Barriga Llena brings wing, brisket sauces to Oak Ridge
John Marx adds sauce to wings at Barriga Llena in Oak Ridge. (photo:Ben Pounds )
Walk into Barriga Llena at 178 Randolph Road in Oak Ridge on most Fridays and Saturdays and you’ll not find dine in, but you can stay and chat while John and Jennifer Marx make your food for you to take out.
While the menu can vary, wings, brisket and guava pastries are common offerings.
Other dishes have included loaded baked potatoes, sliders, empanadas and fries.
Jennifer described it as barbecue “with a Colombian twist,” while John stressed it as a “fusion” of tastes from around the U.S. and beyond.
The two of them sold at markets before setting up at this physical location this year.
They started at the Oak Ridge Farmer’s Market in 2022. They also served their food at the Lavender Festival.
“I think for us it’s not just food,” Jennifer said. “What we aim to do is really bring people together over a plate. To us, having lived in so many different places, food can transport you somewhere.”
She said she’d enjoyed getting to know the people they’d served. Even if the restaurant isn’t dine-in, there is a chance to bond with people.
“It’s not fast food like McDonald’s; it takes a little time,” John said. “Building the community, establishing strong relationships in the community is what it’s all about.”
The odd hours are due to the kitchen’s use by other businesses, specifically property owner Aunt Nazzira Humus, at other times.
The location previously supported the restaurant The Other One, but by law it’s now a commercial kitchen rather than a licensed dine-in restaurant.
John Marx said he’d been in the Air Force for 25 years, and in the process learned different cuisines in the different parts of the country in which he was stationed, as well as at overseas bases. He specifically liked tasting the barbecue in San Antonio, Texas, he said.
“We try to fuse and blend all that,” he said regarding the different U.S. areas in which he lived, as well as some Latin American flavors.
He said he likes to use local vendors.
His focus is on selling “something different” from Oak Ridge’s typical Mexican and Chinese restaurants.
An example of that, John said, is the guava sauce, which he called “just phenomenal” in all of the dishes in which he could serve it. Other sauces include honey siracha and lemon pepper.
He called his wife the “super taster” and the “cuisine expert.”
“She’s the one who has a knack for identifying different flavors of food,” he said. “I’m under new management now. She tells me what to do, and I say yes or no, but mainly yes most of the time.”
“A lot of different restaurants have sides that don’t taste like anything,” Jennifer said, adding that she wants to avoid this problem. “I want it to be unique. I want it to be something that somebody’s not had before, maybe a different spin.”
She said that she believed by smoking the potatoes, it gave the salad more flavor than just boiling them as others do.
Other dishes she said she likes to serve are corn ribs, which involve cutting fresh corn into tinier pieces but attached to the cob, baked in an oven and tossed in tequila-lime seasoning and butter. She said when preparing street corn, the focus is on being creamy and limey and not too spicy despite the jalapeños.
“This is all fresh food made with love and, just passion,” John Marx said, contrasting it with deep-fried fast food.
