(WOODLAND PARK, Colo.) — The Cassada family moved to Woodland Park to escape the Oklahoma heat and bugs. When they arrived, they were welcomed by the community and the cool mountain air, which was soon filled with the mouthwatering scent of barbecue, cooking at their restaurant.
“I mean, we love the people in Oklahoma but we came up here to visit and Woodland Park, such a nice town, anyway,” said Roy Cassada, owner of Roy’s Crew BBQ. “We just kind of fell in love with it and we love that it’s cool, like all the time.”
Back in March, they began serving signature southern barbecue dishes to the community, including fried okra, catfish, chicken fried steak, and of course a whole lot of smoked meat.
“It’s a mesquite smoked barbecue, more like a Texas barbecue,” Roy said. “We’re from Oklahoma and Texas… and then we do catfish, which you don’t really see around here that much. You see a lot of tempura-based cod, things like that. But we do a southern breaded catfish, which you can’t really find. Okra, which is kind of rare you know, some people don’t even know what it is still.”
One by one, the restaurant began to fill at lunchtime as customers chose which dish to satisfy their appetite.
“I think the more we get, more the local crowd where we are here, because I think we’re back from the road,” Roy Cassada said. “So, I’ve been really pleased by that. But by local, I mean we have people from Parker, hour and twenty, thirty minutes away. They come here every Saturday.”
What makes this barbeque spot different than others is the people inside. The Cassada children are some of the employees who make up Roy’s Crew.
“Well, that’s the best thing to be able to watch your kids like that and really kind of find out how good of workers they really are and really to provide a clean environment for them to work in,” Roy said.
Inside on Tuesday morning were two of Roy’s sons, also enjoying a bite of BBQ. 15-year-old William Cassada said his favorite part of work was busing.
“Making sure everybody would want to give this place a second chance if they didn’t like the thing they had at hand,” said William.
Two customers, Cari Dell and Mac Mccauley, ecstatically shared how much they enjoy this Woodland Park staple.
“I don’t like fast food,” Dell said. “I like sitting in a restaurant and enjoying my meal.”
Mccauley’s meal was made up of pulled pork, coleslaw and some sweet iced tea. He said the meat “it’s got a smoky taste, it’s good.”
Back in the kitchen, Roy opened up the smoker to reveal the variety of meats roasting away.
“It has good quality food and that’s why I’m here all the time,” said Dell.
On the stove top was their signature barbecue sauce which is paired with a majority of items on the menu. Roy said they make fourteen gallons of sauce each day.
For those who are not meat-lovers and have a sweet tooth, the restaurant also has a homemade custard with different flavors available. For fall, they have a pumpkin spice custard up for grabs.
The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. meaning barbecue is available for every meal of the day.
“We serve breakfast here, nontraditional,” Roy said. “We have barbecue for breakfast. We had somebody order fish, before lunchtime. So, barbecue and breakfast is all day and it’s just, it’s been great.”
A family run operation, leaving their mark behind on Woodland Park and leaving their customers wanting more.
“We need more family stuff like this,” said Mccauley.
If you’d like to taste for yourself, Roy’s Crew BBQ is located at 720 Browning Avenue, just west of the intersection of the Highway 67/Highway 24 intersection.
