Oma and Popie’s Marinades brings food lovers together
By Taylor Munson for the Idaho Press-Tribune It was on one of their first dates at a local dive bar in Jerome when Jan and Gail Zarr bonded over their love for chicken wings. This shared passion soon led to Jan and Gail’s marriage — as well as the creation of Oma and Popie’s Marinades. “Born out of our love for dive bars and chicken wings,” the couple founded Oma and Popie’s Marinades almost two years ago, Jan said. The Zarrs, with help from a few friends and family members, make the marinades locally and distribute to about 20 Idaho locations, such as the Boise Co-op, Natural Grocers and Idaho Gifts to Go. “We’re really a high-end boutique specialty,” Jan said. “It’s more about the quality and small batch than mass-producing it.” Jan ran performing arts centers for about 25 years before starting Oma and Popie’s Marinades with Gail. From 2003 to 2011, he ran the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts at Boise State University. Shortly after meeting Gail in 2008, Jan was offered the opportunity to run a performing arts center in Kentucky, and the two of them decided to make the move.
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After six years, the Zarrs felt homesick and wanted a reason to move back to Idaho, Jan said. While in Kentucky, their love for dive bars and chicken wings led Gail to create her own marinade recipe. “We had been dabbling somewhat in making our original sauce for people — taking it to parties and tailgating,” Jan said. “(We) had a great little dive bar we took it to. Our focus group was our friends and peers.” After Jan’s contract was up in Kentucky, the couple knew they wanted to move back to Idaho to start their own business and be around family. In 2016, they started Oma and Popie’s Marinades, beginning with their original sauce. “I didn’t want another Frank’s Hot Sauce,” Jan said. “I wanted something that was going to be our own and also something that was going to be an all-natural product.” Now, according to Gail, they have five different flavors of marinades: Winging It (Original), Drunk Uncle (Brown Sugar Bourbon), Ja Makin’ Me Crazy (Jamaican Jerk), Bayou Venom (Smoky Cajun) and Hawt Mess (Sweet Peppery Burn). “We wanted our names to evoke a character image — something funny,” Gail said.
The Zarrs used to call their product a “wing sauce” but changed it to “marinades” so people didn’t just associate it with wings, Gail said. They wanted customers to branch out and use the sauce with other foods — Gail even recently used the Drunk Uncle marinade to make a peach pie. Jan and Gail hope the business continues expanding, but they also don’t want to lose sight of staying local and using all-natural products. For example, all of their onions and garlic for the sauce come from Create Common Good, a local nonprofit. “We’re not here to be millionaires with this. We’re here to make a decent living and have fun,” Jan said. Jan and Gail said one of the most rewarding parts of this business is simply that it brought them back home to Idaho. For them, Oma and Popie’s Marinades isn’t about the money, but is about the love they share for making the marinades, the ability to be surrounded by family and the support of the community. “We could not do it without the support of the community — what we call our tribe,” Jan said. “They really support us.”
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