Dozens of people traveled to College Park for the grand opening of Arepa Zone on Saturday.

Arepa Zone’s College Park location is its first opportunity to introduce the Maryland community to its fast-casual Venezuelan cuisine, according to Gabriela Febres, the restaurant’s co-owner and founder.

Febres and Ali Arellano founded Arepa Zone in 2014 with a food truck after realizing that their community lacked Venezuelan food spots, Febres said.

“We realized that the Venezuelan community also needed a place to gather, and we consider ourselves ambassadors of our culture,” Febres said. “So it’s for the Venezuelan community to gather, but also to introduce people that have never tried it before.”

The restaurant’s owners included a Chipotle-inspired area for people to watch their food being prepared and a Venezuelan market. The College Park location is also their first restaurant with a full bar that serves 10 cocktails inspired by Venezuelan culture.

“It’s a step in a different direction from what we’ve been doing for the past 11 years,” Febres said.

Febres said the College Park location serves a different crowd than they are used to in their Washington, D.C., location, but they are excited to begin educating this community of students and residents about their culture.

By serving food options for all three meals, selling Italian coffee and providing free WiFi, Arepa Zone hopes to cater to the student population and become a place for students to study.

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Madeline Anson, a senior computer science major, braved the rain to visit Arepa Zone for the first time on Saturday. She enjoyed a chicken arepa and watched the ribbon cutting ceremony.

“I like having more Hispanic food options available,” Anson said. “I love trying foods from different cultures. I think it’s great for a college area.”

Febres and Arellano secured Arepa Zone’s College Park lease in the Aster apartment complex in 2022, Febres said.

Ken Ulman, Terrapin Development Company’s president, said Arepa Zone fits in well with the other businesses already in the Aster complex and brings something new to the College Park community.

The Aster is a joint venture of the Terrapin Development Company, Bozzuto Development and Willard Retail, according to Ulman, who is also the University of Maryland’s College Park Foundation’s chief strategy officer for economic development. Other retailers in the development include Trader Joe’s and Crunch Fitness.

“We really try to talk to different types of food offerings that we don’t currently have in the market,” Ulman said.

Sofia Fuenmayor, Febres’ sister, attended the grand opening to show support for her sister’s business and effort to reach the new community of students.

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“It’s a good way to have people try foods that are outside of the tacos and the typical Hispanic food that people usually know,” Fuenmayor said. “Venezuela is a country whose cuisine is known worldwide, so I think it’ll be cool for college students to know it better.”

Dedicated to developing Arepa Zone’s bar experience, Febres said they are thinking about developing tasting events for people to experience a variety of Venezuelan dishes paired with different cocktails.

For now, Febres said the owners are focused on reaching the surrounding community and educating them about Venezuelan food.

“We want it to become like a neighborhood friendly place where people can come over and over again,” Febres said.