A ‘Top Chef’ Alum and James Beard Nominee Opens an Asbury Park Restaurant | Eater NY
"Opened by Bravo Top Chef alum and James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic David Viana, along with partner Neilly Robinson, this new restaurant and its companion bar are housed in Asbury Park’s boutique St. Laurent hotel; the bar is named for Robinson’s father. During the opening weekend Viana — who has also been on Food Network’s Tournament of Champions — expedited in the open kitchen in a red cap, and the service energy prompted a friend to say, “We have just entered the set of The Bear,” after hearing a “Yes, chef” from the pass. Robinson describes the concept as Jersey Italian American through a Jewish lens — “a Jewish woman who thinks she’s Italian” — and the menu reflects that storytelling with tailored red-sauce classics alongside Jewish American deli–style plates. The wine list from Nicole Castro Garro is “shaped by the diaspora of Ashkenazi Jews and where they’ve migrated, predominantly around Europe,” with pours around $18 a glass. The lobby bar program, led by beverage director Ricardo Rodriguez (from Miami’s Broken Shaker and behind La Otra), leans classic — think martini or vesper — plus cocktails like the Garibaldi and an homage to the original Harry’s with a bellini turned into a rye swizzle; cocktails run about $16–$20. The food highlights specific, chef-driven dishes and precise preparations: hamachi with fried capers ($26) gets a glug of fruity olive oil and a raisin caperberry relish; calamari frito ($20) is straightforward; pulpo ($28) arrives dressed with beet chips and a pepperoni brown butter; a latke ($24) is served as a soft puck with sour cream and apple relish; and a chopped salad riffs on the pizza-parlor rendition with carrots, radish, cucumber, squash, olives, garbanzos and a glossy dressing. Pastas include a Philly roast pork from executive chef Mike Smithling — short trottole dappled with long hots, layered with broccoli rabe and finished with a bit of provolone espuma ($32) — and chicken and broccoli gnudi with celery pesto and chili crunch ($32); a Lasagne Stagionale is a slab for two ($65). Mains range from an old-school Dover sole piccata ($85) in a lemon-butter-parsley-caper sauce to a well-balanced Parm ($56) with light breading and saucing. A rarely seen dish, Chicken Savoy, nods to the one created 70 years ago at Northern New Jersey’s Belmont Tavern, “because the owner, Charles ‘Stretch’ Verdicchio, thought the word ‘savoy’ was fancy,” says Viana. Desserts include tiramisu, carrot cake topped with carrot gelato, and the simple, effective finish of vanilla gelato with a side of sherry to pour over. Don’t skip the sides: a rich greens-and-beans preparation, schmaltz potatoes that come off like tater tots, broccoli rabe, and a mushroom Marsala make the $12 sides ideal for bar snacking. The restaurant’s storytelling parallels the couple’s homage to Viana’s mother, Rosa “Lita” Viana, and their other spot, Lita — a Portuguese-leaning restaurant that was a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant and known for a prix-fixe built around crispy rice paellas, sourdough pão, rissóis de camarão, Spanish meatballs, and fideo, with many items cooked in an open charcoal hearth; Lita also instituted a rotation so all employees work both front and back of house and make an $80,000-a-year salary, a format “we’ll see how it goes,” says Robinson. Service and room details round out the experience: the hotel sits a couple blocks from the ocean with a reservations-only pool in season, the lobby bar feels like a rehabbed Victorian parlor with moody lighting and hardwood floors, staff wear denim aprons from Craftmade Aprons (with funds that go toward mental health initiatives in the restaurant industry), and the dining room is bright and buzzy with personal photos and globes providing warm lighting." - Melissa McCart
