While procrastinating for an exam one night, now seniors Rafaele DiMaggio and Axel Bautista-Tienda theorized that they could make money from selling grilled cheeses on Pratt Street, an area known for its fraternity presence.
DiMaggio and Bautista-Tienda decided to bring a modified version of that idea to life for Marathon Monday 2024 by selling grilled cheese and pizza out of the Gardner Court Apartments — locally known as “G-Court.”
DiMaggio and Bautista run the Instagram account “themarmoncheesers” — where they have been promoting the return of their grilled cheese business for MarMon 2025 since February.
After an hour of calling people asking to use their G-Court apartments last year, DiMaggio and Bautista-Tienda secured a third-floor kitchen to use and the pair decided to take the risk.
“Let’s talk to anyone and everyone we know, let’s try to find a kitchen there and set up shop,” Bautista-Tienda said.
Bautista-Tienda said he saw the difficulty many “MarMon” partygoers faced getting food and water during the year before at G-Court, where many students gather during the holiday, and decided on a new plan.
“We were so scared the day before because we had the team but we were about to drop a buck on groceries, and we were like, ‘Is it going to happen?’” DiMaggio said.
Before the business model was solidified, the pair walked around the George Sherman Union with their pitch to gauge student interest.
Junior Piper Gilliam said the ability to capitalize on a moment the way the Cheesers did is “ very on brand for BU students … if we see an opportunity to do something like that, a lot of us will take it.”
DiMaggio said that with some market research, their plan strengthened. “We were trying to figure out prices, we were trying to figure out how the model should look,” he said.
The day brought unanticipated challenges, said DiMaggio.
The Cheesers created a pulley system to lower the grilled cheese or pizza slices purchased by customers down to ground level, but sales exchanges were difficult to navigate.
“There’s so much chaos that you can’t even communicate with [customers],” DiMaggio said.
Sales were being made primarily through digital banking platforms like PayPal and Zelle, but when service in the area went out due to the volume of people, it presented an additional problem.
“This year we knew how much better it could be if we actually planned more ahead,” DiMaggio said.
The Cheesers said they plan on replacing pizza with chicken quesadillas to make operations in the kitchen smoother and serve as a “protein option” for customers this year.
“Pizza was messy, distribution was not there,” DiMaggio said.
Gilliam said the venture helps with the welfare of party goers in G-court.
“Safety wise, on a day where everyone’s partying, it’s a really good idea to be handing out food,” Gilliam said.
The thing they’re bracing for this year? A competing hog dog business.
“We might have to ramp it up this year,” said Bautista-Tienda. “We’re getting our troops ready for war.”
The whole venture comes down to friends having a fun experience making food together rather than turning a profit, Bautista-Tienda said.
“A classmate who I barely knew snapped me a photo of a grilled cheese that they ended up getting that I didn’t even know they ordered … and he just put over it in big words ‘you’re the GOAT,’” he said. “The whole thing is so much fun.”
where are they going now with g court closed?