El Paso Restaurant Featured on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ Planning Second (and Third) Far East Location

Desert Oak Barbecue is beefing up its presence in El Paso with two more planned locations.

Pit master Richard Funk and his wife, Suzanne, will be bringing their barbecue swagger to a second and third spot on the far east side in 2022.

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Bringing Central Texas-Style BBQ to West Texas

Known locally and around the state for their award-winning Central Texas-style barbecue, the Funk’s have come a long way from slinging their ‘cue out of a food truck in the Cow Town parking lot a couple of days a week to what will be their second brick and mortar restaurant in 5 years.

Along the way Desert Oak Barbecue at 1320 North Zaragosa has received several nods from Texas Monthly, the preeminent BBQ publication in the state, who declared Desert Oak the best barbecue in El Paso in 2018 and just recently named them among the magazine’s Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints for 2021.

"The Mayor of Flavortown," Guy Fieri, was equally impressed and featured their dishes on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

The BBQ joint was one of the handful of restaurants the spike-haired, flame shirt-wearing restaurateur chose to highlight when he rolled into El Paso in his red Camaro in March of 2019 to introduce Flavortown to Chuco Town’s burgeoning food scene.

Coming Soon to Rich Beem Plaza and Cowtown Boots

The family-run, family-owned restaurant is keeping its expanding business empire close to home. Brick and mortar Desert Oak Barbecue number two is set to be one of the two anchor stores in the relatively new Rich Beem Plaza on Rich Beam and Edgemere.

I'm told guests can expect a much larger restaurant in terms of square footage, as well as expanded hours of operation to include breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and an expanded menu to complement the menu they serve up at the N. Zaragosa location.

Who Says You Can't Go Home?

This year Desert Oak will also go full circle.

"We will also be opening a location in the Cowtown Boots property," family member Alyssa Ruiz informed me via email. "We’re thrilled to be headed back to where it all began for us in our food truck."

When Will the New Locations Open?

The in-store Cowtown BBQ joint is expected to open late spring 2022, according to Ruiz, and the new Rich Beem restaurant is anticipated to follow not long after in early summer 2022.