Dropkick Murphys Frontman Will Buy Lower Mills Pub in Dorchester

Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys is part of a team that plans to buy the Lower Mills Pub in Dorchester, according to the Dorchester Reporter. Along with key partner Brian O'Donnell, he will close on the sale this summer and then renovate the 35-year-old pub, including installing a new kitchen. The to-be-named tavern will reopen as a "family-friendly, neighborhood place," Casey told the Reporter.

Casey is a Milton native, where O'Donnell currently lives, and he used to frequent the Lower Mills Pub. O'Donnell's wife, interior designer Taniya Nayak, will lead the redesign. The plan is to open the space onto Dorchester Avenue and make it more welcoming overall, Casey said. While the new kitchen "won't [be] the biggest in the world," the new pub will focus on food, the singer said. It will also have a stage for live Irish music and acoustic performances.

Casey owns McGreevy's on Boylston Street and also the Providence restaurant Whiskey Republic. The Reporter notes he and partners are currently working on opening a new place in the mixed use Ink Block development in the South End.

After Lower Mills Pub owner Nicholas Byrne died in 2010, sale of the business was held up by legal issues, which the Reporter has also covered.