Good Juju's BBQ & Seafood Shack opens in Aquebogue
Brisket and ribs at Good Juju's BBQ & Seafood Shack in Aquebogue. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
When Little Lucharitos opened in Aquebogue in 2017, it was the only place west of Greenport to experience Marc LaMaina’s rollicking Mexican cuisine — albeit on a smaller scale than at the mother ship, founded in 2012.
But six years later, LaMaina said, it was competing with the larger Lucharitos locations in Mattituck (Lucharitos Burrito Bar, with its adjacent axe-throwing lounge and paint-splatter rooms) and Center Moriches (the sprawling outdoor Lucharitos Farm), both established in 2020. “We had put so much into the other locations, and they were pulling business away from Aquebogue. Little Lucharitos was like the middle child that didn’t get enough attention.”
And so he switched gears. After a two-month renovation, the Aquebogue location reopened last week as Good Juju’s BBQ & Seafood Shack, a casual spot for, well, barbecue and seafood.
John Vanderwolf, one of the lead cooks in Center Moriches, runs the kitchen. His experiences as both pitmaster and fisherman are evident in the menu, which is split evenly between turf and surf. From the smoker: Brisket, ribs, wings, chicken, pulled pork and chicken. In the manner of those ubiquitous Cajun seafood restaurants, Good Juju’s offers boiled-in-a-plastic-bag shrimp, crab and lobster tail with your choice of sauces: lemon-pepper, garlic butter, jerk, Cajun blend or the “Juju sauce” that combines all of them.
Rounding out the menu: crabcakes and crab dip; fried shrimp, clam strips and salt-and-pepper calamari; clam chowder, brisket chili and sandwiches such as hot-honey chicken, shrimp po’boy, lobster roll, blackened fish and a burger. Sides include fries, coleslaw, collards, cornbread, mac-and-cheese, corn on the cob and cucumber salad. There’s a full bar whose signature drinks include the “painkiller” (rum, pineapple, orange juice and Coco Lopez) and the “Montauk rum bucket” (Bellamy, Malibu and Kraken rums with lime, orange juice, pineapple and grenadine).
Good Juju’s accommodates about 16 people inside and almost twice that outside.
Good Juju's BBQ & Seafood Shack, 487 Main Rd., Aquebogue. Open Thursday to Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 9 p.m.; 631-779-3681.
