Here at Seven Days, we get reader tips about new restaurants, but they’re usually few and far between. Since Castel’s Jerk Joint opened in Vergennes on August 22, multiple readers have written to encourage us to check it out. I also got texts from two Addison County friends, heard a glowing review from my editor and saw a recommendation from a three-time James Beard Award-winning journalist on Front Porch Forum. For a takeout-oriented spot attached to a bottle redemption center, that’s some serious hype.
On a Saturday in early October, I finally made it. They were all right: Chef-owner Castel Edwards’ Jamaican spot is a must-try.
Rich, slow-braised oxtail ($25) seemed to slip off the bone as soon as I looked at it, its juices mixing into the rice and peas piled below. A side of plantains was lightly fried, still chewy and sweet. Jerk chicken ($20) — while milder than most I’ve had — was smoky, succulent and bursting with flavor that heat sometimes hides.
Edwards, 38, has been cooking since he was 10 or 11, he said, helping his stepmother feed his younger siblings in Jamaica. In 2016, he opened a roadside stand serving juices, fried fish and festival, a type of sweet fried-dough fritter. He moved to Vermont in May 2019 to be with his wife, Tammy, who encouraged him to check out the former deli attached to the Vergennes Redemption Center this summer. The space was a mess, but he signed the lease and began cleaning. Bilon “Richie” Bailey of South Burlington’s Jamaican Supreme helped him source ingredients, and before long, he had his barrel-drum smoker in the parking lot and two tables set up inside the tiny shop, ready to serve lunch and dinner.
Now, Wednesday through Sunday, Edwards is there by 6 a.m. Oxtail and other braised dishes take up to three hours to cook — he doesn’t like shortcuts — and he only has a home-kitchen-size stove. Once they’re bubbling away, he heads out to the smoker for the item that draws most of his customers: jerk chicken.
Edwards’ milder take on the popular street-food dish isn’t just about appeasing Vermonters, he said. “In Jamaica, when I was doing it down there, I don’t do it with no spicy stuff,” Edwards said. “I want to make sure I can feed kids, too, because kids love their chicken.” It’s also hard to find real Scotch bonnet peppers in the U.S.
If you want heat, he makes a punchy hot sauce and sells several others next to the cooler of sparkling grapefruit Ting and Jamaican ginger beer. If the hot sauce bottle on the counter isn’t enough, he’ll fill up a container from a big jug in the back, he joked.
The two dishes I ordered, oxtail and jerk chicken, are staples at Castel’s and available every day. But rotating options such as brown stew chicken and curried goat are gaining fans, Edwards said.
“I like to introduce my customer to a new meal,” he said. “Whenever they love it, I get so excited, you know?”
Among Edwards’ fans is James Beard Award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook, who elaborated on his Ferrisburgh Front Porch Forum post when I called him last week. His family had a house in Jamaica from the 1950s to the early 2000s, and he’s returned several times on assignment for Gourmet magazine and the New York Times travel section.
“Castel’s curry goat and his oxtail are bang-on wonderful,” Estabrook said. “I’ve tasted Jamaican food from all over Jamaica for over 50 years, and this is the only thing in the States that I would say is genuinely authentic. I was delighted to see it show up in my hometown.”
Clearly, he’s not the only one.
Castel’s Jerk Joint, 15 Main St., Vergennes, 349-7714
The original print version of this article was headlined “Word of Mouth | Castel’s Jerk Joint brings ‘bang-on’ Jamaican food to Vergennes”
This article appears in Oct 15-21 2025.
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