Fabiola Chipoco, Founder and Owner of Tita’s Kitchen, Blends Juice Bar, and Lil’ Funky Donuts
ALIST’s Women-Owned Blog Series is BACK with a new feature on serial entrepreneur, Fabiola Chipoco originally from Lima, Peru who fulfilled her father’s dream of founding 3 successful family businesses (Tita’s Kitchen, Blends Juice Bar, and Lil’ Funky Donuts) while employing both her sister Fabiana and mother Marlene. And she did this all before turning 30 years old. Read her founding story and you’ll learn that her path is anything but simple.
Chipoco’s Legacy
This is the story of Fabiola Chipoco, a serial entrepreneur originally from Lima, Peru who fulfilled her father’s dream of founding a successful family business before her 28th birthday. But her path is anything but simple. From catalog model, to young advertising executive, to dancing in MTV music videos, to ticket seller and promoter, this determined, self-starter, invested her money in Bitcoin in 2017 and cashed it all in to be the Executive Chef of her own Peruvian Food Cart she opened in October 2020 at the Portland Mercado.
But Fabiola didn’t grow up cooking. Like many self taught chefs, learning how to prepare dishes from home was Fabiola’s way of bringing Peru to Portland; in more ways than one. Just 23 years after her dad passed away in a tragic fire, Fabiola laid down roots to bring her younger sister and mom to the United States who would later co-own Tita’s Kitchen, Tita’s Juice Bar (now known as Blends Juice Bar) and Lil’ Funky Donuts.
I first met Fabiola when she came to our WSW Founder Meet Up in May 2022 at Kate’s Ice Cream that was also featured on the KOIN 6 News for their positive vibes segment. Our meet ups were originally designed to save women owned restaurants who were trying to bounce back from the pandemic. Fabiola and I became fast friends and me and my family are her repeat customers. Everything is always so delicious. Fabiola later became a host at our 14th WSW Founder Meet Up on August 30th, 2023 to celebrate Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month. It was our biggest meet up of the year. So when she reached out to hire me to help her get her founding story on paper, I of course said yes. I had no idea what I was about to hear, but listening to a Latina American immigrant and entrepreneurial journey, in the climate of August 2025, was beyond moving for me.
Entrepreneurship is in Fabiola’s DNA. Her maternal grandparents started their own businesses to build generational wealth. Her dad, Leopoldo “AKA Polo”, was a Sales Director at a local cleaning supply company, but knew he could make more money opening his own business. With his wife, Marlene, a recent law graduate and now pregnant with Fabiana, Fabiola’s little sister, the couple decided to team up to open Faby’s Cleaning Supply in 1992, which was named after Fabiola. Everything was starting to fall into place, until one of Polo’s employees accidentally started a fire while in production. The chemical reaction burned down the warehouse, ending the company and Polo’s family business dream. After a week in the hospital, Polo passed away from too much smoke inhalation, leaving Marlene to raise their daughters with the help of her parents. Selling off what she could of the company, Marlene became a lawyer for a government agency in Peru and continues to work remotely for them even today at age 63.
As Fabiola grows up, Marlene starts to see Polo’s creative, ambitious, and entrepreneurial spirit blossom in their daughter. At 17 years old, Fabiola modeled shoes and apparel for a local catalog while pursuing a marketing degree in college. It’s this same company that she landed an internship and upon graduation became a young senior brand executive by 20 years old. Life was good in what Fabiola refers to as the “Lima bubble” while living among the upperclass. But much like her dad, she wanted more from life. At 23, Fabiola quit her corporate job and with very little planned, she booked a flight to Miami, Florida to visit her friends. Within a few weeks, she was enlisted with a talent agency, booking gigs as a background dancer for MTV music videos, and living in an apartment with nine other people until she could afford her own place. It was everything Fabiola wanted. In her words, “I was having the time of my life.”
For extra money, she began working on commission, selling tickets and promoting bar crawls to Miami tourists. Worried, her mom flew to Miami to visit.
“I was setting up our ticket booth, with the umbrella and everything, in Ocean Drive, South Beach.” Fabiola recalls. “I’m pitching to people walking by and my mom is watching me from across the street and just starts crying.”
Marlene tells Fabiola how hard it is to see her daughter selling tickets on the street after having such a great job in Lima. To which Fabiola responds with,”Mom please trust me. I’m going to make it. This country has something more to offer me, even if we can’t see it now. I will make you proud again, someday.”
It is at this ticket promotion company that Fabiola meets her future partner who she follows to Beaverton, Oregon in 2017. The two later separated, but when they first started dating he advised her to invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. After the separation, Fabiola cashed in some of her Bitcoin, traveled for a year and came back to the PNW in March 2019 to start over. Working for a cleaning company, she convinced her sister Fabiana to leave her marketing job in Lima and join her in Oregon. With her sister now by her side, the two decided to open their own food truck with the remaining of the Bitcoin money. But there is one small problem. Neither of them cooked.
Longing for the comforts of home, they knew Peruvian cuisine is what they wanted to offer. Fabiola researched and sought out a Peruvian chef in Seattle, WA. Through just an Instagram direct message, sent on July 27, 2020, Fabiola landed a staging gig under Chef Carlo at Don Lucho's. She learned how to make sauces, run and clean a commercial kitchen, and practiced different techniques to improve her cutting skills. The first time she watched a customer eat her sandwich, she cried.
“I get goosebumps when I tell this part.” Fabiola explains. “Seeing someone eat Peruvian food that I prepared, so far from my home, was a first for me. That is when I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to feed people my food, my culture.”
Fabiola sold the last of her Bitcoin, hired Don Lucho's Executive Chef to create the menu and recipes, and invested 15K into buying the equipment to open the first Tita’s Kitchen food truck at the Portland Mercado in October 2020. Despite the pandemic, Tita’s Kitchen grew to three locations (Portland Mercado, Troutdale Station, Happy Valley Station) in two years, but the original one was lost in a fire when the Portland Mercado burned down in 2024. Fabiola reinvested this money into opening Tita’s Juice Bar in Troutdale Station, which was rebranded as Blends Juice Bar in 2025 and has another location at Pine Street Market. However, this time all of the recipes were created by the sisters as a nod to the drinks mom Marlene made them growing up. Last but not least, she created Lil’ Funky Donuts in 2023, which also has a location in Troutdale Station and Pine Street Market. It’s perfect to get juice at Blends and pair it with a donut to support both of her businesses. Lil’ Funky Donuts serves as an investment company for the family and the addition gives the Chipocos the Portland trifecta of sandwiches, fresh juice and donuts. In just 5 years, Fabiola owns and runs three food and beverage brands under the holding company Lifted Enterprises and employs 25 people including her mom and sister. 28 years later, the family business dream of her late father Polo finally came true. What a legacy these 3 women have created together. And they’re just getting started.
If you would like to support Fabiola and her family, please visit any of their businesses at these locations Troutdale Station, Happy Valley Station and Pine Street Market. Happy Latinx Heritage Month!
ABOUT THE WRITER
Amanda Mailey is the owner of ALIST and a new indie author who released her first book sidetracked in July 2020. She’s a lifelong writer specializing in observation and reflective narrative. She grew up in Oregon and graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Oregon.
As a mixed race Filipina-American woman, Amanda is passionate about advancing women- and bipoc-owned small businesses and leaders in her community. Through this blog series and social media, Amanda centers and promotes the stories and achievements of local women owners.