It was once American BBQ, and in 2024 this Rowley favorite relaunched as Casey J’s Tavern, part of the Serenitee Group. (The group’s other restaurants include 15 Walnut Tavern + Kitchen, in Hamilton; Alchemy Lynnfield; Cala’s Food & Spirits, in Manchester; Hale St. Tavern & Oyster Bar, in Beverly Farms; Maggie’s Farm, in Middleton; Minglewood Harborside, in Gloucester; Dire Wolf Tavern and Hallowed Ground, in Salem; and The Spot, in Georgetown.) In 2023, when the original owners retired, Serenitee purchased the restaurant, operating it with the original name and menu. The menu was broadened with the relaunch in July 2024. It is now updated seasonally, and a new chef, Lemos Barreto, has brought with him a fresh perspective, as well as fresh insight.
Wing Night
On a recent Monday night—the restaurant offers nightly promotions, and Monday happens to feature 50-cent wings—I stopped by with my family to check out the new menu. As before, Casey J’s specializes in barbecue, smoked in-house. Burnt ends are offered as an appetizer: robust chunks of brisket, soaked in barbecue sauce, and served atop pieces of white bread, designed to soak up the juice and sauce.
It was wing night, so I felt obligated, naturally, to order the wings. Casey J’s prepares theirs three different ways: with a dry rub, with Buffalo sauce, and barbecue-style. I opted for the latter, given where I found myself. To skip the wings—I say this as a bit of an aficionado—would be criminal. Slightly smoky with a crisp interior, these were among the best I’ve had in recent memory. They come served with your choice of ranch or bleu cheese dressing (I prefer the latter).
Appetizers run the gamut. I tried the Iron Steam Bao, made with thinly shaved bulgogi (marinated beef), the restaurant’s house-made blueberry barbecue sauce (made fresh every three days, along with the Fuji golden apple, mild maple-apple, and mango-habanero barbecue), and pickled daikon and cucumber salad, all served on a soft bao.
As my kids ate through burgers and dogs—the restaurant has its own section for little ones, including a small order of ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, and a pulled chicken sandwich, in addition to some of the more predictable players— my husband and I moved on to the St. Louis–style ribs, a plate of which comes with cornbread and a choice of two sides.
All About the Sides
And what a decision it was! The sides category alone takes up the better part of half a page: 17 choices. Our baked beans were sweet and savory all at once, inflected with just the right amount of bacon. Creamy macaroni and cheese recalled Velveeta in the best possible way. We added, too, a salad of julienned daikon, cucumber, and carrots, a slightly sweet, pickled combination that brought acidity to our plates and palates.
The ribs can be ordered in a third of a rack, half rack, or full rack, depending on how hungry you feel. All sauces come to the table for sampling—and you’ll want to try them all. For those who prefer other meats in the barbecue rotation, Casey J’s also serves up smoked, shaved rib-eye; pulled pork; pulled chicken; smoked kielbasa; bone-in smoked short ribs; and sliced brisket. They also offer entrée-sized plates of steak tips, turkey tips, pork chops, a smoked half-chicken, and cedar-plank salmon. And for those who prefer a handheld, well, you can get that, too. Fried chicken sandwiches, burgers, a fried catch-of-the-day, hot dogs, pulled pork sandos, and even tacos are all on the menu.
As for my family and me, we closed out our evening with a slice of the restaurant’s banana cake. Dense, sweet, and resembling a thick slab of banana bread, the layered cake is moistened with a thick topping of frosting—like whipped cream, but better. Banana might be polarizing to some, but it mostly isn’t to the barbecue devotees who throw their love into banana pudding. This, dare I say, is a better resolution. It has texture, it has grip, it has those last few bites that leave you thinking about your return. What will I come back for? The wings, surely, and maybe, next time, the brisket, or the pulled pork, or even the short ribs. Who can say?