The business pair that brought Mundos Latin Kitchen & Bar to Ozark have just opened an international sports bar in south Springfield.
OXO Bar & Grill officially opened its doors March 23 in the Old Town Shopping Center, with a grand opening tentatively scheduled for the middle of April, said Victor Briceno, co-owner of the establishment.
The sports bar and restaurant, located at 2550 S. Campbell Ave. Ste. 800, plans to specialize in Latin American finger foods that are easy to eat, like ceviche, aguachile and tacos. While making sure to cater to the wants of every type of customer, the bar will specialize in carrying uncommon Latin American liquors.
OXO is leasing the space that previously housed Kiss Bar and Grill. The sports bar has kept the stage and will offer live entertainment, like bands and DJs, on various nights of the week, Briceno said. On big sporting event nights, the bar will have a 215-inch screen covering the stage. On Saturday nights, OXO plans to have a Latino night complete with some form of Latin American entertainment.
“One of the biggest things for us is going to be the Latino bands,” Bencino said. “There's nothing really around Springfield that has been doing that.”
Latin American finger foods
OXO will specialize in Latin American dishes and finger foods, perfect for the bar enthusiast, Briceno said. Instead of the normal American bar offerings like burgers and chicken tenders, think tacos and aguachile, one of the most common bar foods in Mexico.
OXO's Aguachile features shrimp cured in lime juice, mixed with cucumbers, onions, cilantro, serrano peppers and avocado.
Aguachile “is kind of considered like a hangover food, which is why it's typical in bars in Mexico,” Briceno said. “People go in the next day, in the morning, and they eat that and with the spice it's supposed to take the hangover away.”
The bar will also feature Tosti-Locos, which features a bag of Tostitos Salsa Verde filled with a mixture of meat, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, cucumber, and lime. OXO's menu includes Shrimp Tosti-Locos and Cueritos Tosti-Locos, which features both a seafood mix and pickled pig skin.
“This is a really fun snack that when you go down to Mexico, you go to like any market or you're just walking around, you find things like this,” Briceno said.
Latin American-inspired drinks
OXO plans to have an evolving drink menu that highlights various Latin American liquors, Briceno said. There's Cachaca, a Brazilian rum, and Pisco, a colorless spirit that hails from the wine regions of Peru and Chile.
“Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have a lot of different rums that they create so we've been playing with those a lot,” Briceno said. The plan is to “put it in rotation, you know, just something different, something new.”
The sports bar will also feature Micheladas, which are Mexican beer drinks. Think of a Bloody Mary, but instead of tomato juice it features clamato, or clam juice. Add in salt, lime, Worcestershire sauce, some Asian bitters, soy sauce and what Briceno calls “Mexican candy.”
OXO's Micheladas recipe is unique, Briceno said.
“I have several family members (in Mexico) that own shops that specifically just sell that and they're very successful,” he said. “So, I've worked with them on trying to get the recipe.”
A longtime in the making
The sports bar has been a dream of the trio of owners for more than five years, Briceno said. The inspiration came when the three business partners and friends visited a Hooters.
“Wouldn't it be really cool if we had a Mexican Hooters?” Briceno said.
“This type of establishment, but with different food. Sports bars always cater to the exact same food. It's burgers, wings, and you know, little finger foods and stuff like that.”
Over the years, it's been an ongoing joke in their circle: “So when are we going to open up that sports bar?”
The idea came together very fast. Briceno said he saw Kiss go up for sale in December 2023 and immediately called his business partners, Victor Carrillo and Christian Guerrero. Within 15 days, the trio had signed a contract leasing the building. Briceno declined to disclose a total financial investment for OXO.
Briceno and his wife and business partner, Sarah, along with Carillo, own Mundos in Ozark. Guerrero owns the popular restaurant Mr. Glencho's Seafood N' Bar in Branson.
The building OXO is housed in is owned by Old Town Center LLC, according to the Greene County Assessor's Office records. The property, located from 2510 to 2550 S. Campbell Ave., had a total assessed value of $1.77 million. Old Town Center LLC is registered to Aaron P. Lyons, with a Springfield address, according to Missouri Secretary of State records.
The bar's name is a play on two things. First, since the space formerly housed Kiss, it was going to be named XO, for hugs and kisses, initially, Briceno said. That spawned the idea to name it OXO, which will remind customers familiar with Latin America of a popular convenience store and service-station chain, OXXO.
“All of the Hispanic community will think it's funny because they'll think of the gas station,” Briceno said. OXXO is “literally on every corner in Mexico.”
OXO will hosts different events catered to different crowds on different nights of the week. Wednesday night Guerrero will DJ, just as he used to do at Cartoons Oyster Bar & Grill, which closed in 2017. Thursdays will be college night featuring a DJ and the crew will set up games like beer pong and corn hole.
Fridays, the stage will be set again, this time for some American entertainment. Briceno said he expects to book local and far-reaching talent, from rock bands to country and everything in between. Briceno said he is already in talks with Issac Kenneth, the local country music star, to perform at OXO.
“Our goal is to bring as big of names as we can given the space that we have,” Briceno said. “We've had some promising inquiries with that. So, we are very excited for the future and what we might be able to bring.”
Another venture coming next month
OXO isn't the only thing in the works for Briceno. He and his wife, along with Carrillo, plan to open a Latin American kitchen in Springfield sometime in early May.
Mi Tierra will be in the building that previously housed RibCrib on North Glenstone. It will feature a menu similar to Mundos, highlighting dishes from more than a dozen Latin American countries, Briceno said.
“We’re going to try to do more specific Latin American dishes,” Briceno said. “And try to give different flavors to customers, you know, things that aren’t around here yet.”
