OAK RIDGE — The Oak Ridge Discovery Foundation recently reopened Portal 4 at the K-25 site as a coffee and breakfast spot called Portal Perk. The new establishment opened earlier this month at the historic entrance once used by thousands of employees of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant.

Portal 4 had sat empty after operations at the K-25 site ceased. It underwent a year-and-a-half-long restoration led by the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) before its conversion into a public space.

Portal Perk Coffee Shop is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. On Tuesdays from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., the food vendor Barriga Llena serves breakfast at the location.

"Whatever brings them into Oak Ridge, this is a place where they can connect an incredible world-shaping history and sit down to learn something about the future of technology coming to this region. We are standing in the center of $12 billion of new nuclear development," said Matt Mullins, Director of Marketing and Communications for the Oak Ridge Discovery Foundation.

"The fact that these doors are open, inviting people in, gives folks an opportunity to come down, reminisce about what their work was, look into the future, but more than anything else, it's a site where history happened," Mullins added.

Barriga Llena also operates at Calamity's Coffee in Historic Jackson Square and Hops and Hounds dog park and beer garden throughout the week. Jennifer Marx, co-owner of Barriga Llena, said the partnership with Portal Perk made sense given the location's uniqueness. "We're like, this is the perfect pairing since there's nothing else out here. So that's how we came up with the idea. We talked with the people running this and said, 'Hey, would you be interested in having our breakfast out here?'"