” he said. “We can make corrections in real time and can help them see what’s working and what’s not.”

The benefits of this experiential learning opportunity are endless; students don’t need to worry about securing funding, renting a space or finding a qualified work force, and faculty members help them develop business plans and menus.

But one of the best parts is that they get credit for an internship while also earning a student worker paycheck.

“That’s a double bonus for the student; they can work here on campus while benefiting from the experience of running their own business concept,” said Caitlin Myers, the school’s director of community engagement and economic development.

Dr. Martin O’Neill, head of the Horst Schulze School of Hospitality Management, is pleased that this new venture showcases the school’s bold commitment to entrepreneurship.

“The Incubator is not only teaching our students how to manage a business, but also how to build one from the ground up,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder of our students and faculty, whose innovation and hard work are turning classroom lessons into thriving, real-world ventures.”