If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen my posts about waiting in line for Bibibop’s big Delaware, Ohio opening last month.
It’s their 50th Bibibop location – a huge deal for this local Korean-owned, Columbus-based chain.
I’m not surprised Bibibop is doing well. With its amazingly tasty and healthy Asian food bowls made from scratch in-house and customized for each diner, Chipotle-style, there’s something for everyone. Plus they serve purple rice – who wouldn’t love that?!
Bibibop has been a favorite of mine since years ago when I worked down in Grandview. My colleagues and I often went to that first, original Bibibop location for lunch as it was close to the office and delicious.
More recently, whenever I take Z to the Polaris Fashion Place mall, I often treat myself to my favorite bowl at Bibibop in the food court.
So you can imagine my joy when I found out they were opening a Bibibop location right near where we live in Lewis Center!
For their Delaware grand opening, and to celebrate their 50th store, Bibibop promised to give a free year’s worth of their great food to the first 50 customers in line that morning. I immediately thought: holy cow, I need to win this!
Longtime readers will remember that I won a year’s supply of Condado at their Polaris restaurant grand opening back when Napa was here from Thailand. We feasted on Condado that entire year and loved every second of it.
Winning a year of Bibibop would be epic. But could I pull off this amazing feat? I knew the competition would be fierce. I recruited my bestie for the task and she was up for it. In fact, she suggested we get there way earlier than I had originally planned.
When we arrived at Bibibop’s new Delaware location just after 9 am, there was already a big, festive crowd vibing to great music (they even had a DJ!). With tents and sleeping bags lining the sidewalk, I knew there was a very slim chance of us winning. Sure enough, when I walked back to the end of the line, I could clearly see there were more than 50 people ahead of us.
Still, we had a good time and enjoyed chatting with our line buddies and fellow community members as the morning went on. We knew the doors wouldn’t open until 11:30 am and that some people might decide to leave before then.
Bibibop leaders walked down the line and took names and email addresses of the top 50 – and then the next 50 as well, saying that the top 50 would win the year prize but that the next 50 might end up getting something, too.
By the time we got into the restaurant for our delicious first meal at the new Bibibop, we were hot and a little sweaty from waiting in line all that sunny morning. Thankfully, the awesome crew had handed out water bottles and cookies to help pass the time. There were also opportunities to win fun Bibibop branded swag like buttons, stickers, frisbees, bags and hats.
We didn’t know what we would end up winning from Bibibop, if anything. We congratulated the top 50 and agreed it had been a fun morning even if we didn’t get a thing more out of it. But get this – about two weeks later, bestie and I both got an email from one of the Bibibop managers.
Are you ready for it… we both won the year’s supply of Bibibop! They ended up giving it to the first 100 people in line because they were so overwhelmed and grateful for the great community turnout for their grand opening.
Ooops, I did it again! I won another year’s supply of amazing food from a local restaurant! I can’t even believe it. Bestie and I are going to have free weekly lunch dates all year courtesy of Bibibop. I’m so thrilled!
It just goes to show that showing up and staying positive are always the way to go – you just never know what you might win.
